Farmhouse Kitchen, May 2025
Linda Seymore has always called east Winston County home. A stone’s throw from the Cullman County line, Linda and her late husband, Hershel, raised their family in Nesmith, just 2 miles from her home community of Hog Jaw.
The daughter of a cotton, corn and chicken farmer, Linda said it was fitting she married Hershel, who grew the same crops.
In 54 years of marriage, the Seymores built a legacy of faith, farming and family. Their close-knit crew includes three sons, three daughters-in-law, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren (five of whom are under 3 years old!).
You’re sharing sweet treat recipes…but we hear your family makes finger-lickin’ barbecue, too.
Seymore’s Bar-B-Q is not open all the time, but once a week, we take orders. We do some catering, too. The kids pitch in and help with that. All the grandkids and all the great-grands are around up there at the café.
Everybody loves the smoked chicken. Of course, white sauce goes with it. We usually do baked beans and slaw and rolls. I’ve started making homemade rolls, and everybody likes them. We do a lot of barbecue and baked potatoes with chicken or pork. One of the biggest sellers is chicken and dressing.
How did y’all get started?
Hershel started the barbecue. One time, we went over to Ripley, Mississippi, to a flea market. There was a guy who had some barrels and had made smokers out of them. We bought one, and Hershel started smoking Boston butts for the church and other people.
Where did you first get the recipes you’re sharing?
I started making chocolate (and coconut) pies when I was a teenager. I don’t know where I got the recipe then, but I tweaked it to the way I do it. I got the strawberry pizza out of a telephone company cookbook. They suggested making it in a pizza pan. I had to come up with a way to do it and sell it more easily. I make it all the time in those half-pans you use in a restaurant. I’ve started in the last few months making individual pizzas. We usually take orders around Thanksgiving and Fourth of July. I’ve made nearly 30 whole strawberry pizzas one holiday before. I’ve made it using peaches and blueberries, too. People like that.
Can you really make pie filling in the microwave?
Yes! I cook my filling for pies in a big bowl in the microwave. I cooked them on the stove years ago, but coconut is easy to scorch if you don’t stand and keep it stirred. I found out you could cook them in the microwave. Just take them out and stir a couple of times. I take it out when it gets thick and stir in some butter.
You can turn chocolate pie into a coconut pie by leaving out the cocoa powder and adding 1 cup of coconut. Then, sprinkle coconut on top of your meringue before baking.
Tell us about your fried pies.
I usually try to put a bunch of apple pie filling in the freezer in the summer. I peel them, cut them up and cook them for a good while. I put the sugar and cinnamon in once they start getting soft. You have to really keep them stirred or they’ll scorch. I use the Texas buttermilk biscuits to make the pies. You can’t get them everywhere. I’ve found Walmart doesn’t carry them.
We used to raise money at church and at the community center by making fried pies. To build our fellowship hall, women of the church quilted and made fried apple pies and sold them for $1 a piece. People would buy as many as they could get. We made as many as 1,000 in a couple of days.
What are some of your other talents?
I’ve made every one of the great-grands a quilt. I used Hershel’s old shirts and made them a quilt so they’d have something to remember him by. I’ve made several aprons from men’s shirts. You cut the back out, leave the collar and use the sleeves to make the ties.