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12 THEMILLMAGAZINE.COM EDITION 13 NO. 3 STAPLES a MTMTHEMILLMAGAZINEEDITION13NO.3 WE ARE SOCIAL, TOO. JOIN THE CONVERSATION @themillmag PUBLISHER MarketStyleMedia EDITOR IN CHIEF TraceyRoman COMMUNITY EDITOR AubreyDucane CONTRIBUTINGPHOTOGRAPHERSWRITERSADVERTISING ad.sales@themillmagazine.com803-619-0491 ©2022 THE MILL MAGAZINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. THE MILL MAGAZINE DOES NOT NECESSARILY ENDORSE THE VIEWS AND PERCEPTIONS OF ADVERTISERS. BrookeCagleStaplesJerryBrunswickCandaceMattinglyWilliamEmersonAspenPlummerSydneyRiggsKimDanielsTheMatterOfFood
13STAPLES EDITION 13 NO. 3 THEMILLMAGAZINE.COM p.18LOCALThink First eaturesTF p.46p.32 TAILGATING CAROLINA STYLE HomesteadingSuburbanFermentingandCanning p.60 SeaTableto A AMERICANOFREBIRTHTHEFISH ll
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16 THEMILLMAGAZINE.COM EDITION 13 NO. 3 inspiringSTAPLES small town living Character CHARACTER ∙ BACKYARD ∙ TEXTURE ∙ PROVISIONS
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LOCALThinkFirst by Candace Mattingly
ocalism starts with you -- THE LOCALIST. The way we interact with our neighbors, neighborhoods, and towns affects our lives and the lives of others. Everything we do at home and in our surrounding area matters -- all of it. The places we choose to spend our money, how we connect to other community members, and the way we use the land reflect the type of society we want to create.
Text
L
19STAPLES EDITION 13 NO. 3 THEMILLMAGAZINE.COM Photo by Brooke Cagle.
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The study found “reliable declines” in protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B2, and vitamin C. The study concluded that the “efforts to breed new varieties of crops that provide greater yield, pest resistance, and climate adaptability have allowed crops to grow bigger and more rapidly, but their ability to manufacture or uptake nutrients has not kept pace with their rapid
Relationships are the bedrock of a community. Small town living is about knowing your neighbors. Buying from local entrepreneurs helps maintain a town’s unique flavor. Maintaining that unique culture starts with your actions and the way you strengthen or weaken the fabric of your town. Your everyday decisions reflect the community and cause powerful ripple effects in every aspect of a culture. One commitment to your community spreads the idea that localism matters. How you serve your community matters. Why you choose to participate is up to you.
Donald Davis and his team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry published a study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition on the nutritional data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on 43 different vegetables and fruits from 1950 and 1999.
Photo by Brooke Cagle.
Preventative care begins with the food you eat. Eating food from local farms is not only good for the local economy and the farmer, but it serves your body’s well-being too. Buying from a local farmer gives you direct access to fruits and vegetables that are at their peak time for Foodsconsumption.thatare grown chemical-free contain the most benefits and vitamins for your health. Fruit and vegetables from the farm and from the supermarket may visually appear similar, however, the taste and nutrients vastly differ.
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YOUR HEALTH
Commercialgrowth.”farmsneed to meet a quota to keep up with demand. Their goal is to improve production and streamline processes. If more demand for their product means squeezing
Photo by Brooke Cagle. out the nutrition, then that is the business decision that is made. Small farms do not have to keep up with mass production. They can take care of their growing process to protect the purity of the food they grow and their career. These farmers are also your greatest ally. Their livelihood depends on people purchasing their goods.
DIVERSE OPTIONS
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Today, it feels like we have a million choices, but really it is only a preference of a few options. Do you want the original Nacho Cheese Doritos or one of the other sixteen flavors? Local shops bring the individuality that is missing from big box stores like Target and Walmart. You can visit any Target and generally find the same items for sale. Independent retailers carry a smaller selection, but the discovery and diversity of selection cultivate culture. Each item in their store is hand-picked for local customers. Cobble together enough local businesses to replace the need for the big box stores and suddenly you have a vast array of options. Artisan maker and entrepreneur opportunities also open up. They are no longer competing against massive brands and need to shell out thousands of dollars for an opportunity to undercut their business to land on the biggest shelves in the world -ThisWalmart.big-box store is not only the largest retail store in the world, it’s the world’s largest company. Bigger than General Motors and ExxonMobil. They were able to achieve it with one business strategy -- deliver the lowest price to their customer at all cost.
At all cost. This was a lesson that was learned by national brands like Vlasic pickles. In the late 1990s, they struck a deal with Walmart to sell their novelty gallon jars in the store priced
Anyone that came of age during the height of music CD sales in the 1990s knows the chain stores Sam Goody, Camelot Music, and Musicland. They can also tell you that they went to those stores to buy the latest top-selling albums, but asked the advice of the music nerd at the local independent record shop for the coolest, underground CDs.
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Photo by Brooke Cagle.
Like corporate farmers, when a business needs to turn a profit or go out of business, they are forced to meet the pricing demands of their distributor. Makers in every department were forced to lay off American workers, close plants, and move their operations overseas.
just under three dollars. The pickles flew off the shelves. The store and the pickle company were only making about a penny per jar, but they were selling 240,000 jars a week. Both companies were happy. That is until the gallon novelty jar started eating into their profit margin. Customers stopped buying the high-profit margin items like pickle spears and hamburger chips in favor of the low-low-priced gallon jars. Vlasic saw its profit plummet by more than 25 percent. When they asked Walmart for relief, Steve Young, a former vice president of grocery marketing for pickles at Vlasic, recalled to Fast Company that their response was, “If you do that, all the other products of yours we buy, we’ll stop buying.’ It was a clear threat.”
Walmart finally gave Vlasic a reprieve and allowed them to change the size of the jar to just over a half-gallon. Young recalled their response was, “Well, we’ve done to pickles what we did to orange juice. We’ve killed it. We can back off.” Vlasic filed for bankruptcy in January 2001. JOBS
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Carolina Mills, a leader in textiles headquartered in Maiden, North Carolina supplies thread, yarn, and textiles to apparel makers. The company supplies about half of the makers that are distributed by Walmart. The pricing affects their business, too. As their customers moved overseas, their business dropped off. The company was forced to reduce to 1,200 employees from 2,600 and 7 factories from 17. They were also forced to move their production to Asia.
CREATE
The number one thing you can do to help your community create jobs is to stop shopping at Walmart. Vlasic is not the only company squeezed out by the big box store. Walmart favors low prices and requires their vendors to drop their prices every year they do business together. That means less profit for the makers.
a MTM Photo by Aspen Plummer.
Make a concerted effort to take the extra ten minutes and dine at a local restaurant. Drive the extra twelve minutes to the store with inadequate parking. Buy your insurance from a local broker, and get your taxes done by an independent CPA. Every choice you make builds or breaks the community. The community depends on you. These businesses depend on you. You owe it to yourself to consider the quality of experience, customer service, and variety these small independents bring to the community.
26 THEMILLMAGAZINE.COM EDITION 13 NO. 3 STAPLES
THINK LOCAL FIRST
Freedom of choice at a big box store is a fallacy. Purchasing that shirt also bought by three of your neighbors is like shopping at Camelot Music for that new Britney Spears album. When you could have had a unique shirt and The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs
The independent retailer is also more likely to source from other local companies and return three times as much money per dollar of sales back to the local community. Local restaurants return more than double per dollar than national food chains. When you’re asked for the name of your favorite restaurant, what is the first place that comes to mind? Over ninety percent of you will recall your favorite local cafe or family-owned restaurant. We are naturally drawn to a unique place where people know our name. Yet, we’ve been conditioned to think of chain restaurants when we’re hungry.
Small businesses are invested in their community. They support local nonprofits, little league teams, and buy girl scout cookies. They also employ over 77 million Americans, will never send their business overseas, and account for 65 percent of all new jobs created in the past 17 Doyears.them
a favor and stop “showrooming” in their stores to find a better deal online. This is one of the biggest problems small businesses face. Over 80 percent of small businesses are affected by this tactic to save a few bucks. It significantly impacts 47 percent of small businesses. It’s the little changes that make the greatest impact. A study in San Francisco found that if only 10 percent of the dollars spent went into small businesses, there would be 1,300 new jobs and $192 million in additional economic activity.
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rowing up, if I was hungry, I went to the refrigerator and grabbed something to eat. When I was at my Granny’s house, she would send me into the storeroom. I never really thought about the difference in the homes until a few years ago when I did a homestay on a homestead in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. The homesteaders were diligent in using everything they harvested and collected from the various animals across their land.
Text by Jery Brunswick ll
HomesteadingSuburbanFermentingandCanning
The time on the homestead began the deconstruction of what I was taught by modern society as the “right” way to keep and prepare food.
Two images come to mind when I think about Survivalists, the reality show Survivor, and the crazy family that live in the woods wearing military gear with shelves filled with MREs, which are Meals Ready to Eat carried by soldiers at war. This is my own association with Survivalists and I know that it is not true because I know Survivalists that are regular people with homes in the suburbs and corporate jobs. They are prepared for hurricanes, tornados, and other unforeseeable emergency situations. My own journey took me towards homesteading because I want to live as local as possible and the best way to accomplish that is to learn the skills needed to store locally gathered Ifoods.amnot a traditional homesteader, but I implement the ideas into my life. I live in a small town surrounded by small farms. My backyard contains what I’ll call a hobby garden where I grow cabbage, cucumbers, and a few other foods that I like to eat. My electricity is supplemented by solar and wind power. Leftover foods go into my compost which makes the soil used in my garden. I bake my own bread, make my own laundry detergent, and treat ailments with homemade remedies. Photo by Sydney Riggs.
Survival preparation and homesteading are two sides of the same coin, however, they have two different outcomes. A survivalist stores items to survive for a few days until they are rescued. Homesteaders grow their own food, often care for their own farm animals, and store items to live on without the need for rescue.
My curiosity was set on fire, not because they told me they consciously used everything, but because of a jar of pickles that was left in my room one night. The jar was warm and my first instinct was to put it in the fridge. Then, I realized that the homestead didn’t have a “normal” refrigerator in the house. When I was young, we were not allowed to leave anything out while cooking or preparing a meal. My mother was terrified that leaving the butter on the counter would spoil it. Bacteria were the enemy, and refrigeration and heat were our allies.
HOMESTEADING IS MORE THAN SURVIVAL
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WHY FERMENTATION?
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Where I fall short on my own property, due to space, complete knowledge, and time, I work with my local farmers. My neighborhood doesn’t allow farm animals, so I am unable to keep chickens and other animals on my property. Therefore, I need to purchase items like eggs and meat elsewhere. Building a relationship with local farmers places comfort in my mind that if anything happens I will still be on their shortlist to continue to gather eggs, other vegetables, and meat. While that comfort is there, I am also prepared to go without the support of the farmers. I am building the skills and the knowledge to live off the land if needed. These are the proteins that we would not think about eating in modern society, but if the push comes to survive, then they are viable options.
Sandor’s journey began in the early 1990s when he moved from New York City to rural Cannon County outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Sandor’s interest in fermentation happened one day when he found an old crock pot in his acquired garage and harvested cabbage from his garden. He had a particularly fruitful harvest and decided to try making sauerkraut. Sandor moved to the country to focus on his health and more importantly his nutritional health. He chopped up the cabbage, salted it, and waited, “That first kraut tasted so alive and powerfully nutritious. Its sharp flavor sent my salivary glands into a frenzy and got me hooked on fermentation,” he says. In the decades since, he has experimented with fermenting a wide range of fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, milk, meat, and more. His book The Art of Fermentation is known as the most comprehensive guide to learning how to ferment at home. Sandor covers the most important concepts and processes for fermenting all kinds of foods and drinks.
Photo by The Matter of Food.
After learning the basics of fermentation from my homestay, I bought a book called The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World by Sandor Ellix Katz, a fermentation revivalist who is nicknamed Sandorkraut.
FERMENTATION
Fermentation preserves food and its nutrients through a process called Lacto-fermentation, where natural bacteria feed on the sugars and starches already present in the food to create lactic acid. Lactic acid is a preservative that is also beneficial to the human digestive system
Think about that! Would you take $2,500 out of your bank account and use it as kindling?
I remember the yogurt explosion and the sales pitch to eat yogurt because the enzymes and probiotics are good for your digestion. What is interesting is that fermented foods have long been a huge part of cultures around the world. It is our modern society that removed them from our natural way of life. My Granny’s storeroom was closer to eating local and organic than anything that I could buy at my local supermarket chain. She was raised to be budget conscious, she was also eating better than the rest of us. As my mother worried about bacteria finding their way into the butter set on the counter, while regularly feeding us Happy Meals; I realize that she may have been worried about the wrong foods.
Did you know that you can butter? I just learned this. Canning is relatively new to my repertoire of suburban homesteading. It’s a skill that I wish I had taken the time to learn from my Granny. The times that I went into the storeroom and climbed over her various goods to reach a jar of spaghetti sauce on the shelf and never once did I think that this was a skill that I should know.
The probiotics in fermented foods help balance the digestive system and help reverse some diseases without the need for medicine. The enzymes help your body absorb more nutrients from the locally grown, fresh food you eat. The best part of fermentation is that the food is preserved and can last for months at a time, which helps to cut down on budget and resource waste.
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The average American family wastes up to $2,500 a year on uneaten and thrown away food.
Of course Fermentationnot!allows you to save money, preserve food, improve your health, and eat more locally grown foods year-round. If the sharp, sour taste of fermentation does not sit well with your palette, that’s okay because you can also try canning.
Canning is one step beyond cooking that preserves the food for future use. Think about the grocery store and all the soups, sauces, vegetables, etcetera that you can buy. These goods
CANNING
containing Omega-3 fatty acids, b-vitamins, enzymes, and various strains of probiotics.
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Water bath canning is best for high-acid foods that use a shorter, low-temperature canning process. The bacteria are killed by the high acidity level naturally occurring in the food. This method can be used for fruits and fruit-based foods like jams, tomato-based foods like sauces and salsas, as well as condiments and pickles.
Grocery store cans are lined with chemicals and do not retain the nutritional value of the food. Unlike when you make it at home and control the entire process. I use Ball glass jars because the wide mouth on the jar is perfect for almost every type of food. To keep the food from spoiling, there are two main methods used: water bath canning and pressure canning.
Foods with low acidity like meats, poultry, seafood, and vegetables require the pressure canning method. This process heats the jars and their contents to 240 degrees Fahrenheit ensuring the foods stay fresh and bacteria-free. When you mix low-acidity foods with highacidity foods, the pressure canning method is required as there is not enough high acidity to protect all the food.
are not the cheapest items, however, if you were to buy the base items in bulk and make them yourself, you would save money.
Before you begin, you’ll want to invest in a Canning Kit that comes with a funnel, tools to pick up the hot jars called kitchen tongs, and the pressure cooker canner or bath canner.
Back to canning butter. Frozen butter keeps for five to six months. Canned butter has a shelf life of a few years. That is a bit nuts and something that I will be doing this weekend.
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As I become more aware of what I eat, the less I want to make the trip to the grocery store and the more I want to improve my health through food. Any version of homesteading is possible, as long as you have storage space for all the jars.
Learning fermentation and canning allows me to live more locally and sustainably in my small town. There are fewer runs to the grocery store to pick up items that I need for a meal.
Photo by Kim Daniels.
LOCAL AND SUSTAINABLE
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44 THEMILLMAGAZINE.COM EDITION 13 NO. 3 inspiringSTAPLES small town culture Texture CHARACTER ∙ BACKYARD ∙ TEXTURE ∙ PROVISIONS
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A TAILGATING CAROLINA STYLE
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Text by William Emerson s we walked through the tunnel, the sound of our cleats echoed off the walls; a roaring, thundering, herd of 105 young men ready for battle. Tearing through the paper banners onto the field, lights beaming down on us, and the crowd deafening our arrival. The fans roared with full stomachs and a few too many beverages. Cheering every play, the crowd spent their Saturday with a community of their peers to participate in an American sporting Inpastime.allthe years I played football, I never had the opportunity to enjoy tailgating. Now, I return to my alma mater for the cherished American tradition of tailgating, football, and comradery. Before the teams bear down on the gridiron, the parking lot is filled with fanatics donning school colors, the company of their friends, food, and drink. A ritual repeated every weekend of a home game. National Tailgating Day is the first Saturday in September, so prep your grill and your team jersey to kick off the season right. Carrying on with American traditions; I encourage you to bring it Carolina-style.
47STAPLES EDITION 13 NO. 3 THEMILLMAGAZINE.COM (Left) Weber 22 in. Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill Crimson | $239 | Available Online Only at blackhawkhardware.com. (Right) South Carolina Gamecocks Day Off Side Split Pullover | $56 | and Clemson Tigers Mineral Wash Slouchy V-Neck | $46.99 | Gameday Couture.
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SeaTableto A REBIRTH OF THE AMERICAN FISH
riday night, we went out for sushi. I love a delicate cut of fresh fish and prefer to order a simple maki or sashimi. In my post-meal stupor I began to wonder, where did the fish come from?
My brain processed the information. Sushi is Japanese. Did the fish come from Japan or was the fish from America? If it is from Japan, was it fished in the area of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster? That was a few years ago, but it’s radiation. I don’t know the half-life of radiation, but people in Hiroshima are still sick from the Atomic bombs. Is radiation as poisonous as the Atomic bomb? Text by William Emerson FF
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I couldn’t immediately answer these questions as they kept me up that night. I grabbed my phone and turned to Google for my midnight answers. My phone wasn’t fast enough, so I got up and went to my laptop. As the sun stabbed me in the eye, I realized that I had lost a night of sleep over this one meal. I care about the food that I put into my body and didn’t even think twice about the fish at the sushi restaurant… because it is fish. Fish is good for you!
As the sky turns from night to dawn, the fishermen set off in search of their harvest. Often gone for several days at a time without a guarantee of finding the ocean’s bounty, the life of a fisherman is a daily gamble. Their workplace is as unpredictable as their potential income.
I discovered that more than 90 percent of consumed seafood in the United States is imported from places like China, the Mediterranean, South America, and Australia. Most of the food offered to us comes from other countries. The government even blocked labeling that would tell us where our food originated. This concerns me and I am not alone.
People are already creating ways for us to continue our love for seafood while creating sustainable and regional supply chains. Technology, alliances, and awareness make a rebirth in the American fishing industry possible.
COMMUNITY SUPPORTED FISHING
In Beaufort, South Carolina, Captain Laten “Pops” Reaves doesn’t shy away from life as a fisherman. He began working on boats when he was 13 years old. By 16, he was the captain of the Cheryl Ann. He’s trawled for shrimp from Mexico to Virginia, “a seaman is someone that has to love the ocean, has to know what the ocean can do, and respect it. You got to know a little bit about everything. You got to be an engineer. You got to be a navigator. All in one package.” Pops has lost toes and his favorite shrimping boat to the sea, but he prefers not to dwell on the negative. The original company he founded in 1970, Reaves Brother’s Seafood in Holden Beach, North Carolina, has grown to a four-generation company with a mission to change the seafood business model. Over the past 20 years, the seafood industry has declined in the United States with many fishermen across the country abandoning their boats in favor of a more stable industry. The family moved the boats from Holden Beach to Beaufort in 1992 when the industry in Beaufort was about 90 vessels strong. The family realized in the late 1990s that the American fishing industry was, “literally on the brink of extinction,” said Craig Reaves, Pops’ son. Large corporations and foreign countries flooded the American market with seafood. There are, “less than fifteen commercial shrimp
The organic movement has rapidly grown throughout the United States. There is a call for transparency in the supply chain. I’ve been on the organic, locally-grown bandwagon for several years now, but it was only this weekend that I thought about fish. I was very excited to learn that there are others that have already thought about where and how we source our fish. Ways to meet the demands of our increased desire for seafood. Interest in organic and small farms has also renewed the market for American fish.
62 THEMILLMAGAZINE.COM EDITION 13 NO. 3 STAPLES
Community Supported Fishery (CSF)
3. Continue to generate jobs for our families and yours by re-establishing fleets and vessels on South Carolina’s working waterfront.
Certified SC Seafood People want to buy local and organic produce and meats. Until recently, these terms did not have a legal definition, which meant that they could be used by anyone and defined however they saw fit. For instance, a “local” product at Publix supermarket means that it was grown in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, or South Carolina where the company has stores. It wasn’t until the 2008 federal Farm Bill that the word “local” received its first legal definition, as a food that is marketed less than 400 miles from its Confusionorigin. still remains in the marketplace and not everyone is honest nor transparent about where the food Inoriginates.2013,Oceana, a conservation group, traveled the country and purchased 1,200 seafood samples. They found that 33 percent of their purchased seafood did not follow the Food and Drug Administration labeling guidelines. Another of their reports found that consumers paid up to double for mislabeled seafood at restaurants when the restaurant served cheaper alternatives. So, how can the consumer know that their fish is actually local? Craig Reaves in collaboration with the
2. To preserve and prolong our South Carolina commercial fishing heritage by keeping South Carolina seafood in South Carolina.
63STAPLES EDITION 13 NO. 3 THEMILLMAGAZINE.COM boats,” left in Beaufort, he added. When others gave up, the Reaves dug deep. In order to stay afloat, the family pooled their funds to make ends meet. They tried a variety of businesses to ensure they would continue to fish. Through their trial and error, they have found the right mix. Business for the Reaves became more stable when they put a focus on community.
The Reaves launched Community Supported Fishery to help themselves, their fellow seaman, and the South Carolina fishing industry. Through the family’s Sea Eagle Market, a retail and wholesale market, the community can partner with their local fisherman. The partnership allows the seafood to go directly from the sea to the dinner table during the season. It also ensures that the fishermen have the working capital to keep their boats ready for harvest. CSF helps the consumer save money, keeps money in the local economy, and preserves the South Carolina fishing heritage. Pre-paying for twelve weeks of in-season, lowimpact, locally and freshly caught fish, shellfish, or shrimp secures the local fishing industry’s future. It also builds a relationship between the community and the fishermen.
CSF’s Mission 1. Our ultimate goal is to get the freshest South Carolina seafood to our state’s communities.
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South Carolina Seafood Alliance, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture added a new certification to the state’s certified local program, Certified SC Seafood.
Reservoirs collect rainwater runoff from the greenhouse, which accounts for 95 percent of the water used on the farm. The water is pumped up eight feet into the large fish tanks that reside in the greenhouse. A second tank sits lower than the fish tanks to capture the overflow. Gravity removes the solid fish waste leaving nitrites and ammonia.
As the water moves through the cycle, the bacteria convert nitrites and ammonia into nitrate-rich plant food. This nutrient water flows under the plant rafts and through the absorbent perlite where the plant roots soak up the nitrates before the water returns to the reservoir and continues the cycle.
The Certified SC Seafood logo may only appear on packaging by an approved licensed wholesale dealer, distributor, retailer, aquaculture permit holder, or shellfish mariculture permit holder. The approval requires an application through the marketing department at the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. The program’s goal is to help consumers easily identify South Carolina farmers, products, and seafood.
Tilapia
Powered by Gravity Aquaponic farms are generally small, which means that they do not own large farming equipment and harvesting is done by hand. The farm’s only need for power is for the water pump that recycles the water.
FISH SUPPORTED FARMING Standing in an opaque greenhouse are rows of leafy greens floating on rafts and ripening tomatoes sitting in perlite, a volcanic material. Overhead, strawberries dangle from cylindrical containers. This farm is not an ordinary farm. The only soil that reaches this greenhouse is under the Thefloor.farm is an aquaponic farm, a process of combining hydroponics, growing crops in a soilless system, and aquaculture (the raising of fish). This closed cycle farming system helps plants grow faster, yet uses 90 percent less water than soil farming and allows the plants to grow in a tighter environment. The only water loss in the recirculation is through evaporation and transpiration from the plant leaves. Aquaponics allows the farm to grow a wide variety of pesticide- and herbicide-free plants in an atmosphere that promotes faster growth. The water is in continuous motion bringing a fresh supply of nutrients directly to the root of the plant, rather than the plant needing to seek nutrients to absorb from the ground.
Several farms choose to farm Tilapia, one of the most popular kinds of seafood in the United States. This freshwater fish is called, “The Chicken of Sea,” for its mild taste and firm, porous texture. It also happens that Tilapia is one of the easiest fish to raise. Native to the Nile River Basin in lower Egypt in Africa, the tropical fish is one of the oldest farmed fish on the planet. A 4,000-year-old Egyptian tomb displays a basrelief of Tilapia ponds. This species also delays breeding
until the fish ages, which allows farmers to easily maintain the Whilepopulation.Tilapiais popular, it is not the only fish raised on aquaponic farms. The fish available on the farm depends on the farmer, however, Trout, Bluegill, Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Goldfish, and Koi can also be found.
The popularity of aquaponic farming and the desire of most aquaponics farmers is to be as natural as possible, which means that some farms might only grow species native to their area.
The Lowcountry Boil is also called Frogmore Stew. Don’t worry, you will not have to track down frogs for this dish. It is named after the very small South Carolina town of Frogmore that once served as the mailing address for the people that lived on St. Helena Island. In a pot, combine local shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn. You can add other ingredients like butter, onion, or crab. Lay down some newspaper, take out the napkins, and let the crowd chow down. Shrimp and Grits
a MTM
Locally National You might be able to order Shrimp and Grits in Anchorage, Alaska, and a Lowcountry Boil in San Francisco, California, but always remember to look for locally-sourced seafood. Help every small boat fisherman or aquaponic farmer stay in business. These are small business owners that care about their product and their Thecommunity.businesses that care about their product and where they source their food also care about their reputation within the community. Knowing your local fisherman or fish farmers or where the fish originates gives you peace of mind. You will not lose sleep wondering if you unwittingly poisoned yourself with radioactive fish.
There are two dishes that I love more than clean fish. They are two South Carolina seafood staples: the Lowcountry Boil and Shrimp and Grits. Oh man, I just made my stomach growl. Lowcountry Boil
SEA TO TABLE
This humble dish is a true regional food that has garnered national fame. It originates from the Charleston area and was locally known as “Shrimps and Hominy,” the local term used for grits.
In 1985, a writer at The New York Times stopped in for Chef Bill Neal’s Shrimp with Cheese Grits at Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The following morning the recipe was published in the newspaper.
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