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ORAL HISTORY

Glenn and Dorsey Hunt

Lumbee Homemade Ice-Cream

Lumbee Homemade Ice-Cream started more than ten years ago when Glenn Hunt made his annual trip to Ohio for a horse sale. As he watched an Amish man churning ice cream, Glenn knew it would be a popular sell back home in Robeson County. At the time, Glenn worked in the modular home business, and his wife, Dorsey, was a teaching assistant at R.B. Dean Elementary School in Maxton. Glenn and Dorsey split the cost of the churn with Dorsey’s father, Willie French Bryant, and began making flavors like black walnut and grape. They sold ice cream at county fairs, Powwows, and the annual Lumbee Homecoming in July (a family reunion-like event for Lumbee Indians who have left Robeson County). The business eventually became a full-time affair.

Eventually the Hunts added collard sandwiches to their menu. They stuff sweet, winter collards between two pieces thin, crispy cornbread, topped with fried fatback. Homemade chow-chow is optional. Collard sandwiches were once sold as a quick and easy lunch outside the once-bustling textile manufacturing plants in Robeson County. While most of these plants are now abandoned, the sandwich lives on, especially during Homecoming, where it is a staple. During Homecoming the Hunts and their kin make collard sandwiches, chicken bogg, and ice cream for mile-long lines of customers. The entire operation is a family affair, from mixing the cornmeal to cutting the collards to churning the ice cream.