Brunswick stew

Location: R.A. Fountain

Also on Saturday [as part of RAF’s bluegrass festival that ran in conjunction with Town of Fountain’s Spring Fling], Henry Bailey’s old-fashioned Brunswick stew will be on sale by the bowl ($3) or quart ($6), starting at about 1 p.m.

Bailey, a life-long Fountain resident, learned to make his stews from a master. He cooks outdoors, in a large iron pot, stirring with an oar hand-carved from red oak. His stew is served with a dipper gourd.

He was dubbed “Pot” by bluegrass impresario and local legend Marshall Stephenson for his mastery of this nearly lost eastern Carolina art and tradition. “When I wondered how he knew his stew was done,” Albright said, “he said ‘It tells me.’

“The done stew makes a rumbling noise, but you have to put that oar up to your ear to hear it.”