by Deborah Miller
Every state has its official list of chosen symbols. We all know, or should know, that our State Bird is the Cardinal and State Tree is the Dogwood. But why, and how, do such random things like dog, reptile, and even dance become official?
In case you just moved to the Tar Heel state or have lived here your whole life but need a scorecard for all we hold near and dear, check out this very cool North Carolina History Interactive Timeline: North Carolina State Symbols and other Official Adoptions by Kelly Agan, Government & Heritage Library, 2014.
Unofficially, it’s likely because we’ve embraced whatever it is as our own. It represents who we are as a state, as people of the region. I use”unofficially” because that’s just my own definition of why it’s important. According to the more “official” StateSymbolsUSA.org, these symbols “represent the cultural heritage and natural treasures of each state or the entire United States. Each state and region is also recognized by well-known icons and emblems such as state flags and seals.”
Stories vary on how this symbolic recognition all got started in the first place. Story goes that at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, a wreath was created using a flower from each state in the nation. That first floral garland led to the idea to name each represented flower as the “state flower.” And so the Official State fill-in-the-blank (flower, bird, tree, plant, dog, etc.) began. They have to be legally recognized by the corresponding state General Assembly in order to be “official.”
Since so many of North Carolina’s State Symbols involve food, here’s a list to get you started so you can take every opportunity to celebrate them.
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N.C. Agricultural Extension Service. “Grow Quality Sweet Potatoes.” April 1950, N.C. Agricultural Extension Service Circular No. 353. H.1993.427.190, North Carolina Museum of History. (accessed December 12, 2014).
North Carolina State Vegetable, Sweet Potato
The sweet potato was officially designated the State Vegetable by the General Assembly of 1995. (Session Laws, 1995, c. 521).
Students at a Wilson County school petitioned the North Carolina General Assembly for the establishment of the sweet potato as the Official State Vegetable. North Carolina is the largest producer of sweet potatoes in the nation, harvesting over four billion pounds of the vegetable in 1989. The sweet potato is high in vitamins A and C and low in fat and was grown in North Carolina before the European colonization of North America.
In 2009, the General Assembly designated the North Carolina Potato Festival (formerly the Albemarle Potato Festival) as the official Irish Potato Festival (Session Laws, 2009, c. 24).
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North Carolina State Berries, Blueberry and Strawberry
The General Assembly of 2001 designated the blueberry as the official Blue Berry of North Carolina, and the strawberry as the state’s official Red Berry. (Session laws, 2001, c. 488).
Grown throughout North Carolina, both of these berries are important to the state’s agricultural economy. In the year 2000, the state’s blueberry farmers grew 17,500,000 pounds of blueberries, and strawberry growers produced <23,000,000 pounds of strawberries, yielding a combined $35,325,000 in revenues. According to the 1997 Census of Agriculture, North Carolina was ranked 5th in the nation in the production of blueberries and 8th in the number of strawberries harvested.
A cup of blueberries supplies half of the vitamin C we need each day, as well as 22% of the fiber recommended for a healthy diet. Strawberries are high in vitamins C and A.
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![[Hunter Jersey Farms, Inc., Charlotte, N.C., milk carton]. Photograph. Item H.1993.482.26, North Carolina Museum of History. (accessed December 11, 2014).](http://www.ncfolk.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Milk_carton_NCMOH.jpg)
North Carolina State Beverage, Milk
The General Assembly of 1987 adopted milk as the official State Beverage. (Session Laws, 1987, c. 347).
In making milk the official state beverage, North Carolina followed many other states including our northern neighbor, Virginia, and Wisconsin, the nation’s number one dairy state.
Dairy products rank 9th among major farm commodities in North Carolina, with the state’s dairy farmers producing some 135 million gallons of milk per year. The annual income from this production amounts to nearly $200 million. North Carolinians consume over 143 million gallons of milk every year.
The number of milk cows and milk production in North Carolina declined between 2000 and 2010.
The designation was requested by the state Milk Commission (established in 1947), and introduced by Senator Aaron W. Plyler, a Democrat from Union County. It became law on June 12, 1987. At that time, North Carolina cows produced 179 million gallons of milk a year.
Stay tuned for Part II of North Carolina’s State Symbols That Taste Good coming soon!
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RESOURCES
NCpedia.org’s State Symbols and Official Adoptions
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Deborah Miller, Program Administrator at the North Carolina Folklife Institute, is a native Tar Heel and lifelong foodie with a deep passion for music.
Apparently state flags had already been named “officially” since the North Carolina General Assembly adopted its first state symbol, the state flag, in 1885 a good eight years before the World’s Fair. Since then, our Legislature has adopted the State Dog, State Beverage, and State Vegetable and that’s just a start. Just last summer, Session Law 2013-189, signed June 26, 2013, gave us a State Folk Art (Vollis Simpson’s whirligigs) and a State Art Medium (clay). While some symbols represent our natural heritage, my favorites are those that sustain us as a people like the food-related symbols that show up on our tables and create a sense of community.