Some 800 community members and visitors devoured 158 bushels of oysters, as well as 200 pounds of spot and flounder for fish plates.Īmong them was Ron Farmer of Charlotte. I’m a happy girl and this is a great fundraiser.” “I have not had an oyster yet - and I’ve been here, what, about an hour eating as fast as I can - that I couldn’t open, that wasn’t pristinely clean and salty and juicy. And I grew up eating oysters,” says Phillips, a Wilmington native. “I’m going to have to say these are some of the best oysters that I think I’ve ever had. Standing shoulder to shoulder, shuckers open the mollusks with the thick-bladed knives, sometimes sprinkling hot sauce or lime juice on the light-gray meat, alternately swallow a mouthful of sweet pickles and hush puppies, and wash it all down with soft drinks or coffee.ĭiane Phillips came to the event, her first, last November at the urging of co-worker John Dawson, a roast volunteer for about 40 years. And they tuck a hand towel into their belts to wipe grimy oyster-shell soot from their fingers. They wear a single leather glove to handle the hot shells. Oyster fanciers downed 158 bushels of Lockwood Folly Rover oysters at the 60th annual Dixon Chapel United Methodist Church Oyster Roast. Veteran oyster-shuckers bring more than just an oyster knife to pry open the shells. Clouds of steam billow up from the mounds. Volunteers grab the grills, stride 30 feet over to a picnic shelter with long wooden tables behind the church, and dump the sputtering, hot oysters in front of delighted patrons. “That’ll let you know when they’re done.” See how that’s opening up and the juice is running out? They get like that.” Suddenly an oyster pops and hisses and spits hot juice. How long does it take to roast an oyster? Five to 10 minutes, says Jesse Butterbaugh of nearby Supply, watching over a cooker. Orange flames lick upward, sending flakes of ash drifting through the air. Then, pairs of volunteers hoist each batch onto an oak-burning cooker the size of a backyard trash can. Church and community members shovel freshly caught bivalves onto heavy-duty grills. ![]() It’s the oldest of 12 publicly promoted North Carolina oyster roasts. For 60 years, the church has been sating appetites of oyster lovers from the coast, the Piedmont and well beyond, through this $20, all-you-can-eat fundraiser. They shuck bushel after bushel of freshly fired oysters at the annual Dixon Chapel United Methodist Church Oyster Roast. Every first Saturday in November, hundreds of people gather in the Brunswick County Town of Varnamtown for an afternoon of shuckin’ and socializin’.
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