Fire up: Rose Hill’s 60th Poultry Jubilee is Nov. 3-4

Rose Hill in Duplin County, N.C., not only has a lovely and romantic name, the community is home to the world’s largest frying pan. And it actually works.

 

The town’s gigantic 2-ton frying pan is 15-feet across. Local firemen give it the gas once a year to celebrate the North Carolina Poultry Jubilee in Rose Hill. This year’s event, which marks a 60-year milestone anniversary, is Nov. 3-4.

The enormous pan holds up to 200 gallons of cooking oil and operates with 40 propane burners. The frying team buys chicken breading mix in 50-pound bags. Volunteers can fry up to 365 whole chickens at a time, turning the birds with pitch forks.

 

The Poultry Jubilee originated in 1963, when Dennis Ramsey, owner of Ramsey Feed Company, said his employees came up the idea to build the world’s largest frying pan to spark interest in Duplin County’s “burgeoning poultry industry.” 

Duplin County continues to rank as one of the top poultry producing counties in North Carolina, and Rose Hill is home to the corporate offices of House of Raeford Farms, a major U.S. chicken processor.

The business began when Nash and Mary Sue Johnson began raising turkeys on their Rose Hill farm in 1925. Later, their two sons, Marvin and Bizzell, joined the company. Their operation to include chickens in 1959. 

Marvin Johnson

Today, the company is known as House of Raeford Farms, with Bob Johnson, the son of Marvin Johnson, serving as company president. Members of the fourth generation have joined the management and production teams.

 

From left: Lon Beasley, Nash Johnson, Mary Susan Beasley, Bob Johnson, Carol Luanne Johnson Sholar, Jantzen Brantley and Cowan Johnson.

Rose Hill also is home to Duplin Winery, the world’s largest muscadine winery with a tank capacity of more than 2.3 million gallons. Duplin Winery also claims to be the oldest and largest winery of any kind in the South.

 

Daniel Jerome “Jiggs” Fussell Sr. decided to make wine out of the grapes in 1972. He and his sons, Dan Jr. and David, planted 10 acres of muscadine grapes. An old family warehouse was converted into the winery.

 

Dan Jr. and David Fussell

The Duplin Winery webmaster recalled that in the 1970s, “the idea of opening ‘a factory of liquid sin’ didn’t sit well around town.” When Elizabeth Fussell was confronted about her sons’ “questionable business, she responded, ‘Well, we’re not making it on Sunday.’” 

Leah Hughes of Our State magazine wrote that eastern North Carolina’s hot and humid climate and flat and sandy soil are perfect conditions for growing “native muscadine grapes, one of the sweetest varieties in the world. The grapes of this region are just like the people – tough with a thick skin but sweet on the inside.” 

Duplin Winery has experienced a rocky road to success, but the Fussell family has persevered. Brothers Dave Fussell Jr. and Jonathan Fussell (sons of David Fussell Sr.) now hold the reins of the Duplin Winery and its associated businesses.

 

Jonathan and Dave Jr. Fussell

The company’s eastern North Carolina roots are reinforced by way of the image of the Hatteras Lighthouse that appears on each wine bottle.

 

“The sweet muscadines taste better chilled,” Jonathan Fussell told Hughes. “Fruitiness is the key to Duplin wine. If you close your eyes and sniff, a glass of muscadine wine smells like a glassful of grapes.” 

There are “health benefits” in every glass of muscadine wine. Hughes reported that “muscadine grapes make extra antioxidants to protect themselves from fungal disease, so muscadine wine contains seven times more disease-fighting antioxidants than European varieties.” 

Dave Fussell Jr. invites sweet wine lovers to try Duplin Winery’s new blend “Muscadine Moscato.” Its “refined honey-floral taste has mellow hints of nectarine and white peach.”