Stew Fest a tasty way to support Albertson’s Grady-Outlaw Memorial Library

ALBERTSON — The 17th annual Stew Fest fundraiser for the Grady-Outlaw Memorial Library was more than an opportunity to enjoy a variety of stews while helping the library. For many, including Wesley Hamilton, Tina Hamilton and Kiona Bowen, who have been coming since the start, it is like a family or class reunion as well.

Held from 9 a.m.to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4, in front of the library, the smell of stews greeted everyone as they stepped out of their vehicles. Vendors were set up selling a variety of items, and children had a bouncy house to enjoy.

The Hamiltons’ grew up in Albertson, but now live in Beulaville.

“You see childhood friends, people you went to high school with,” Tina said. “It is just like a big class or family reunion.”

Tina said she enjoys cooking stews, but likes baking better and makes a lot of desserts.

She jokes that she saves her stew time for Stew Fest.

“We come very year,” she said between bites of stew.

What brings them back?

“The stews, of course,” she said. “It is just good.”

Wesley is a shrimp stew fan, and Tina likes seafood stews, too.

“If anything, I just add pepper and crackers,” Wesley said.

“We go to everybody’s (tent),” Tina said. “Sometimes we go back for seconds. It is a good day. The weather is just right for it. I think this is the biggest fundraiser to help fund the library and it does very, very well and to see the community come out and support our library.

“If you haven’t been, you need to come. You won’t be disappointed.”

It is the cook more than anything else they look for when they arrive, the Hamiltons said.

“The first person we look for is Billy Daniels because he has the best shrimp stew,” she said. “So, we look for him first and then we make our rounds from there.”

Daniels, who has been cooking stews since 2000, had shrimp stew and fish stew.

“I keep up with traditions,” said Daniels, whose father, Billy Daniels, was a Mount Olive police officer. “I always help the community. I do the (Washington’s Day) Fox Hunt. I do all that. I normally cook pigs for the Fox Hunt.

“I cook a fish stew at the Fox Hunt now that Mr. Willie (Rouse) has died. That is why I cooked a fish stew this year.”

Rouse couldn’t attend the annual Fox Hunt this past year so Daniels cooked the stew. The Fox Hunt is sponsored by the Albertson Ruritan Club of which Rouse was a member.

Daniels carried some to Rouse, who gave him a thumbs up after eating it.

“He wasn’t here (at Stew Fest) this year so I decided to cook an extra stew,” Daniels said. “He was known for his fish stew.

“I use the same fish (rock fish) that he used. I love Mr. Willie, and he always had fish stew here. I wanted to have something similar to what he had here. I am just trying to carry on the tradition.”

Daniels started out with a 20-gallon pot in 2000 and has since added 30-gallon and 40-gallon ones. He built the burners the pots sit on.

Daniels said he and his crew had started cooking the night before.

“Potatoes, onions and whatever — we put other meats in our stews to flavor them, sausage, bacon and stuff like that,” he said. “We wanted to cook enough. Like right now we are out. It’s 12 o’clock. We are normally out by 11.”

Daniels, who has won the event six years in a row, said he derives enjoyment from helping the community.

“He taught me how to cook it this go-around,” said Tripp Stroud, 14. “He is the best cooker and welder I know. People were eating more all of the time. Like he said, I like to keep the tradition going.

“Mr. Willie was my step-great-grandfather so I wanted to come out and help him cook. I just like keeping tradition alive I reckon.”

Daniels said he had put Tripp’s name on fish stew since he had helped cook it.“He even missed a date last night to help us get set up and ready,” Daniels said.

Hayden Williams, 1, started to make a grab for his father’s bowl of fish stew, but decided to stick with his lollipop instead.

Hayden was with his parents, Devin and Mandy Williams, and his big sister, Coley Grace, 4, all of Deep Run.

“We come every year. We try everything they have,” Devin said.

Asked if he had a favorite stew, Devin joked that it changes every year.

“I prefer the chillis. I think he likes the shrimp stews,” Mandy said.

Hayden prefers his lollipop and crackers, she said.

“They both (children) like the crackers,” she added.

“It is always like this,” Devin said of the large crowd. “She doesn’t try everything, but I do. I like the shrimp stew and the fish stew. She likes the chili better.”

Mandy agreed, adding she likes a mild chili.

“We cook chili and fish stew at home,” she added.

Coley Grace’s favorite part of the day was the bouncy house, her parents said.

Ronald Crumpton of Albertson had purchased a bowl made of bread and headed straight to Billy Daniels’ booth to fill it up with stew.

A few minutes later and he would have had to look elsewhere — the stew was running out and it was not even noon.

“I don’t know what it is made out of, I just know it’s bread,” Crumpton said.

Daniels’ son, Justin Daniels, who was working the family booth said he believes that it was the first time he had ever filled up a bread bowl with stew.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done that before,” he said.

Planning for the popular event starts in June, said Chelsey Smith, library board member.

“We get our tickets together — kind of get a game plan of how we want the day to look and just start working on it from there,” she said. “It takes a lot of planning, a lot of preparation.

“We have to arrange all of the cookers. We start arranging that probably in September. We start advertising for vendors in September. So, there is a lot of work that goes into it beforehand — a lot of front loading.”

This year’s event attracted 13 cookers and the judges gathered in the library to sample each of the stews.

The bowels were numbered so the judges do not know who cooked them, she said. First-, second- and third-place awards were presented.

“We do a People’s Choice Award,” Smith added. “Everybody gets a wristband, and then when you get done eating we have boxes with all the stews labeled. People place their wristband in the box for their favorite.

“We have a sausage and chicken gumbo, we’ve got a farmhouse stew which is kind like a spin-off of a vegetable soup. We have seafood chowder, Brunswick stew, shrimp stew, chili, fish stew. We have a deer stew. If you can cook it in soup form, you can cook it.”

Stew Fest normally raises around $8,000 for the library.

“We have kind of upped our game this year with our raffle tickets,” Smith said. “We have some really nice prizes this year. I think we have made some really decent money with our raffle tickets.”

Smith said she had been a little nervous at first of the week prior to Stew Fest because of cold mornings, but was thankful to see the weather moderating.

“This is the perfect weather for it,” Smith said. “You don’t want it too cold or people won’t come out. You don’t want it too hot or people won’t want stew.”

Albertson is a rural area and the closest library is in Pink Hill, she said.

“So we are really kind of out away from libraries,” she said. “Around 2005, the community got together and said, ‘OK, we need a library.’ They started working up, raising some money and bought this property. We own the house, and I think there is about two acres of land here.

“They bought the property, remodeled, got it looking and feeling like a library and filled it up with books and we have been on ever since.”

Volunteers work the event, but it really takes the whole community to get it done, Smith said.

“We want the people to enjoy the community and fellowship and at 1 o’clock we will wrap it up and announce the winners,” she said.

One change this year, the library has been reaching out to Hispanic organizations in an effort to involve the community’s large Hispanic population, she said.

“I have seen more folks involved this year than in years past, and we are excited about that, and we hope that continues,” Smith said.