This is ‘tomato sandwich season’ in North Carolina

On a sultry summer day in North Carolina, nothing could taste finer than a juicy, ripe tomato sandwich, lathered thick with a healthy dollop of Duke’s Real Mayonnaise.

 

Oh, so messy, tasty and satisfying. Just the other day, an Op-Ed column in the Carteret County News-Times (published in Morehead City, N.C.), written by Donald Bryson reminded us to hustle to the farm market and pick up some German Johnson heirloom tomatoes, which are the key ingredient.

 

Bryson isn’t a farmer. He’s the CEO of the John Locke Foundation, a public policy think tank in Raleigh, as well as the publisher of Carolina Journal…but he knows a thing or two about tomato sandwiches. 

He had a rural upbringing in Lexington, Tenn., a small city with about 8,150 residents, located about midway between Nashville and Memphis.

To make an award-winning tomato sandwich, Bryson says all you need are two slices of Merita Old Fashioned soft white bread, a scoop of Duke’s, salt, pepper and a sliced German Johnson tomato that has ripened under the North Carolina sun.

 

The tomato “should be slightly too soft, irregularly shaped and heavy with juice,” Bryson said. “It should require careful handling. A tomato capable of being dropped into the bottom of a grocery bag without consequence is probably not ready for this assignment.”

 

To avoid a mess, it’s best to eat your ooey-gooey tomato sandwich “while leaning over the kitchen sink,” Bryson recommended, because dripping and dribbling from one’s chin is inevitable.

The tomato sandwich “was not a restaurant invention or a chef’s creation,” Bryson said. “It was simply what people did when gardens were producing more ripe tomatoes than a family could reasonably preserve or give away.”

“For me,” Bryson said, “the German Johnson is hard to beat. One thick slice will often cover most of the bread, and it has the kind of sweet, tangy flavor that tastes like summer.”

General Johnsons are “big, pink heirlooms that has been grown in North Carolina…for generations, with a particularly strong following in Alamance County.

German Johnsons became the centerpiece of the North Carolina General Assembly’s “Tomato Sandwich Day,” a tradition that began in th

e mid-1990s and was initiated by the late Hugh Webster of Burlington. 

(Webster was both a farmer and an accountant; he served in the state senate from 1995-2006 and died in 2022 at age 78.)

Sen. Webster wanted his colleagues to appreciate that tomatoes are an important crop in North Carolina’ agricultural mix. 

In fact, the Tar Heel State is the ninth leading state in tomato production, with approximately 1,500 farms growing about 1 million pounds of fresh-market tomatoes each year. (The top eight states are California, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, South Carolina and New Jersey.)

Sen. Webster would organize and host the luncheons during the summer of odd-number years, when the General Assembly was in the midst of its “long session.”

The casual and informal event held in the courtyard on the grounds of the Legislative Building, features about 300 pounds of General Johnson tomatoes, donated by the Iseley family farm in Alamance County, located on the Haw River just north of Burlington.

State lawmakers are invited to come and build their own luncheon plates, making use of squeeze bottles of Duke’s and loaves of Merita bread.

 

The delicious tradition has been carried on…first by Sen. Rick Gunn of Burlington (shown above), who served in the legislature from 2011-21 (before retiring), and now by Sen. Amy Galey of Burlington (shown below), who was elected in 2021.

 

In recent years, Sen. Brent Jackson of Autryville in Sampson County, a watermelon grower, has provided dessert at the legislators’ “Tomato Sandwich Day.”

This is the 2026 North Carolina Watermelon Queen Lilah Byrum of Tyner, a small, rural community in Chowan County. 

She attends North Carolina State University and is pursuing a degree in Crop and Soil Sciences with a concentration in Agronomy.

Catfish farming is growing business in eastern N.C.

Updating a previously published column:

Carolina Classics Catfish is a brand of farm-raised catfish. The aquaculture company, which originated in 1985, is based in Ayden in Pitt County, N.C. It owns and manages 1,200 acres of fish farm ponds, harvesting some 5 million pounds of catfish a year.

Joanie Stiers of Williamsfield, Ill., an agricultural journalist, reports that Carolina Classics is North Carolina’s largest catfish producer, employing more than 80 people. The company sells fresh to retailers, restaurants and upscale grocers.

 

Rob Mayo, owner of Carolina Classics, said: “We sell our fish to people who want consistently good-tasting fish that has a clear traceability in terms of where it’s come from, what it’s been fed and how it’s been raised.”

 

Catfish farms contribute more than $12 million a year to North Carolina’s aquaculture industry, which as a whole, generates some $33 million in annual revenues.

 

Ranking the best “catfish songs” of all-time is a challenge, because fishing and rural humor are favorite subjects for country music songwriters. But readers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were up to the task recently.

They say the very best catfish song is “Fishin’ Blues,” written in 1911 by Chris Smith. 

“Fishin’ Blues” was recorded in 1928 by Henry “Ragtime Texas” Thomas. 

Taj Mahal’s cover in 2004, though, seems to have set the standard. Here’s a bit of it:

 Betcha’ goin’ fishin’ all the time;

Baby goin’ fishin’ too.

Bet your life, your sweet wife

Catch more fish than you.

 

Caught a 9-pound catfish;

Now you know I brought him home for supper time.

…Baby, put him in the pan;

Mama, cook him till he nice an’ brown.

 

I’m a goin’ fishin’…

Yes, I’m goin’ fishin’

And my baby’s goin’ fishin’ too!

 

It’s a lilt familiar to loyal listeners of The Talk Station – FM 107.1, based in Morehead City, N.C. 

“Fishin’ Blues” was the theme song of the popular “Dr. Bogus Fishing Show,” which for many years, aired every Monday morning. (Dr. Bogus’ print column continues to appear regularly in the Carteret County News-Times.)

 

One of the best Major League Baseball pitchers in the Hall of Fame is the late Jim “Catfish” Hunter of Hertford in Perquimans County, N.C.

 

High school hurler Jimmy Hunter was “discovered” in 1964 by Clyde Kluttz, a former major league catcher from Rockwell in Rowan County, N.C., and a scout with the Kansas City Athletics.

 

The team owner Charlie Finley thought his 18-year-old rookie pitcher needed a nickname, deciding on Jim “Catfish” Hunter.

 

Finley fabricated a story: “You left home when you were 6. When your momma and daddy finally found you, you had landed two catfish, and you had a third one on the line. They’ve been calling you ‘Catfish’ ever since.”

Hunter balked, but Finley said: “I just gave you $75,000,” (Hunter’s signing bonus). “Yes, sir. My name is ‘Catfish,’” Hunter conceded.

 

Finley moved the Athletics to Oakland, Calif., for the 1968 season. The new A’s, buoyed by Hunter, were unstoppable, winning three consecutive World Series championships from 1972-74. 

Hunter was the American League’s Cy Young Award winner in 1974 – the best pitcher of the year.

Hunter became pro baseball’s first “free agent,” able to offer his services to the highest bidder.

He inked a five-year deal worth about $3.2 million, plus a $1 million signing bonus with New York Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner, to join the “Bronx Bombers” for the 1975 season – making Hunter baseball’s first multi-million-dollar player.

 

Hunter helped the Yankees win back-to-back World Series titles in 1977-78. 

Hunter retired at the end of the 1979 season. His five World Series rings, earned over the course of a 15-year career, is quite impressive.

Catfish taste like what? ‘Freshwater seafood!’

Updating a previously published column:

Catfish aren’t likely to win a beauty contest for fish, declared Darrell Taylor, an outdoor sportswriter based in Camdenton, Mo., a gateway community to the Lake of the Ozarks.

He says this species of freshwater fish is so named because its barbels resemble a cat’s whiskers.

 

“They are the ‘piscatorial Rodney Dangerfield’ and ‘get no respect,’ but know this, there is a cadre of loyal anglers who love catfish and pursue them with vigor,” Taylor said.

“Summer is prime time for ‘cats,’ as they often end up as tasty fillets on dinner plates. These palate-pleasers can be prepared in many ways,” Taylor said. “Catfish can be a healthy alternative to red meat.”

Missouri is one of five middle-America states that have adopted the catfish as their “official state fish.” 

Others are Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Tennessee.

Because catfish tend to live in dark, murky waters, their vision isn’t very useful. Their barbels help the fish search out food using their sense of touch. 

When caught, catfish make a noise that sounds like a croak or a grunt, perhaps a bit like a cat purring. Generally, the best size catfish to eat is between 2 and 5 pounds (“pan-sized”). 

Some grow much larger.

At 0-dark-30 in the morning of July 20, 2020, Tyler Barnes, 24, of Pikeville in Wayne County, N.C., pulled a 78.9-pound flathead catfish out of the Neuse River near Maple Cypress Landing in Craven County.

Barnes’ fish was a North Carolina state freshwater record for a flathead catfish. No one has topped it since. 

It was a true “trophy fish,” estimated to be about 30 years old. After the weigh-in at EZ Bait and Tackle Store in Goldsboro, the big ol’ catfish was released back into the river.

Barnes humbly basked in the limelight. Since then, he has hooked up with Catch The Fever Outdoors of Roxboro, N.C., a major manufacturer of rods, reels and other fishing equipment. As a brand ambassador for the company, Barnes has become a darling of social media, promoting a “catfish lifestyle” that is so readily identified with the Southern culture.

He has also formed his own company in Pikeville named 4REEL, specializing in apparel products, tackle and fishing accessories.

 

Southerners, of course, have been eating fried catfish for decades. It pairs nicely with fried chicken to form a delicious blend of “creek and coop” (a good-eatin’ alternative to “surf and turf”), says Hannah Hayes, a food writer in New Orleans, La.

 

The late Craig Claiborne, who was a revered food editor and restaurant critic for The New York Times, was born in Sunflower, Miss. He once wrote:

 

“Like most Southerners, I adore catfish. Eating deep-fried catfish was a ritual (for Sunday outings) and the menu was always the same: cornmeal-coated catfish with its golden-brown crusty exterior and moist white inner flesh; deep-fried hushpuppies; deep-fried potatoes; and coleslaw.”

 

“Now that catfish are being raised in freshwater ponds,” he said, “they are available frozen all over the country and can be used in any recipe calling for a white non-oily fish. Even after freezing and defrosting, catfish remain snow white and as firm as when taken from the water.”

 

The late Willard Scott, former weatherman with NBC’s “TODAY” show, said: “If I go down for anything in history, I would like to be known as the person who convinced the American people that catfish is one of the finest eating fishes in the world.”

 

More and more restaurants are adding catfish dishes to their menus, claiming that “catfish, although a freshwater fish, proudly waves the seafood flag – mild, slightly sweet in flavor with a tender, flaky texture.”

Life at the coast is all about ‘fish or cut bait’

Fish or cut bait. That’s a familiar idiom we hear frequently in Carteret County, N.C., especially in the Down East region.

 

The writers at the blogsite Heroes, Heroines & History (HH&H) tell us: “Fishing for the exact meaning of this phrase submerges us in murky waters. Some people use it to prompt another person to make a choice or decision. Others use it as a spur to get someone to either act or quit.”

HH&H found the earliest print reference in 1837, within the Oneida Observer in Albany, N.Y.: “Politicians cannot shilli-shalli along now. They must either ‘fish, cut bait, or go ashore.’”

Audrey Atkins of Birmingham, Ala., creator of the Folkways Nowadays blog, added: “A little research revealed that in a fishing culture, the act of cutting up bait fish into small and useful pieces is just as important and integral to the whole process of catching fish as…well…actually catching the fish.”

In a culture defined heavily by commercial fishing, the saying emphasizes that “every member of the team or community must pull his and her weight and commit to the mission.”

I’m not sure this is a “fish or cut bait” moment, but I’ve been thinking that the Crystal Coast needs is an official beach music theme song – a tune you can dance to as well as sing along.

A good candidate may be the classic shaggin’ song “Gone Fishin,’” written in 1976 (50 years ago) by the “king of beach music” General Norman Johnson and performed by The Chairmen of the Board. 

Here’s a bit of it:

I’m going to lock my doors and close my blinds

In my window, I’m gonna leave a sign

Gone fishin’

 

And waste some time (gone fishin’)

Leave my trouble behind (gone fishin’)

Rest my mind, if I don’t get away

I’m gonna lose my mind, hey-hey!

The beat is smooth, mellow and laid-back, like the aura of the Crystal Coast – not frantic.

 

Painting by Norman Rockwell

“Gone Fishin’” is one of the standards that the DJs spin for patrons at the legendary Memories Beach Club in Atlantic Beach, N.C. 

(The tune ranks No. 21 on the all-time beach music hits chart at Radio Station 94.9 FM – The Surf in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.)

 

The American Sportfishing Association and others say there are approximately 60 million people who identify as fishermen or fisherwomen in the United States. 

About 1.5 million North Carolinians are licensed anglers.

North Carolina is considered the fourth most popular fishing state in the nation, trailing only Florida, Maryland and Michigan.

North Carolina offers a variety of fishing experiences from “the mountains to the coast,” which make the state fairly unique. The North Carolina chapter of the Native Fish Coalition says North Carolina has 17 major river systems and more than 274,000 acres of lakes and ponds. 

Our State magazine photo by Derek Diluz.

Additionally, North Carolina has more than 3,375 miles of saltwater coastline.

 Our State magazine photo by Daniel Pullen.

North Carolina has two “official state fish” species. Representing the freshwater category is the southern Appalachian brook trout. 

North Carolina also recognizes the red drum (channel bass) as the state saltwater fish.

 

Smaller “puppy drum” are prized by chefs for “its sweet, mild and clean flavor alongside a firm, flaky white texture.”

The fishingbooker.com website says that one of the “best freshwater targets” in North Carolina is catfish, which “are almost ubiquitous in North Carolina’s rivers and lakes. 

There are different types of them swimming about, with flathead, blue and channel catfish being the most common catches.”

 

“You’ll find great catfishing in rivers such as the Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear and Roanoke,” all in eastern North Carolina. We’ll have to cast a line….