Taste of OBX Summer 2020!

Old Gray House Gifts Jam

A Hatteras Island Tradition

A century-old island home turned coastal gift shop in the heart of Buxton on Hatteras Island. Offering shells, driftwood, yard art, plants, canned goods, coffee, handmade goods, and more.  The old gray house is now a bright seafoam green but still houses the same island charm it always has with a youthful flare of course. 

Owner, Mariah James, is a Hatteras native, may have set out for a bit to explore the world but soon longed for her seaside home… the island always draws you back. With the desire to create something on HI that would be uniquely hers she set out to find the perfect business model and stumbled upon an opportunity to restore an iconic  spot in Buxton, Old Gray House Gifts and Shells!  Fun fact, after the property was purchased Mr Dewey Parr and his wife Mary who had run the quaint little shop for decades, Mariah learned that Mr. Dewey actually bought the Gray House and gave it to Mary on the exact date of her birth in 1991… talk about kismet!  Island Free Press wrote an in depth article about Mariah’s journey, the article is so eloquently written I’ve decided to simply share it here rather than paraphrase further.

The kitchen of the historic home turned gift shop today is called “The Pantry” where Mariah displays her tatsty goodies for sale, this is where I stumbled upon the delicious jam included in your Summer OBX Box!  A large variety of items from sauces and marinades to local coffee and sweets and jams and jellies and anything in between!  Some items are made in small batches on the island, in fact Mariah’s mom makes small batch jams for the shop but they sell too quickly to snatch up the number of jars we needed, other items she sources and designs with small companies across NC and are made exclusively for Old Gray House Gifts.

An absolute must stop shop, the perfect spot to find a local treasure to take home!  Be sure to check them out online and give them a follow on Facebook and Instagram and don’t forget to tell them the OBX Box sent ya!

Outer Banks Coasters

As I think many of you would agree, 2020 presented a myriad of challenges and here at the OBX Box we are not immune!  We set out to create a Summer OBX Box with a culinary theme and thought a sweet coaster set as a reminder of your happy place would be a fun addition.  We met that goal but maybe in a round about way… Half of our Summer box recipients received town specific engraved wooden coasters and due to a shipping snafu the other half received a set of vibrantly colored coasters designed and printed by OBX local artist Stephanie Kiker!  Both equally Outer Banksy, yes I made that word up, and gorgeous, we hope you’ll enjoy your little table savers and will for years to come.

Stephanie Kiker’s designs are always uniquely distinguishable and are available in a myriad of mediums form the stickers and coasters in the Summer box to large wall pieces printed on metal and wood!  Stephanie is a truly fascinating person to me, I always describe her as having ambidexterity of the mind because she seemingly has the ability to use both her right and left brain equally efficiently!  She not only creates the art you see on her work but she also manufactures the products out of her home right here in Buxton!

Stephanie Kiker Stickers

A lot of folks unfortunately had to reschedule their annual Outer Banks vacation this year and from being a former visitor myself I know that picking up a local sticker on your trip is always on the agenda!  That’s why we decided to include one of Stephanie’s vivid decals in our Summer box.  Stick ‘um on your car windows, mirrors, glass doors, boats, mailboxes, mugs and glasses, laptops or anywhere your heart desires!  Made our of thick, durable vinyl to protect the sticker from scratching, rain & sunlight.

Be sure to peruse Ms Kikers website next time you find yourself longing for the OBX and you will not be disappointed! 

Cookbook: 25 Secrets – A Culinary Tour

Created by husband and wife team and Hatteras Locals, Kevin McCabe and Kim Mosher this cookbook fuses OBX style culinary flare with gorgeous Hatteras themed artwork.  Kim’s beautiful cover art is just the beginning of this exciting new cookbook entitled ”25 Secrets Revealed-A Culinary Tour”. It was written by her husband Kevin and tells the interesting stories behind 25 of his most sought-after recipes. There is a favorite recipe just waiting to be found within it’s 38 pages. 

The constantly changing colors and abundant wildlife of Hatteras Island and the entire Outer Banks are an inspiration for the artistic mind. Kim Mosher discovered this back in 1985 while visiting with her photography class from Virginia Commonwealth University. Shortly after graduating with a degree in Communication Arts and Design, and working as a photographer at Old Dominion University, she made Hatteras Island her home.


The history and heritage of this Island have always been centered on fishing, which inspired Kim to sketch many of the inshore fish in their natural habitat. Eventually, color pencil became her tool of choice. The fine point allows her to achieve superior detail which has become this artist’s trademark. However, fine lines also mean lots of time. Many of her originals have taken over five hundred hours to complete! Over the last several years, Kim has made her art available through limited edition prints, tiles, and fabrics. Her well-loved children’s book, “Pelican and Pelicant”, published in 2003 with Sarah Froeber, is also inspired by this magical land so far out in the ocean.

Kim and her husband, Kevin, have collaborated on both this cookbook and a children’s book, “My Rainy Day Cat”. Kevin writes and Kim designs the exquisitely detailed illustrations.

Kevin is an ardent supporter of Kim’s work.  When he isn’t busy surf-casting for the area’s plentiful Red Drum and Speckled Trout, he is using his craftsmanship as a woodworker to custom frame her popular prints.

Be sure to check them out at www.kimmosherdesigns.com

Hatteras Salt Works- Sea Salt

We couldn’t create a “taste of the OBX” box without a bag of ACTUAL Hatteras Sea Salt!  

Brian, Shaena and Declan have been experimenting with different methods of producing solar evaporated sea salt for years. From the Caribbean, to the Pacific, and back to the Atlantic Ocean they have studied the crystals, evaporation methods, and practices possible to produce the most pure sea salt available. The quest lead them back to Hatteras Island, where they now strive to give you a clean, mineral rich ocean salt from their Solar oven farm.  With a mission to strive for excellence, they’ve found that slow solar evaporation in solar ovens is the best method of reducing salt water for mineral retention, texture and flavor to capture the pure essence of the source. “Pure nutrient rich ocean water, yields pure nutrient rich ocean salt.”

Delicious and good for you! Unlike table salt, good quality unrefined, pure, sea salt can contain up to 87 trace minerals. These minerals are a crucial contribution to our immune, digestive and circulatory systems as well as many other benefits to our health.  We believe that the ocean provides us with many of the Natural Minerals we need and it is important to us to share these health benefits with you.

OBX Tea Towel

We all spend A LOT of time in the kitchen, and if you are anything like me during this quarantine it has felt like I’ve spent ALL of my time in the kitchen!  With that in mind we created these tea towels to hang in your kitchen as a simple reminder of all things Outer Banks.  If you can’t be where your heart is hopefully we can keep the feeling of that happy place in your heart all year long…

THANK YOU!

We do hope you enjoyed the Summer OBX Box. The box is a labor of love for my family of 6, it is a pleasure to source the items for each box and though we know it isn’t possible to please every single subscriber every single time we do continue to strive to do just that!  Our assembly line each quarter is evolving into a pretty impressive little system, a well oiled machine even… lol ok maybe I wouldn’t go that far but we’ll get there.  Up next FALL 2020, CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOURS NOW!

2020 Spring Box Reveal

Well if this isn’t the strangest Spring the OBX has ever seen… This box took on a special meaning with the closures and current situation and oddly it ended up being very fitting for the time! A locally made soap to keep your hands clean and moisturized, a zen doodle coloring book by a local OBX artist to keep you busy during quarantine, a print of a local painting of every visitor’s favorite signs, a shaker of the famous JK’s Seasoning to sprinkle on those home cooked quarantine meals, a pint glass from our local wind powered brewery to power down with, a sticker for your water bottle created from a local artist and reminding you that you belong somewhere you feel free and the final addition was a last minute add and a real family affair… On the day we decided to pack the boxes we decided that if our guests couldn’t make it to the OBX right now that we would at least send a little bit of the OBX to you, we gathered all 4 kids and a friend, teenagers don’t do anything without a friend, and we filled 300 little mermaid boxes with sand and shells from the beach! I truly hope you enjoyed this box as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

Milk Street Soap

Milk Street Soap Website

Milk Street Soap Facebook

Milk Street Soap on Instagram

Milk Street Soap is a family business!

Milk Street Soap Co. is a well loved, fast growing, family owned, handcrafted soap company on The Outer Banks of North Carolina. Inspired by the extraordinary, waterfront town we belong to, we believe in the magic of majestic natural beauty, strong local communities, honest premium products and deeply satisfying relationships. We believe in the synergy of feeling, looking and doing your best!

We craft our bars and green living products in small, fresh batches, using only the most luxurious and meticulously sourced Earth Conscience ingredients; organic, sustainable, fair trade, animal friendly & honoring, and biodegradable. Everything counts in our bar, even the wrappers are post consumer and the ink compost-able. 

Kim began making soap because of skin issues in her family. Her little son had eczema in his bends and folds. They had tried many things with little return and the situation looked to be escalating to more medical intervention. Then, what seemed like an unrelated gift happened; a humble, beautiful, old library book with a soap recipe for just such a skin aliment in it. With the help of their local Island hardware store and a pantry full of organics, she made the first bar of soap (the now refined Mocha Milk soap bar). Toward the end of this first little wonky bar, they saw skin healing progress. Two bars later and they didn’t look back! 

This addition to the box ended up being the timeliest with all of the orders to wash your hands, we hope we could help keep your hands clean and moisturized while you are keeping yourself and your family safe!

Gypsy Blyss Sticker

GypsyBlyss on Facebook

GypsyBlyss on Instagram

Your beautiful turtle sticker was created using an original painting by OBX Local Artist, Mitzi Mager aka GypsyByss.  Mitzi’s love of art came at an early age from her grandmother who would entertain her with sketches and encourage her creativity.  From watercolors & acrylics to creating jewelry to resin creations she is best known for her love of ocean creatures, especially mermaids, and capturing their beauty on a variety of surfaces including surfboards.  You can find Mitzi on the beach sharing her passion by the way of art classes or on her school bus home on wheels creating art for local shops.

As the sticker says, You Belong Somewhere You Feel Free, we hope to see you all again real soon!

Carolina Coto Art – Zen Doodle Book

Carolina Coto Art Website

Carolina Coto Art on Facebook

Carolina Coto Art on Instagram

Carolina Coto was “born and raised” in Costa Rica, she now resided on the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina, where she moved to be with her (awesome) husband.

She is an artist at heart and an artist by profession; she graduated with a BFA with emphasis in painting from Universidad de Costa Rica in 2007.  Carolina has always had a penchant for traveling and it is evident in many of her works and sometimes her scenes are just the result of an artist’s imagination.

Her work is filled with contrasting colors, circles, spirals, dots and many other elements that are important symbols in her art and represent hope, positivity and dreams, among other things.  We included Carolina’s zen doodle book in our latest box and in our current times it seems even more fitting! 

We hope you will enjoy some peace and quiet with this book, we all deserve some peace right now.

Keith Fisher- One Gray Fish Art

One Gray Fish Art on Facebook

Keith Fisher is a recent Outer Banks resident, originally from Virginia Beach Keith moved down after retiring from the Marine Corps.  To Keith, art is therapy, in recovering from a stroke a little over a year ago a passion for painting that he had almost forgotten reemerged.  He’s been dabbling in several mediums, from oil pastels to watercolor and acrylics to oil paints, Keith is finding his footing in the art world and quite gracefully.  He titled the print you received in your OBX Box, “Welcome to Paradise” and it’s hard to think of a better name than that! 

Again this item ended up being as perfectly timed as the soap and the zen doodle book, as many folks are not able to get to their happy place right now we are so pleased to be able to send a little sign of happier times to come! See what we did there….

JKs Seasoning

JKs Seasoning Website

JKs Seasoning on Facebook

JK’s Cowboy Blend and Smoky Chipotle Seasoning are savory, crowd-pleasing offerings that have made them a national favorite. Sling it on ribs, poultry, steak, seafood for a tried and true great taste. Grill or bake to perfection. It’s that easy!

Winston-Salem, North Carolina native, J.K. Norfleet left the investment banking business after several years to pursue restaurant investments. Having been born into a food and entertainment-oriented family, he capitalized on his love and talent of cooking and opened JK’s Restaurant on the Outer Banks off the coast of North Carolina in 1984. He put JK’s Dry Rub Seasoning to use in the restaurant and given its popularity, he decided to market it and the seasoning can now be found in small specialty shops, supermarkets and online.

Long before the Outer Banks grew into the year-round coastal community it is today, JK’s Restaurant opened quietly in 1984 and rocked the seasonal dining available from the spring to late fall by offering a fine raw product, introducing live wood-fired grills and laying claim to its local audience by staying open year-round. Time has made such excellence and year-round availability more of the norm along the Banks, but anyone with long-time roots along these shores will testify to the fact that when JK’s opened, the dining and food culture along these treasured waters was transformed and there was no turning back.

Since we are all cooking more at home right now than ever before we hope you’ll enjoy some OBX flavor on your next meal!

Outer Banks Brewing Station

Outer Banks Brewing Station Website

OBBS on Facebook

OBBS on Instagram

OBBS on Trip Advisor

“INNOVATIVE BREWING, ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS”

The Outer Banks Brewing Station is the first wind powered brewery in the United States! We were also the first business to produce wind power on the Outer Banks. We pride ourselves in being innovative and conscious about the environment, while helping others learn as much as they can about renewable energy and sustainability. Want to know more about our Outer Banks wind powered brewery?

The restaurant and brewery began as a concept in 1992 while the founders, Eric Reece and Aubrey Davis were Peace Corps volunteers alongside Tina Mackenzie in Thailand. Aubrey had grown up spending summers at his grandparents’ place on the Outer Banks, and felt it was the perfect place to start a brew pub. The Outer Banks Brewing station is now a staple in the OBX restaurant landscape.

A must visit place on the OBX we hope you’ll be able to swing by and drop a few Brew Bucks soon!

Feeling like you missed out!!?? You don’t have to! We have a few extra Spring OBX Boxes ready to ship, ORDER HERE and let us send you a little piece of your happy place!

The Perfect OBX beach day Snack!

Spotlight Business from our Holiday OBX Box is The Outer Banks Beef Jerky Outlet

You opened your latest Beach Box and you found…..beef jerky?  

Yes! The beefy jerky was provided by Amy McDonnell, her father Vince, and husband Kevin McCoy from their shop, Beef Jerky Outlet – Outer Banks.

Just a sampling of the deliciousness that can be found at the MP4.5 location of The Beef Jerky Outlet OBX

Amy McDonnell first came to the Carolina coast in college when she was participating in a summer study program at Cape Lookout. Then following years of vacationing on the Outer Banks, she and Kevin moved here full-time in December of 2016.

Originally from just outside Chicago, Amy and husband Kevin, who is from Northeastern Tennessee, lived in the Washington DC area for 12 years before making the move to the Outer Banks. And once they did, they wasted no time. A short 7 months later (June of 2017) they opened their first Beef Jerky Outlet location at milepost 4.5 in Kitty Hawk. Then just a year later the family opened another location in Corolla.

Kevin introduces the OBX to the delicious Beef Jerky Outlet jerky!

Beefy Jerky may seem like a strange business to be involved in, but Amy says it really isn’t. “My husband (Kevin) has always been a fan of jerky and especially loves Beef Jerky Outlet jerky. We looked into it and found it was a small, family-run company that makes their own jerky in Tennessee and Michigan. We liked the product and the people, and we wanted to introduce the entire Outer Banks to the best jerky in the world!”

But you will find more than just beef jerky at the Beef Jerky Outlet. For the more adventurous eaters, they also have a wide variety of wild game jerky. Consider trying elk, bison, alligator, and kangaroo. You can also find sauces and seasonings along with an assortment of popcorns, hot sauces, jams, jellies and a whole lot more.

Both Amy and Kevin are practicing lawyers in addition to owning and operating their Beef Jerky Outlet stores and they want to stress that they have a great team at the stores and couldn’t do this without them.

Looking for an interesting jerky fact you can use to amaze you’re family and friends? It takes 3 pounds of meat to make 1 pound of jerky!

The Beefy Jerky Outlet – Outer Banks ships and can be reached at (252) 715-5800. Find them on the web at beefjerkyoutlet.com/kittyhawk and give them a follow on Instagram @obxjerky and Facebook @OuterBanksJerky

Blog Written by: Greg Smrdel
Winner – 2019 Best of the Beach – Local Author
www.gregsmrdel.com

FB @GSmrdel

IG @GSmrdel
www.amazon.com/author/gregsmrdel