Local Craft Blogs

The Carolina Country Cupboard...

The Rusty Bucket offers North Carolina grown and harvested food products and wines.  We take great pride in providing our customers with local recipes with many being in families for generations.  These home grown products are displayed in our kitchen area and affectionately know as the “Carolina Country Cupboard” at The Rusty Bucket.

We are proud to announce our partnership with D’Vine Foods of Elizabethtown, NC,  located in the heart of North Carolina's fertile fruit and vegetable growing country in the southeastern part of the state.  D’Vine foods processes the best garden and farm raised fruits and vegetables for canning, packaging and private labeling with The Rusty Bucket logo.  Their home grown processing, in FDA approved kitchens, produces preserves, pickles, butters, jelly’s and vegetables all by using olde’ fashioned recipes.

1 of 5 Preserves Home grown products and wines harvested from "The Olde North State" Canned with that "Tarheel" pride and tastes every bit as good!

Prepared exclusively for The Rusty Bucket and especially for you.

Carolina Country Cupboard Muscadine Wines

The cupboard

Locally Prepared Recipes in the Cupboard

Chef William - The Bistro at Duplin Winery:

Fine wines and great food are a natural combination. 

The Bistro offers distinctive dinning experiences ranging from casual and relaxed to warm and intimate.  Each menu selection features Executive Chef William B. Fussell’s signature cuisine, culinary treats, and are perfectly paired with Duplin Wines.

You can make your reservations at The Bistro by calling:  910-289-4046

The Bistro is available for private parties, wedding receptions, birthdays, anniversaries and meetings.  Call The Bistro for more information and availability. 

We are pleased that Chef William makes The Rusty Bucket one of the few locations, other than The Bistro, that he will schedule for a tasting.  Twice annually Chef William comes to The Rusty Bucket and shares his many recipes and tasty culinary treats in the kitchen at the Carolina Country Cupboard in The Rusty Bucket.  These pictures capture Chef William on his most recent visit to The Rusty Bucket on August 1st, 2009 to help us celebrate our 5th Anniversary.

Click to hear Chef William on NBC WECT in Wilmington

North Carolina Wines

Duplin Winery Products

505 N. Sycamore Street
Rose Hill, NC 28458

Discover North Carolina wine at Duplin Winery, the oldest winery in the state of North Carolina. Duplin produces over 270,000 cases of wine annually, is the largest Muscadine winery in the world, and features a 40-foot tasting bar. Free daily tours and tastings of award winning wines, champagnes, and Muscadine wine jellies, jams, and dressings are a treat for everyone who visits.

Visit Rose Hill and discover the world of Southern hospitality and sweet, easy wines. Dine at the Bistro Restaurant where casual creations are paired perfectly with Duplin wines.

NC wine at its best!

Click to read the story of the Fussell Family and Duplin Winery

Click to take a visual on-line tour of the Duplin winery

History Surrounding the Mother Vine

In 1584, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, the first explorers sent to the New World by Sir Walter Raleigh, under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth, arrived at what is now Bodie Island. One of the first things they observed was that the land was overflowing with grapes. The English naturally thought that wine was plentiful in the region. The absence of deliberately fermented beverages by Native Americans was very common. They simply ate the grapes and never turned them into wine.

The following year, 1585, brought yet another contingent of Englishmen to Roanoke Island. These explorers, too, noticed the abundance of grapes, but knew little about fermenting them. Most of the wines in England were imported. The settlers did, however, put Native American maize to good use in a make-shift brewery. Nevertheless, the English settlers of 1585 never realized the potential of the Roanoke Island grapes. When they departed the Carolinas, they took with them cuttings of the scuppernong. The plants did not make it in the wet and cold English climate.

In 1732, Peter Baum paid his arrears on His Majesty’s rent dating from 1729, of four pounds, nine shillings and eight pence. The land grant was given to Baum, the first documented family to own and occupy the Mother Vineyard.

In 1869, the title of the Mother Vine property passed to Ghauhey Meekins who had married Mahalaj Baum, late in the 1840s.

In 1957, Jack and Estelle Wilson purchased the Mother Vine property. At that time, the vine covered one-half acre. It still belongs to the Wilsons. They have worked with conservationists in earnest to keep the world’s largest and oldest scuppernong vine alive.

Click to learn more about the MotherVine 

Wines available in the Cupboard

Chatham Hill Winery

3800 Gateway Centre Blvd.
Suite 310,
Cary/Morrisville, NC 27560
GPS N 35° 50.925' W078° 48.147'

Chatham Hill Winery was established in 1999 as the first winery in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area and the first Urban Winery in North Carolina. Its mission is to produce distinctive, handcrafted wines of high quality and purity from grapes grown in North Carolina. Majority of Chatham Hill wines including Chardonnay, Viognier, Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc, are handcrafted from the best quality Yadkin Valley AVA grapes produced by our grower partners.

At Chatham Hill they believe in a minimalist approach to winemaking. Our wines are produced using traditional methods. Although they only try to help Mother Nature in turning grapes into wine, we use the highest quality materials and meticulously sterilized equipment. Chatham Hill emphasize the scientific approach in controlling the conditions under which the grapes are fermented and wines are aged, blended, and bottled. They believe the combination of their winemaking skills and philosophy will yield a premium wine, a goal to which we are passionately committed.

There’s always something fun to do and learn at Chatham Hill Winery, an Urban Winery located moments from everything in the Triangle. If a wine tasting and winery tour is not in the cards, we invite you to visit our lovely Tasting Bar and Art Gallery. Enjoy a glass of wine and delicious imported cheeses with your friends and family. Bring your laptop, WI-FI available.

Click to visit Chatham Hill Winery web site

Iron Gate Winery

2540 Lynch Store Road
Mebane, N.C. 27302

Iron Gate Vineyards are located in the Central Piedmont of North Carolina.  Historically known for producing bright leaf tobacco grown on small family farms, we are continuing this tradition of farming the land.

The sandy loam soil of northern Alamance County, along with carefully tended vines and hand harvested grapes, produce wines with unique aromas, textures and flavors.  We invite you to come, share our love of the land and taste the fruits of our labor.

Gene & Debbie Stikeleather

Click to visit Iron Gate Winery web site