Greetings from Carrboro, 

A father of a friend of mine is a small town minister in eastern NC. He also happens to be a really good mechanic. And in the spirit of “good works” he helps the members of his church when a tractor breaks down or a well pump dies. There’s no AAA for farm equipment. And more often than not, “sometime next week” is not an option. Farm work is relentless.

His parishioners are small farms. Family farms. And he doesn’t accept any payment for his work; it’s just part of his ministry. But during the summer – without fail – when he returns from the Sunday services, his front porch is laden with produce. Full baskets and buckets and Food Lion bags. It’s all anonymous. Left by people he helped that last week or month or year.

So when zucchini is in season, he and his wife have a LOT of zucchini. And, well, they can only eat so much. As you can imagine. So they do what is bred in the bone across the rural south; they “put up” vegetables and fruits. Pickles and preserves. Canned tomatoes and jarred beans.  Week in, week out.

And any visit I made to their house couldn’t end without descending into their converted hurricane shelter back behind the house. It was lined with shelf after shelf of that summertime Sunday bounty preserved and labeled. A fluorescent light hummed as I read the upright script dating and describing every jar, neatly organized in straight rows. Some minutes later, I climbed back into the bright light of day, squinting, my cardboard box filled with bread & butter pickles, dilly beans, scuppernong preserves, and strawberry jam. It felt like Christmas.

In that time-honored tradition, Acme has started “putting up” our own pickles – Acme Pickles – jar after jar of the delicious bounty of the Carrboro Farmers’ Market stored in our own pickle cabinet at the restaurant. And the really good part is that you can buy them. Green tomatoes, zephyr squash, Kirby cucumbers, yellow wax beans, heirloom carrots. So many delicious flavors. And we’ve just started. I think that you’ll really like them.

Delicious this weekend: Acme tomato plate. Carolina crab cakes. Chile relleno with molé. Perfect cheeseburgers. Pecan crusted fried chicken. Peach & blueberry shortcake. “BLT” pasta. Watermelon sangria. Pan-seared mountain trout. Forever roasted pig. Scallop hushpuppies. Old-school tomato pie. Low-country gumbo. Roasted jalapeno cornbread. Blackened salmon. Beef carpaccio. Compressed summer melon salad. Hoppin John and Limpin Sue. Rosé all day. Flash-fried flounder. You get the picture.

Well, that’s all the news from Carrboro. The staff at Acme look forward to serving you soon.

Cheers,
The staff at Acme

Reservations: 919 929 2263 or online