Upstate Farm Tour part 1

Every summer locals (and visitors) to the Upstate have the unique opportunity to tour dozens of sustainable farms right here in our backyard; not only to discover the delicious meat, dairy, fruits, veggies and other commodities produced right here in the Upstate, but also to learn more about the workings of our local farms and to stock up on all sorts of goodies! This annual self-guided tour is organized by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA), a farmer-driven, membership-based non-profit organization that helps people in the Carolinas grow and eat local, organic foods by advocating for fair farm and food policies, building the systems family farms need to thrive, and educating communities about local, organic agriculture.

City Scape Winery pet goats

Participating in the Upstate Farm Tour is simple. We bought our button (a ticket, if you will) at Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery, then downloaded the Upstate Farm Tour Guide. The guide includes a map and description of the participating farms, and we chose four to five to visit each day (Saturday and Sunday, 1-6pm). Then on the weekend you load up the car and take off, remembering to bring a cooler so that you can take home some of the fresh farm products available for sale at the various farms. Shortly after lunch Saturday we headed east from Greenville to Woodruff SC, home of Kornerstone Farms – one of the 7 new stops on this year’s tour. It isn’t possible to visit all 20+ stops in the two days as they are spread throughout Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Oconee, Pickens, Greenville, Laurens, Greenwood and Spartanburg Counties, so we had chosen an itinerary based on clusters of farms. Family owned and operated, it was members of the Kaiser family who gave us the tour, showing us first the 6 acres of forest where their pork products originate, next their free range laying hens, then finally their pastured meat birds, which we visited via hay ride to the back pasture. Items for sale included eggs, chicken, pork, turkey and goat milk soaps.

Kornerstone Farm hay ride

A short car ride away in Gray Court was our second stop for the day, Bethel Trails Farm. Another small family farm, the animals are raised without the use of hormones and antibiotics, free ranging on pasture. Several popular Greenville restaurants including Stella’s and Bacon Bros. Public House use Bethel Trails as a source for their meat, which was also available for purchase on location. The boys were most intrigued by the guard emu, which protects the animals from predators.

Bethel Trails Farm emu

Not an official stop on the 9^th Annual Upstate Farm Tour, but necessary to stave off farm tour revolt was a stop at Happy Cow Creamery. With an on-the-farm milk bottling operation the farm can offer fresh milk directly from its own dairy cows: whole milk, chocolate milk, cultured buttermilk, and strawberry milk are just a few of the products offered at the on-site-store. We settled in at a picnic table adjacent to the pasture with vanilla ice cream, and cheese and milk were tucked into the cooler before we continued west to our next stop.

Happy Cow Creamery store

At the City Scape Winery in Pelzer we strolled through rows of muscadine grapes and sampled a few wines made of local grapes as well as blackberries and peaches. The kids had a blast feeding the pet goats, and although they were a tad disappointed the fantastic-looking tree house was roped off (safety first!) they were quickly distracted by running up and down the rows of grapes. Yes, those were my kids. No, they didn’t tear anything up. Yes, we bought a few bottles of wine to make up for our sporadic participation in the tour.

City Scape Winery

Our final Saturday stop was to the distinctively-named Possum Kingdom Kreamery. Named for the community near Anderson that is found by following the directions "just up the road a ways" or "just down the road a ways” depending on whether you ask the folks down or up the road, the physical address is in Belton, SC. A raw milk dairy and creamery, we saw goats, free range hens, ducks, Teddy the guard llama and a couple of Drum Horses. This relatively rare breed of horse gets its name from the two large solid silver kettle Drums they carry in addition to a fully outfitted rider in the Queen of England’s Band of the Life Guards. Controlled entirely by reins attached to their rider’s feet, their calm and quiet disposition was noticeable on our visit. However the llama was pretty calm and quiet too – I’m thinking it might have something to do with the serene surroundings. In addition to artisan cheeses and goat milk products for sale, there were a few other local vendors selling produce, including peaches from Gray Court which we enthusiastically added to our stash. After feeding the boys a snack and choosing a feta in smoked olive oil and a goat cheese spread from the creamery for our cooler, we were on our way north back to Greenville…

Stay tuned for part two of the 9^th Annual Upstate Farm Tour, including Berry Acres, Forx Farm, Split Creek Farm, Lucky Acres Farm and the Seneca Treehouse Project!

GTCHS Barton Community Garden

This time of year the garden is changing its appearance so very quickly, with every ray of sunlight, every afternoon shower bringing forth more leaves, another vine, flowers and fruit. Our garden is hardly recognizable from the pictures I took of it a month ago, and I expect the next couple of weeks to bring even more changes as the tomatoes finally start ripening and the zucchini producing. I only mention this because today I’m taking you on a tour of a community garden in the Upstate; however, the pictures are from our visit almost a month ago, and so please keep that in mind as we tour the Barton Community Garden.

The Greenville Technical College campus is also home to the Greenville Technical Charter High School. The Barton Community Garden was established there with the mission to “collectively serve the GTC community with vegetables, fruit and flowers. We envision staff, faculty, and students involved in planning, planting, weeding, watering, harvesting, preserving and eating our produce.”

On a sunny spring day the head gardener Jason Schmidt took the time to give the boys a complete tour of the garden. We started with the raised beds, built much higher and larger than usual to prevent leeching from the ground; the college was built on what used to be a landfill. While learning about some of the herbs that had overwintered in the beds, they took turns smelling and tasting each one. It was interesting to see which they recognized, which they eagerly tasted and which earned the funniest faces. Next the boys munched on snap peas while talking about insects.

We keep it super simple with our garden at home, so the boys were interested to see the different equipment utilized in the raised beds, including hoops for transforming the beds into mini greenhouses during the cooler months and irrigation systems. One of the raised beds had been sectioned off in a perfect example of square foot gardening. It turned out we were a day late in our visit, as the seedlings had already been planted by students and volunteers. However, there is always something for little hands to do in a garden…

The compost bin needed to be turned, and the boys were just the crew for the job. The got a close-up look at the black soil on the bottom of the bin as compared to the greens that had most recently been added. The inhabitants of the bin also proved fascinating to the three kids, who were excited to learn Jason had more worms in worm farms inside.

After checking out the worms living in the classroom, taking a look at the fungi being cultivated by the students and learning a bit about worms and what it takes to grow them, it was time to go back outside. With our tour officially over, the boys were off to climb the giant boulders while the adults continued their gardening discussions.

The garden is intended as a teaching garden for Greenville Technical College and GTCHS students. That being said if you are interested in lending a hand (or green thumb!) to the Barton Community Garden, please visit the Greenville Tech website for more information.

Music Adventure

A few weeks ago we joined in on a Music Adventure under the giant oak at our friends’ property in Piedmont. It could not have been a nicer day for outdoor learn & play, and WolfOak was the perfect spot for this musical journey with Lynne Holcombe!

We’ve attended the Music Adventure! music sessions in West Greenville previously. The in-studio classes take place at The Wheel* in the Village Arts District and are for kids ages 8 and under. These classes have a max limit of 8 kids and are tailored to specific age groups, so it was interesting to see how the dynamics of a large group changed the program.

The kids were enamored with Lynn; she was the pied piper leading them on a musical playdate complete with singing, dancing, drumming, parachuting and parading! Parents are welcome to participate although we mostly elected to enjoy the moment from afar, snapping pictures and grinning at the antics of our little musicians.

Although the session wrapped up far too quickly for the likes of Lauris and Mikus, they were in need of a break… enter the Nomadik Few with their gourmet shaved ice! I don’t know how Mark arranged this double treat, but he deserves a pat on the back for giving the kids exactly what they wanted on a warm, sunny day – outdoor play and a cool treat! With more than two dozen organic and sugar free flavors, the shaved ice is served with fully biodegradable bowls, spoons and straws. Nomadic Few are available for catering, bringing their unique (and built from 100% reclaimed wood) mobile hut along for the full experience.

If you’re interested to learn more about the Music Adventures program please visit www.lynneholcombe.com or www.facebook.com/thewheelgreenville. Lynne also teaches private lessons for all ages in piano, guitar, banjo, ukulele and general music theory; “Music Adventure sessions cover a wide range of concepts and topics including exploration of rhythm, melody, tone, dynamics, tempo, harmony, texture, theory, history, cultures, themes, rhymes, and other basic music elements through age appropriate use of songs, instruments, stories, puppets, dance, movement, improvisation, numbers, letters, colors, kindness, sharing, team work, problem solving, listening, interacting with props, fellow music lovers and adventure!”

*Side note on The Wheel – you may remember I wrote about taking a tour of Eliza Lord’s home garden here in Greenville. It turns out the garden in the lot next door to the music studio is the Appalachian Feet teaching garden, with weekly gardening times on Wednesdays at 4pm. For more information visit www.appalachianfeet.com or www.facebook.com/appalachianfeet. An example of upcoming classes is Saturday’s “Farmscaping: How to Get Plants to Manage Their Own Pests, Diseases, Weeds, and Moisture.”

Caesars Head, SC

If there is one place on the Blue Ridge Escarpment you take your visitors to Greenville, it should be Caesars Head State Park.

The park is only a 45 minute drive from downtown and amenities include ample parking, a visitor center, restrooms and an easy to walk to what is possibly the best view of the Upstate. We usually stop at a half-dozen other places along the way including Bald Rock, Wildcat Branch Falls and Table Rock, but Caesars Head is the feather in the cap of our tour of the mountain region of South Carolina.

It doesn’t matter if there are very young children or less-able hikers in your group, as it is only a couple hundred feet from the parking lot to the overlook. Even the added loop of descending through the Devil’s Kitchen for the view of Caesars Head from the side is a relatively easy walk, suitable for the young and old.

We enjoy packing a snack for one of the picnic tables up top, which barring heavy winds or extreme cold are the perfect spot to relax and take in the view. If you visit on the right day in mid-September you might see hundreds of broad-winged hawks in migration, peregrine falcons being another common sight.

Caesars Head and Jones Gap State Park form the 11,000-acre Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area and are connected by several hiking trails, while less than a mile away is the parking area for the trails to Raven Cliff Falls and the falls overlook. Beyond that is the NC/SC state line and the Eastern US Continental Divide, and even further north is DuPont State Forest, the home to dozens of waterfalls (that you might recognize from The Hunger Games). Whether it’s a day trip from Greenville, a stop on the way north or just a weekend trip, the Blue Ridge Escarpment and Caesars Head offer a remarkable view of the Upstate, one that should not be missed. 

Sweets, eats and ales in Travelers Rest

With my sister and her husband in town from New York City, it was no surprise that we tried a few restaurants in addition to the favorites. On previous trips we had done the barbecue at Henry’s Smokehouse (a favorite spot of mine), and on their most recent trip we had already checked out the Thoroughfare food truck on Thursday night at Quest Brewing. It was on our excursion up north, to Pretty Place and the Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area that we checked a few more places off our list, with stops in Traveler’s Rest, the gateway to the Blue Ridge.

First we stopped at Upcountry Provisions Bakery & Bistro to “provision” ourselves for the long trip up into the mountains. The croissants and cinnamon buns are always a hit with the boys, and the adults tried out a variety of sandwiches which were as appetizing as they were fresh. Fabled Pretty Place was all it had been described to be, and after stops at Caesars Head and Bald Rock we had again worked up an appetite. As a treat for the youngest of the travelers we headed first to Cool Mama's Ice Cream. Previously Trailside Creamery with only soft-serve ice cream, I think Cool Mama’s has a good chance with a full selection of flavors. On these hot summer days it’s just the place to recuperate after a day hiking Jones Gap or biking the Swamp Rabbit Trail – on the porch with a waffle cone of espresso ice cream watching the traffic on the trail is the essence of a lazy summer evening in the Upstate.

Although we partook in the ice cream-eating, the adults were far from sated; as it was just a matter of crossing the street, we cut across US-276 to Swamp Rabbit Brewery and Taproom. A relatively new addition to the TR scene, the brewery opened early in 2014 and has been promoting local brews since! The brewery was installed by Ben Pierson, a classically trained brewer with 30 years experience who honed his craft in Germany. Adjacent to Shortfields, a driveway on the south side of the building leads past a mural and wall of hops to a parking lot in back, often sporting a food truck as the brewery is BYOF, bring your own food. (The mural by Brigitte Selby includes a barrel as a nod to the history of moonshining in the region that gave the “dark corner” its nickname, a rabbit in honor of the Swamp Rabbit Trail, and the bars on the window remain from the building’s previous incarnation as a post office.)

On our visit it was Ray’s Mobile Food & Mo. cooking up some delicious eats, with a menu full of southern favorites such as fried mac & cheese and burgers. We settled in on the back porch with a beer while we waited on our food and the boys played board games. The brewery has a changing menu of beers on tap, with a tasting menu for those looking to get a wider appreciation of the choices and still emerge (somewhat) sober. We dug into our food as the place filled up with the evening crowd, the stools around the bar remaining full all evening, and reluctantly left before the children made themselves unwelcome.

Watching the game at IPA

It was shortly before our guests left to return to New York that we ducked into Independent Public Alehouse for ale and appetizers (not quite Travelers Rest, but on the way north on 276!). Someday we’ll make it back for the live music, but until that time I’ll be content tasting my way through their menu, this time trying out a starter that I wouldn’t have tried without the urging of Andrejs - “Oysterhead” (fried golden oysters with horseradish sauce). The oysters and the fried green tomatoes with spicy pimento cheese were delicious, tiding us over until dinner later that evening – served on the porch overlooking the backyard, enjoying each other’s company with the convenience of beds to put the boys in once they dozed. The next morning Anna and Andrejs were off, much too soon for the three sad munchkins left waving goodbyes in the yard… Hopefully they’ll come back soon so we can continue our tour of Upstate breweries, restaurants and food trucks!