AWARD WINNING SOUTHERN CULTURE AND
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NEW RELEASES
> "BURGOO!
Legendary Stew of the South"
(1 hr PBS version)

"BURGOO!
A Southern Tradition"
(2 hr Original version)

THE WORKS

> BURGOO! New Release!
> BRUNSWICK STEW
(Virginia Tradition)
> BRUNSWICK STEW
(Georgia Tradition)
> BARBECUE and HOMECOOKING
> CAROLINA HASH:
A Taste of South Carolina
> COOPERATIVE GROCERY
> ERHARDT FIVE & DIME
> IT’S GRITS!
> HALLOWED GROUND:
Primitive Camp meetings
of the SC Low Country
> LORD HAVE MERCY!
OLGERS’ STORE
> ROCKFISH MUDDLE
> SEEING INTO BEING:
The Scrap Iron Art of
Charlie Grimsley
> SOUTHERN ROUTES
(Five Volumes)
> SOUTHERN STEWS COLLECTION (Seven Volumes)
> SOUTHERN STEWS:
A Taste of the South
> STEWBILEE: A Brunswick
Stew Folk Heritage Festival
> THE MORRIS CHRONICLE
> THE OLGERS CHRONICLE
> THE SHEEP STEW OF DUNDAS
> WE JUST CALL IT “CUSH”
BRUNSWICK STEW (VIRGINIA STYLE)

BRUNSWICK STEW
A Southern Americana Folk Heritage Tradition
1 Hour 56 min 40 sec

The story of the origins of Brunswick stew in Brunswick County, VA and the Stew War with Brunswick, Georgia

BRUNSWICK STEW:
A Virginia Treasure
56 min 40 sec, PBS Broadcast

Short version based on the above feature length documentary.

Made Possible By:

The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Folklife Program

MEDIA
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The original feature length version - BRUNSWICK STEW : A Southern Americana Folk Heritage Tradition - was produced for the people of Brunswick County, Virginia, who honor this tradition and maintain it through a system of stewmasters and stew crews who cook for their constituent community. This documentary premiered at the Virginia State Fair on "Brunswick Stew Day" in 1998. It was a day devoted to the stewmasters and stew crews from Brunswick County which lays claim to being "The Original Home of Brunswick Stew". The stewmasters and crews each cooked their unique recipes for their stew which fair attendees sampled. In the afternoon the stewmasters were paraded thriugh the fairgrounds and taken to an auditorium where friends, relatives, invitees, and folks from all over with Brunswick County roots attended the "World Premier" of this documentary. Each stewmaster received special recognition with a framed citation signed by the Governor noting these men as "Virginia Treasures". When news of this hit the papers, it once again set off a response from "the insensed citizenry in Brunswick, GA...and the Stew Wars were ignited again. The origins of this conflict is documented in both this documentary and more elaborated upon in Stan Woodward's sequel titled, BRUNSWICK STEW: Georgia Named Her; Georgia Claims Her.

The Georgia stew tradition, mainly pork-based and today wedded to about any plate of barbecue you find in the Peach State, traces it's folk heritage tradition back to agrarian roots and the hogshead stews and hunters stews made on the small farms in 19th century Georgia; while the Virginia tradition traces it's exclusively chicken-based recipes back to the original squirrel stew said to have been prepared in 1828 by Uncle Jimmy Matthews, a camp cook for the Virginia Repesentative from Brunswick County, Dr. Creed Haskins.

BRUNSWICK STEW: A Virginia Treasure is the shortened Virginia/Brunswick County documentary (56 min 40 sec) edited for PBS. It travels the viewer pot-side where we see the work of artisans of many different stewmasters and learn how these stews are sold and the money used to meet needs in the small town and farm communities.