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KERNERSVILLE, N.C. — At the Musten and Crutchfield Food Market, a southern delicacy is celebrated.

“It’s absolutely our number one seller,” said owner John Crutchfield, whose secret family recipe of pimento cheese is what keeps people coming back since 1938. “We’ve been accused of putting addictive drugs in it and things like that it. People do come a long way to get our pimento cheese.”

Every week they make over 3,000 pounds of the spread.

“You can go back there and watch Brenda and David package the product, they do it four days a week,” said Crutchfield, referencing workers like Brenda Beeson, who has been packing the spread for 35 years.

“People ask me, ‘Are you ever going to retire?'” said Beeson. “I say, ‘No, I think I’ll just let them carry me out feet first.'”

In addition to the famous spread is the store itself. Once a local grocery it’s now evolved to a business of homemade and North Carolina made products.
They still carry fresh cut meat and many of the things you’d expect to find in a vintage grocery including over 100 soft drinks flavors in glass bottles.

“We do make the pasta here ourselves too,” Crutchfield said. “Its a vegan product.”

At one time competition from big grocery stores threatened the family business, but the famous pimento cheese is what saved them. In fact you can find the spread in many of those big grocery store chains today.