Seagrove, NC - On Saturday, December 7, 2013, Westmoore Pottery, located just outside of Seagrove, NC, will hold its annual Holiday Open House.  The event will run from 9 am – 5 pm on the premises of Westmoore Pottery.

The pottery shop will be decorated for the holidays, with trees and other greenery.  Our resident Stoneware Santa will be out for the day as well. Refreshments will be served.

“I try to decorate the shop a little differently each year,” potter Mary Farrell remarks, “though I never know what I’ll do until I start decorating late in the week!”

Special Christmas wares by Westmoore Pottery will be unloaded that morning and will be available for purchase as long as they last.

As a special treat for this Holiday Open House, Westmoore Pottery will host a book signing from 1 pm to 3 pm with noted food historian and hearth cook Kay Moss from Gastonia, NC.  Kay will be signing her newest book, Seeking the Historical Cook:  Exploring Eighteenth-Century Southern Foodways.  Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the book signing.

Kay is both an historian and a hands-on hearth cook. She was the founder of the 18th century Backcountry Lifeways Studies Program at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia, NC and remained the head of that program for many years before her retirement, a retirement which seems as busy as her work years!  Kay has been a mentor to many of the hearth cooks active in the southeast today and in addition to her scholarly work, still teaches hearth cooking skills on occasion at the John C. Campbell Folk School in western North Carolina.  Kay’s many years of study and practice have made her an expert on that subject.

Seeking the Historical Cook is a book that will be of great use to hearth cooks, but also of interest to modern cooks, cookbook collectors, culinary historians, and people who’d like to expand their cooking skills at their backyard barbeques or to know how to present an impressive meal when the power goes off!  The book makes a great gift for food historians and modern day “foodies” alike!

In addition to this newest book, Kay also co-authored the still very popular The Backcountry Housewife with Kathryn Hoffman.  Kay Moss’ other books include Decorative Motifs from the Southern Backcountry, Journey to the Piedmont Past, and Southern Folk Medicine 1750-1820.  Though the book signing features her newest book, I’m sure she’d be happy to sign your copies of others as well!

“Kay’s research on cooking in the southern backcountry areas is an important addition to our knowledge of cookery in the 18th and early 19th centuries,” says potter Mary Farrell.  “We are very pleased to be hosting her for this book signing.”

The public is invited to attend the Holiday Open House, and there is no admission charge.

Westmoore Pottery is located at 4622 Busbee Road, just off Highway 705, halfway between the small towns of Seagrove and Robbins, in North Carolina.

For more information, email westmoore2@gmail.com or call 910-464-3700.

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