The Southern Edge Magazine - Spring 2022

THE SOU THERN EDGE

MYSTE R IOUS LA NDFORMS PRES E R VE NATUR E S BEAUTY

C ar ol i n a B a y s D e fy Ex pl a n a t ion

MEM ORIE S RE FRE SHED VISION RE NE WE D

and a

A s to r y o f ho w o n e c oun t y is ta k in g s te ps to p r o te c t i t s n a t ura l l ega c y SPRING 2022

MEET DUKE A n In te r v i e w w i t h C he f D uk e G a r y

29 Waterfall Hikes

Clean Mountain Water

Two Wild & Scenic Rivers

Four Amazing Lakes Endless Sunsets

Fresh Air

This is Oconee , SC…

And yes, we are people friendly!!

OCONEE, SC is a cool place to play!

VisitOconeeSC.com

Philosophy We believe the idea of tradition is ingrained in the souls of Southerners. We have a relentless respect for our deep heritage and an unwavering dedication to living out the traditions of the past.

We believe tradition can be honored while simultaneously welcoming contemporary thought and style and that there is a movement to merge these two lifestyles through intentional, healthy and meaningful living.

We believe happiness is rooted in simplicity. If our minds and places are free of clutter, there is more room for things that matter.

We believe local is better. It’s about being a part of a larger community. It’s about connecting with

those who grow, catch, brew and create our food and that closer means fresher, tastier and healthier.

It’s choosing fruits and vegetables in season, drinking wines from vineyards in the region, seeking out the work of local artisans and supporting independent, locally owned stores.

We believe in leaving a positive fingerprint. The measure of our success will be the condition on which we leave the world for the next generation.

We believe these thoughts embody the emergence of the “New South” and we’re honored to be presenting this movement in our pages.

Thank you for joining us on this journey.

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LIFE 8-13: PERSPECTIVE: Lessons from a walk in the Park 14-19: MYSTERIOUS LANDFORMS PRESERVE NATURE'S BEAUTY Carolina Bays Defy Explanation

FLAVOR 60-63: MEET DUKE an Interview with Chef Duke Gary 64-67: A TWIST to the TRADITIONAL

22-25: CREATING PATHS to PROSPERITY ACROSS SOUTH CAROLINA Benchmark Trails

60 INNOVATION

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22-25: THE LIFE and ART of an AMERICAN SCULPTOR Anna Hyatt Huntington 36-41: A KISS FROM THE SEA THE JOY of FRESH OYSTERS 42-45: THE STRENGTH to move MOUNTAINS 46-50: THE RIPPLE of CHANGE 52-55: MEMORIES REFRESHED and a VISION RENEWED A story of how one county is taking steps to protect its natural legacy

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WELLNESS

70-73: ESSENTIAL OILS A New Tool in your Health & Wellness Toolbox 76-77: PADDLESC Kicking off the 2022 Paddle Season 78-80: SOUTH CAROLINA 7

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went down the google ‘rabbit hole’ looking for quotes on conservation to inspire our thoughts on this conservation-themed issue.

After reading for hours, my favorite remains one from President Theodore Roosevelt; “Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches, or its romance.”

These words speak to me. They inspire thought and contemplation. He is right, you know. There is both history and romance in our amazingly beautiful outdoors. Beauty can be found, of course, in the man-made environment. But nothing, NOTHING, compares to God’s handiwork.

We have a responsibility to watch over and protect our land. We must not become complacent, and we must feel a sense of duty to be the change we wish to see. We hope you are inspired by the stories in this issue. We hope you are motivated to get outdoors more, to play and to explore. And, take your friends and family with you. We feel strongly that the more one spends time in nature, the more one learns to appreciate and love nature.

And there are so many places in our beautiful state and country to love…and to protect.

Let’s “be the change” everyone. See you on the trail!

thesouthernedgemagazine.com

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Michelle McCollum CEO & Editor in Chief Anna Joyner Artistic Director & Production Manager Yuka Greer Managing Editor & Operations Director Abbey Stevens Editorial Assistant

COVER IMAGE COURTESY OF Robert C. Clark

SOUTH CAROLINA NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR BOARD OF DIRECTORS Don Alexander

Ken Durham

Bob Alexander

Rhoda Green

Donna Livingston

Pete Weathers

Neal Workman

GET THE SOUTHERN EDGE MAGAZINE DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR DOOR! thesouthernedgemagazine.com

SOUTH CAROLINA NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR Publisher Profits from The Southern Edge will go back into the preservation, conservation, and environmental educational programs of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor.

National Heritage Areas are designated by Congress as places where natural, cultural, and historic resources combine to tell nationally significant stories.

SOUTH CAROLINA NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR

MAYUMI FOOD ADVISOR

Mayumi is an anti-aging food adviser from Anti-Aging Food Association basked in Tokoyo.

She lives in South Carolina with her husband and her daughter.

Mayumi spreads the philosophy of healthy eating through her cooking classes.

TOM POLANDWRITER

PHIL GAINES WRITER

Tom Poland grew up in Lincoln Phil Gaines is a Professor of County, Georgia, and graduated Practice in the Parks Recreation from the University of Georgia and Tourism Management with degrees in Journalism and Department at Clemson Education. He taught at the University. Phil completed a 37University of Georgia, Columbia year career in State Parks in 2018.

College, and the University He began his career in parks as an of South Carolina. He writes entry level Park Ranger at Kings about nature and the South Mountain State Park and served and its people, traditions, and as Park Superintendent at three lifestyles. His work appears in different state parks. Phil served books & magazines, journals, as Director of South Carolina and newspapers throughout the State Parks for 13 years. Phil also South. He’s a member of the S.C. served on the Board of Directors Humanities Speakers Bureau. for the National Association of Tom is a recipient of the Order of State Park Directors, and the Palmetto. He lives in Columbia, National Association of State South Carolina.

Outdoor Recreation Liaison Officers.

W. THOMAS SMITH, JR. WRITER

DARLENE GREENE WRITER

W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a formerly deployed U.S. Marine Infantry leader, counterterrorism instructor, and retired colonel in the S.C. Military Department. A New York Times bestselling editor and an internationally acclaimed writer whose work has appeared in countless newspapers and magazines worldwide, Tom has traveled to Iraq, the Balkans, elsewhere and other wars. He is also a senior officer with the National Security Task Force, South Carolina Floodwater Commission. Among Tom’s awards, honors, and military decorations, he is a 2019 recipient of the Order of the Palmetto. uswriter.com

A graduate of both Anderson and Clemson Universities, Darlene has degrees in Journalism and English. She has written professionally for both corporate and news publications for over 35 years. At the same time, she has sought knowledge, training and tools to live a healthier, more spiritually connected life.

Certified in numerous energy healing modalities including Reiki, Ama Deus, Access Bars and Intuitive Counseling, Darlene loves helping others find their truth and their life’s passions. She is married, has one grown son, two rescued dogs, Finn (pictured) and Ginger, and two rescued cats, Smokey and Bandit. healingwithsoundsoflove.com

JANE JENKINS HERLONG - WRITER

JAMES SAXON WRITER

We are always willing to consider freelance photographers & contributors.

Please send queries to info@thesouthernedgemagazine.com

Jane Jenkins Herlong is a Sirius XM Humorist, bestselling/award-winning author, professional singer, recording artist and professional Southern humorist. A recent inductee into the prestigious Speakers Hall of Fame, Jane is the best-selling author of four books. A former Miss America contestant, Jane’s award-winning singing and comedy is featured on Sirius XM Radio, Spotify and Pandora Internet Radio. For speaking engagements visitjaneherlong.com

James "Jamie" Saxon is a Red Hills and Cotton native of the South Carolina Upcountry, to which he returned after a couple of decades in other places. A graduate of Furman University, the University of South Carolina, and the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University, he has been a college administrator, worked in private practice and public service, and currently is associate probate judge for Anderson County. He loves books, jazz, food, friends, labs, and his crazy Southern family.

LIFE

PERSPECTIVE: lessons from a walk in the park

per spec tive /p r'spektiv/ e

Words by Phil Gaines

Cypress forest at Congaree National Park

noun 1. the art of the portraying of objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.

2. a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.

Beyond the Visitor Center of the

Congaree National Park, and just past the mosquito meter, lies a boardwalk to adventure and a tribute to a grassroots conservation effort to protect one of the nation’s best examples of an old-growth bottomland hardwood forest. The boardwalk: an enticing modern creation that transports you through a canopy of bald cypress into a seemingly other dimension and time. Beneath this canopy of trees, that seem to touch the sky, you suddenly realize that these are not ordinary trees, nor is this place. Their size, enormous; their characteristics, unique; their flared bottoms and the knees that seem protect them; mystical. Your senses quickly go into overload with the sights, sounds, and smells of the swamp. All part of the formula that magically carries you away from the chaos of today’s world to a place of curiosity and wonder and calm.

“This place is not a typical landscape; it has its own type of special beauty. Part of the beauty is the ability to be immersed into the forest. You are surrounded by life everywhere.

It’s so easy to find solitude here, even on our busiest days,” reveals park ranger Greg Cunningham who has served at Congaree since 2015. “The awe and wonders of this place never disappoint. I find it amazing that I find new discoveries on each visit I make down the boardwalk. My advice, walk slow and take it all in.”

Greg stops as if to make his point, my eyes and attention instantly gravitate towards the wide bottom, moss-covered base of a bald cypress. I look up and all around, the trees; oh my, the trees. Photos do them no justice, as a walk-through the forest at Congaree is all about perspective.

Their size is deceptive. Because there are so many of them, they seem “normal” beside each other. It’s hard to explain, much like watching a basketball game where all the

players seem of average height. Not until a tall player stands beside someone of average height do you appreciate the difference.

Standing beside one of these giants puts things in perspective, and you realize you are walking in an entire forest of “giants.”

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I’m overwhelmed and reminded of what Ranger Cunningham said about the solitude of the swamp. So, I take the advice of legendary photographer Ansel Adams and take time for reflection. “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”

The silence of the swamp is deafening.

Perspective, we each have our own lens through which we interpret our experiences, our emotions, and our lives. Through our perspective, we define what impacts us, what inspires us, and how we use that perspective to experience life. From time to time, we need special places to reflect and put things in perspective. Less than 30 minutes ago I was maneuvering the streets of Columbia caught up in the grind that we call life. A walk on the boardwalk between the giant trees and the solitude of the swamp has but things back into focus. As the visitor center fades the significance and need for untamed places and the conservation of them increases. Suddenly the forest is filled with possibilities, my sense of wonder is restored.

I’m thankful that the generation before me recognized the importance of Congaree and set it aside for days like today.

The biodiversity of the river and the bottomland that host these extraordinary trees of Congaree were certainly worth saving for future generations. The bottomland most likely was spared because of the size of the trees we admire today; they were just too large and difficult to remove from bottomland and swamps. The result: Congaree is the largest remaining tract of old-growth hardwood bottomland forest left in the United States. The inability to log the bottomland would not save this special place alone, it would take a public effort to conserve Congaree. By the early 1950s, the importance of the land was recognized by local advocates of the forest, including Harry Hampton, who led a grassroots campaign to save the swamp. Hampton a writer for the State newspaper became a crusader for the state’s natural lands. Hampton and others brought people to the swamp, showcasing its assets and its wonders. It is one of Hampton’s greatest successes. The Congaree Swamp would eventually become Congaree National Park, a place of curiosity and wonder for this and future generations.

Harry Hampton pictured next to one of the giant Bald cypress trees in Congaree National Park.

From Left to Right: John Cely, Jim Elder and Dr. James Tanner. These men helped garner support for protecting the land that is now Congaree National Park.

Today the Congaree National Park constitutes the largest remaining expanse of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the United States, covering over 11,000 acres of the 27,000-acre park. The bottomland supports an extraordinary variety of life from the dramatic sounds of a Pileated woodpecker “drumming” on a dead tree, to the fluttering of the brightly colored prothonotary warblers. Finding snakes, fox squirrels, river otters, and synchronous fireflies that flash in unison requires a keen eye and timing, but worth the effort. The bottomland is alive with diversity. The periodic flooding from the Congaree and Wateree Rivers provides a natural flood of nutrients and deposits that increases the fertility of the land and replenishes the wonder beneath a towering canopy.

I’m suddenly aware that grandeur is not always spectacular to the sight, often its subtle and understated. Change can happen fast in the swamp and make a profound impact if you know what to look for. As you walk the boardwalk, the swamp floor dominated by cypress knees and muck suddenly shifts to switch cane all due to an increase in elevation of only a few inches.

Awareness plus perspective equals a renewed sense of wonder, just what I needed. Further down the trail the elevation changes again and the knees return but the lesson is learned all because a few folks thought this special place was worth saving. Indeed, it was.

See you outside!

Light Detection And Ranging, LiDAR LiDar uses 16,000 pulses of laser light per second to capture bays’ details. Some 500,000 to as many as a million Carolina bays may exist thanks to LiDAR, a surveying technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser light. Courtesy of Michael Davias

MYSTERIOUS LANDFORMS PRESERVE NATURE'S BEAUTY Carolina Bay's Defy Explanation Words by Tom Poland / Photos by Robert C. Clark

The Savanna Wambaw Bay’s savanna features grasses, cypresses, and wildflowers. Wambaw Bay is also known as Florida Bay.

Standing in the savanna, I heard frantic buzzing. A life or death struggle was underway. For twenty minutes, I watched a red wasp do its best to escape a pitcher plant. A nectar-like scent had attracted the wasp and entering the plant was easy. Too easy. Coming up? Near impossible. The step-like filaments that coaxed it downward form jail-like crossbars that make escape up and out difficult. The wasp’s frantic buzzing would exhaust it, and it would fall into the plant’s acid pit, die, and dissolve, a casualty to a carnivorous plant’s need for sustenance.

I witnessed this grapple in a Carolina bay’s savanna in the Francis Marion National Forest. It’s not every day that you witness a life or death struggle but I knew similar death struggles were underway in Carolina bays from New Jersey to coastal Alabama.

Few people witness these struggles because few venture into one of Earth’s more mysterious landforms. A Carolina bay features a pond cypress swamp and savanna.

Some feature a rim of white sand along their southeastern edge. Depending on what people see at ground level they think, “A swamp or ancient sand dune.” Fly over them, however, and bays resemble the Moon’s craters.

Death Trap Unlike the wasp in the feature, this wasp did not survive. Few insects escape a pitcher plant’s deceptive ways. Exhausted insects fall into the acid pit where they dissolve and give the plant nutrients.

Fall-Struck Colony Fall brings color to a colony of pitcher plants in Red Bluff Bay.

Perhaps a million elliptical depressions dimple the Atlantic Coastal Plain. They vary from a few square feet to thousands of acres.

Their northwest to southeast orientation lines them up parallel. That astonishing orientation gave rise to meteorite origins.

Even more astonishing is exploring them on foot. The shallow basins hold seasonal rains, and temporary water gives amphibians and other species prime breeding habitat. Lush plants grow in bays. Think of undisturbed bays as dish gardens.

Carolina Bay Aerial Seen from above, Carolina bays reveal their elliptical shape and parallel orientation from northwest to southeast.

Courtesy of George Howard

And that puzzling name? They’re called “Carolina bays” because the larger and better examples occur in the Carolinas. “Bays” arises from the abundant species of bay trees in them. It’s an unfortunate name that suggests an inlet or cove, not one of Earth’s more mysterious landforms.

An ASTOUNDING DISCOVERY In 1930 the Ocean Forest Company of Myrtle Beach contracted Fairchild Aerial Surveys to take aerial photos of the area.

Fairchild’s FC-2 Cabin Monoplane crisscrossed the coastal plain taking photograph after photograph. Elliptical depressions dimpled the land. They looked as if a giant chef had reached down and pressed spoons of various sizes into Coastal Plain sands.

Later, when Roosevelt’s Department of Agriculture studied East Coast aerial photography, a staggering finding surfaced: the egg-shaped landforms all ran northwest to southeast. The similarity to craters on Mars and the moon amazed people. Did a celestial bombardment gouge out Earth’s most mystifying landforms?

In an ongoing mystery science has yet to prove what created the depressions, the shallow basins themselves. Theories range from the ridiculous to bizarre to plausible. Consider these theories: thrashing stranded whales, beaver ponds, a meteorite bombardment, comet impact, retreating glaciers, shallow ocean currents, spawning

fish, ancient buffalo wallows, hydrogen gas “seep” bubbles, melting ice boulders, and dinosaur footprints.

Ancient volcano activity makes the list. Still other theories include spring basins, sandbar dams of drowned valleys, depressions dammed by giant sand ripples, submarine scour by eddies, currents, or undertow, and wind blowouts. Want more? Peat burning by paleo-Indians, basins scooped out by giant turtles, sinkholes, and solution basins related to artesian springs’ activity.

Two theorists have South Carolina ties. In 1977, Ray T. Kaczorowski developed a thesis, “The Carolina Bays And Their Relationship To Modern Oriented Lakes” while working on his Ph. D. in Geology at the University of South Carolina. Kaczorowski’s work proposed the oriented wind and water theory in which prevailing winds over vast periods aligned and gave the bays their elliptical shapes. No theory, however, explains just what crated the depressions in the first place.

Henry Savage, a Camden naturalist and attorney, authored a book in 1982, The Mysterious Carolina Bays, (University of South Carolina Press). Savage’s theory that

meteorites created the bays got a lot of attention. The late attorney’s theory had a big problem though. A meteorite impact would produce shatter cones, shocked crystal rock, meteorite fragments, and iron or nickel elements, crucial evidence that distinguishes extraterrestrial impacts from terrestrial processes like erosion. In the end, science dismissed Savage’s theory. His natural history work, however, earned him the honor of having a bay named after him, Savage Bay Heritage Preserve.

The meteorite theory remains part of the bays’ allure. Much later, Christopher R. Moore of the Savannah River Archaeological Research Program, South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, refuted the meteorite hypothesis.

“More recent work reveals that bays reflect long-term, pervasive and evolving environmental and climatological factors over millennia, not sudden or catastrophic events. Carolina bays are neither enigmatic, nor mysterious, but rather are relatively wellunderstood oriented lakes. Kaczorowski was right!”

The Lure of False Nectar Approaching pitcher plants by air, a flying insect’s final act and glimpse of life.

WILDLIFE HAVENS Theories aside, the bays serve as repositories of wildlife habitat. James Luken, Ph.D., biologist and associate provost at Coastal Carolina University studies wetland ecology and carnivorous and aquatic plants.

“What makes bays unique are the different habitats, wild plants, and wildlife.” Luken refers to Lewis Ocean Bay, a complex of bays. “There are a dozen or so habitats in this 9,000-acre preserve. The interior parts are thickets of evergreen shrubs that create great habitat for black bears and bobcats. In fact it’s prime habitat for black bears. They spend the winter in the dense vegetation and seek refuge there in summer.”

Carolina bays’ varying water depths, sand rims, and peat mats nurture botanical riches—water lilies, sedges, red bay, sweet bay, butterworts, sundews, gallberry, whiteand yellow-fringed and rosebud orchids, and the rare Wells pixie moss.

The Venus flytrap, which Charles Darwin called “the most wonderful plant on Earth” lives where sandy, nutrient-poor soil changes from wet to dry beneath showers of sunlight.

Unwary insects, like our wasp, provide what barren soils cannot—sustenance.

Above: Marbled Salamander At Savannah River Site’s Rainbow Bay, the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory’s “frog watch” set a Guinness world record in 1999, the world’s longest daily amphibian study.

Right: Taking Notes The author sits amid a colony of pitcher plants in Red Bluff Bay. Watching insects converge on the plants attests to their seductive pull.

What I best like about the bays are their beauty and serenity.

For seven years I worked on a book about the bays. Along with photographer Robert C. Clark, I explored bays in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Consider these passages from Carolina Bays, Wild, Mysterious, and Majestic Landforms, Poland and Clark, 2020, University of South Carolina Press.

A lonely bobwhite whistles and a barred owl answers. A deer leaps through the undergrowth, white tail erect. Sporting its reddish summer coat, the deer vanishes into the greenery. Surf-like wind in treetops... … the rising and falling music of cicadas join the mix... the wind blows a familiar refrain my way: a chorale of frogs and birds. The frogs croak and bark in the wet interior where lush sedges grow. The sedges’ bright green stands out and the way they rise and fall beneath the wind renders them into emerald rivers ... I’m standing on the edge of now gazing into the past, time traveler that I am.

Time traveler is right. Years ago I helped make a film that explored the bays’ origins and extolled them as conservatories of flora and fauna. I shot footage at Woods Bay near Olanta. Serene and isolated. Those words describe Woods Bay. No, three words—all with equal weight—serene, isolated, and primeval. I captured ancient creatures on now-obsolete 16-millimeter film. An anhinga drying its wings. A gator gliding past water lilies. A stubby cottonmouth braiding through cypress knees. Turtles sunbathing on logs.

From a boardwalk I filmed wildlife ... osprey, carnivorous plants, wood ducks, and otter.

Aerial filming came next. I would see what the Fairchild Survey photographers saw. I boarded a Cessna 180. Near the coast, oval depressions peppered the landscape. I passed over freestanding bays, interlocking bays, and bays within bays like nesting Russian dolls.

Mysteries Of The Carolina Bays supported the wind and wave origin theory. I found it hard, though, to forsake the notion that something alien created Carolina Bays. I spent many a day alone shooting film at Woods Bay. Many years later, my film days behind me, longing sent me back to Woods Bay one autumn afternoon. As blue light lit up orange cypress needles their reflections danced across black waters.

Deceptively Beautiful Pitcher plants are as beautiful as flowers, adding to their deadly lure.

White As Snow The southeastern rims of larger bays feature sand rims where Native Americans camped. Rims provided proximity to key resources, water and wildlife.

I too reflected. Over 30 years my life had changed in unforeseen ways, but the bay had not. Woods Bay and its fellow bays were quietly doing what they’ve always done: controlling floods, purifying water, stockpiling carbon, and giving man a place to sort out things. Add clean air, sediment retention, and nutrient recycling to the benefits. Add two things that banish humdrum: beauty and mystery, especially mystery.

Friends and I were discussing these strange ellipses one night when a fellow broke into our conversation. “Those bays are beautiful sure enough. Grew up next to one.”

Then this. “Meteorites really did create them you know,” he said. “Venus Flytraps prove it. A plant like that had to come from outer space.”

Dawn at Jones Lake in Bladen County, North Carolina An American anhinga takes off from a Carolina bay.

Fall's in Full Swing Warm water and cool air give rise to fog at Jones Lake.

Carolina bays are beautiful throughout the seasons and fall is especially beautiful.

SANCTUARY IN A MYSTERIOUS PLACE You my fellow Earthlings, when you tire of sirens, horns, and motorcycles, trade that din for the sounds of nature. What might you hear? Creatures’ cries and calls. Among buttressed cypresses a frog sounds like a man chopping wood. What seems to be a large frog, judging by the volume of its call, sounds like a stack of planks dropping to the ground. A bird looking much like a robin is not, for its call sounds like that of a rainforest bird in the Amazon or Congo Basin. The trills of frogs and repetitious hammering of woodpeckers accompany the chorus of songbirds. A flash of gold disappears into the pocosin. A prothonotary warbler? The wind coos through the pine tops and birdsong fills the air. Frogs override the buzz of flying insects.

Think of undisturbed Carolina bays as sanctuaries. As smart as man thinks he is, Earth still holds secrets. Among those secrets are how and what formed the Carolina bays. The 1930’s aerials opened our eyes to the bays and LiDAR promises more discoveries. The future may tell us just what created Carolina bays, but it’s my hope that their creation remains a mystery.

Were we to fully comprehend how Carolina bays formed, they’d lose the mystique that surrounds them. Lose the mystique and complacency would surface and complacency never leads to good things. These dish gardens, these sanctuaries offer man and wildlife alike sanctuary. I can’t stress enough how vital it is to foster an awareness of Carolina bays’ uniqueness and place in the natural world.

From the days in the early 1980s when I first learned of Carolina bays to today, one thing consistently amazes me: few people know anything about them. Here’s hoping our populace and leaders in government and industry understand just what a rare and beautiful thing Carolina bays are. In the time to come, I hope people will spread the word as to how Carolina bays serve as wildlife repositories.

Here’s hoping that we see less asphalt and cement; that we see more carnivorous plants and sedges; that the future brings more wildness to our part of the world, and that the mystique of the Carolina bays fascinates future generations.

Laser pulses reveal the texture and other details of Carolina bays. Courtesy of Michael Davias

In his fine foreword to our book, “Carolina Bays … Mystery Solved,” Stephen H. Bennett wrote, “The periodic nature of the Carolina bays’ water cycle is the key to the mysteries that intrigued and still intrigue me. Numerous species of amphibians, frogs and salamanders, breed either exclusively or preferentially in temporary ponds, which include Carolina bays. Because most of them fill and dry on some cycle, they seldom have predatory fish present to eat their eggs and larvae … and even if fish do get in during particularly wet periods they will disappear as soon as the bay dries out. The same goes for other water-borne predators such as dragonfly larvae. Along with the amphibians, my favorites, these small ecosystems support numerous species of birds, reptiles, other wildlife, and native plants. And, a number of these species are quite rare.

“So, while I can’t solve the mystery of ‘where they came from’ I do understand, somewhat, the mystery of Carolina bays as it pertains to their ecological role and their importance in our landscape … and we can still discuss and debate their origin in our spare time.”

One final thing. That wasp. What became of it? It flew up and out, a rare escape from a plant evolution perfected into an insect deathtrap. Apparently, the wasp’s size kept it from sliding beneath the hairs that act like the crossbars of a jail cell. It survived to live another day in the world’s most mysterious landform.

To learn more about Carolina bays, contact the University of South Carolina Press.

Carolina Bays, Wild, Mysterious, and Majestic Landforms Tom Poland and Robert C. Clark 2020, University of South Carolina Press

REGAINING PARADISE Man has long ditched, drained, timbered, and converted Carolina bays to his purposes. Undisturbed bays are few. However, plugging a bay and letting seasonal rains fill bays gives them another chance at life. Vegetation and organisms suited to temporary water or standing water return. Nature’s grand plan for these elliptical depressions imposes its will. Given enough time, the bay resembles what it once was, and given enough time paradise returns.

Note: Thanks to an unfortunate U.S. Supreme Court ruling, bays are not protected by the Clean Water Act as they’re considered isolated wetlands with no inflowing our outflowing streams. It’s hoped this situation will be corrected.

Litter trashes everyone.

Don’t do it.

cele br at e N at i on al T r a i l s day on the pa lme t t o t r a i l. ju ne 4, 20 22 Ex pl or e t he fa s c i n at i n g h is t o ry, r ich c ult ur e , a nd un m at c hed b ea u t y of Sou th c ar ol i n a .

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pa l m e t t o t r a il .o r g

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FOR MOST OF HISTORY, MAN HAS HAD TO FIGHT NATURE TO SURVIVE; IN THIS CENTURY HE IS BEGINNING TO REALIZE THAT, TO SURVIVE, HE MUST PROTECT IT. jacques-yves cousteau

CREATING PATHS TO PROSPERITY ACROSS SOUTH CAROLINA

Words by Darlene Greene

T

he abundance of natural resources is first among the many attractions for residents of or visitors to South Carolina. From the Blue Ridge to the Atlantic coast, there are incredible natural wonders for all to see and experience. South Carolina is home to mountains, rivers, lakes, piedmonts, marshes, and ocean shores. The diversity of the state’s natural resources lends itself to a multitude of outdoor recreation activities.

Since outdoor recreation creates excellent opportunities for economic development through increased tourism, communities around the state that are leveraging their natural resources by creating or expanding their trail systems are experiencing tremendous success. Creating trails for hiking or biking is one of the best ways to preserve natural resources while enhancing economic development and improving quality of life for residents.

One of the premier trail builders in the region is Benchmark Trails. Founded by Deno Contos in 2001, Benchmark has worked throughout South Carolina, the Southeast, and as far West as Colorado.

Benchmark’s focus is on conservation and protection of natural resources while creating opportunity for more outdoor recreation

and tourism. “Protecting the environment, conservation, and trail building go hand-inhand,” said Contos. “It creates long-term sustainability for a community’s natural resources.”

Contos, who ran a successful landscaping company, began working on trails as a volunteer due to his passion for hiking and mountain biking. “I worked with a number of non-profits, volunteering my time and labor to help build trails around the country.

The more I learned, the more I wanted to build trails full-time. I left the landscaping business to work for South Carolina Department of Parks and Recreation fulltime and after several years there, I started Benchmark Trails and I have never looked back,” said Contos.

TIME SPENT AMONGST THE TREES IS NEVER WASTED TIME. KATRINA MAYER thesouthernedgemagazine.com 23

“Benchmark has had the benefit of working on a wide variety of trails in South Carolina.

We worked on the horse trails along the Chattooga River. By upgrading the infrastructure of the trails there, we were able to improve the conservation efforts of the state to protect the river from erosion run off and similar issues. Since trails are often user-created, it can cause issues for the environment. Benchmark is able to remediate these issues so that trails can continue to be used without damage to the surrounding environment,” Contos explained.

When and where possible, Benchmark strives to improve public access. “We were contracted by the US Forestry Service to provide some access improvements to the Brasstown Falls trails. Brasstown Falls is a beautiful series of waterfalls, but it is a very vertical environment with much of the trail user-created. There were erosion issues as well as safety issues. We were able to create solutions that allow visitors to safely hike the entire waterfall system. We installed a bridge over a stream at the upper falls. We created steps and observation platforms on the trail leading down to the lower tiers. The trails are now accessible and safe for hikers and the feedback we have received from visitors has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Contos.

The City of Walhalla owns a 440-acre tract, held in a conservation easement, which includes the historic Stumphouse Tunnel, a pre-civil war tunnel, and the beautiful Issaqueena Falls. Several years ago, Walhalla sought to improve outdoor recreation opportunities in Stumphouse Park to pave the way for increased tourism and economic development for the city. Walhalla partnered with Palmetto Conservation Foundation (PCF), to extend The Palmetto Trail further into Oconee County and create an Upstate Terminus. Since Benchmark had worked with Palmetto Conservation Foundation in other areas of the state, they were contracted to design and construct a premier hiking and mountain biking system within 440-acres of Stumphouse Park.

Benchmark has designed and built an additional 3-mile segment of The Palmetto Trail which runs through the Stumphouse property. Contos also designed the Stumphouse Mountain Bike Park (SMBP) for the City of Walhalla. The Stumphouse Mountain Bike Park consists of dual use hiking and mountain biking trails that offer many technical features. Currently, SMBP has just over 10 miles of premier hiking and mountain biking trails. One of the attractions of Stumphouse Park for mountain bikers is the fact that the park is open to bikers 365 days a year. Many of the other regional mountain bike trails are closed seasonally or on different days of the week. Unless weather conditions require closing the park for safety reasons, Stumphouse provides mountain bikers with year-round recreation.

With the opening of the new trails in Stumphouse Park, Walhalla has experienced an increase in tourism traffic, resulting in new economic development in their downtown business district. Clothing boutiques, curios shops, home décor and design outlets, restaurants and other businesses have moved into downtown Walhalla. Older buildings, once falling into disrepair, are being renovated. The development of trails has created new prosperity for the city.

“It is great to see the revitalization of any small town and I believe the trails in Stumphouse have been a positive part of that effort in Walhalla,” said Contos.

“There are currently plans in the works to expand the trail system to over 20 miles in the Stumphouse Park, which will be a huge draw for mountain bikers and hikers,” said Contos. “Mountain biking is the fastest growing sport in America for those under 20 and over 40. By developing an existing natural resource, Walhalla has become a popular waypoint for those seeking outstanding outdoor recreation opportunities. Walhalla’s proximity to top-ranking state and county parks as well as the scenic lakes and rivers, make it a true outdoor recreation destination.”

FINDING YOUR WAY BY KNOWING YOUR

STA R S Words by W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

I LOVE STARS. They are not only

beautiful beyond description, but they function like a giant perfectly calibrated clock. They are also a connection to the Biblical patriarchs, who a few millennia ago, saw and spoke of the very same constellations we are able to see tonight. But my ever-increasing appreciation for these truths has been a journey. Just as the stars themselves can be a journeyer’s navigational guide, and you don’t have to be a professional astronomer or a NASA research scientist to get your head around any of it.

My fascination with stars began as a Cub Scout during a camping trip wherein we “cubs” paired up with a group of older Boy Scouts and ventured somewhere out along the Wateree River in Kershaw County, South Carolina. We are now talking wellover 50 years ago, but I still remember us darting around in a big multi-acre field surrounded by miles of piney woods playing “flashlight tag,” running and laughing until we could barely catch our breath. Eventually, we collapsed on our backs for what seemed like an hour in the cool grass and looked up at what appeared to be a zillion bright stars in the clearest ink-blackest sky. The scoutmaster, Mr. Frierson, a retired Army officer, pointed out a lot of the constellations.

Though difficult to make out the various animal-and-other shapes in the sky, that particular overnight outing observing the vast starry sky impressed me far more than the field trips my elementary-school class sometimes made to the Gibbes planetarium in Columbia: though that too was exciting.

Stars for me then were, even more so today are, an absolute manifestation of the supreme power and sovereignty of God: His art, orderliness, constancy, and the miracle of 2,000-plus years ago.

When I was about eight-years-old, I remember Dad and I standing in front of the Villa Tronco Restaurant in downtown Columbia. It was a few nights before Christmas, and I was looking west down Blanding Street and up into the black sky where I saw a very bright star (more likely a planet now that I think about it). I told Dad it might be what the wise men had seen. He agreed. We stood there a few minutes in the cold looking at and talking about the star before we got in the car and headed home.

What Dad and I saw was probably not the Bethlehem star. I thought it might be. Dad likely knew better. But it is one of my most cherished boyhood memories.

Many years later in college, I took two semesters of astronomy as part of my physical science requirement studying the make-up of the planets, the relative size and composition of the stars (mostly hydrogen and helium), and the distances primarily measured in light years from Earth to all things visible in the heavens. But that didn’t aid as much in my love of stars as it did help me better understand the nature of them.

Then in the Marine Corps during landnavigation training followed by real-world practical application, I learned much about how to traverse great distances at night using key stars and various constellations as guides; a skillset that benefits me even today; as it can you [the reader of this article], especially here in South Carolina.

Here’s why: In terms of geographic location, S.C. is between 33 and 35 degrees north of the equator, which means that on a clear night, our skies offer magnificent views of the celestial heavens. And for nighttime navigation purposes we have a perfect view of the North Star (aka Polaris) all year long which is critical if you are out hiking, struggling to find your way home, and you are without GPS capability or any recognizable terrain features. If you know your stars – and frankly they are not too difficult to learn – you will never be lost.

The basics are simple.

FIRST: Remember that the stars like the sun generally rise in the east and set in the west. Not every star, which is why I say “generally” and will explain momentarily.

And it is not that the stars are actually rising; but that we are turning toward them.

Think about it: The earth is always rotating eastward at about 800-miles-per-hour toward everything in the heavens. Of course that speed increases the closer we get to the equator, and it decreases the further north we venture. But that’s another story. The key fact to remember here is that we are always rotating toward the east.

SECOND: Pick up a star guide and learn to identify a few of the constellations and asterisms (star groups that are not full constellations). Easiest to recognize on a cold winter’s night when the moisture is chilled out of the air are magnificent constellations like Orion, Canis Major, Taurus, and the Pleaides (my favorite by the way) among others.

THIRD: Learn to recognize and find the Big Dipper (part of the Great Bear) and Cassiopeia. This is key and easy, because these two stellar bodies – the Dipper and Cassiopeia – rotate counterclockwise around Polaris every single night of the year. They are always positioned at different points throughout the night around Polaris.

And Polaris never rises or sets: It’s one of those constants of the night.

If you know what season of the year it is, you can find the position of either body relative to Polaris and determine what time of night it is. Moreover, find either the Big Dipper or Cassiopeia, then Polaris, and you will easily establish your bearings – knowing precisely which direction is north, south, east, or west – every single clear night of the year. Simple, right?

South of the equator is a bit more challenging, but we’ll save that for another discussion.

I N N O VAT I O N

LIFE

ART

AMERICAN SCULPTOR Anna Hyatt Huntington Words by Robin Salmon

Anna Vaughn Hyatt was

born March 10, 1876, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father, Professor Alpheus Hyatt, was a scientist who specialized in paleontology and was a pioneer marine biologist on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Among other scientific activities, he was curator of the fossil collection at Harvard University. Her mother, Audella Beebe Hyatt, was a well-educated woman for the time and an amateur painter.

Anna’s initial interest was in the violin and she devoted several hours each day to practice with the goal of a professional career in music. By her early teens, Anna had put down the violin and begun modeling in clay, as she became interested in sculpture.

Her first attempt in this medium was to help her older sister, Harriet Randolph Hyatt, by modeling the figure of a dog. A study of the family pet, from 1889, is generally regarded to be her first sculpture cast in bronze.

Although she studied briefly at the Art Students League in New York City, Anna Hyatt really was a self-taught sculptor.

Her knowledge of animal anatomy was the result of a keen power of observation, developed as a child through natural history field trips with her father and visits to her brother’s farm near Leonardtown, Maryland. Eventually, the horse emerged as Anna’s favorite subject and, when feasible, she incorporated equine subjects into her commissions.

By 1902 she had enough work in plaster, clay, and bronze for a solo show at the Boston Arts Club. Possibly through the influence of her brother-in-law, Alfred Mayor, who was employed by The Brooklyn Institute of Art & Science (later, The Brooklyn Museum), she was hired to design and cast plaster models of extinct animals – a Mammoth, Mastodon, Irish Elk, and Dinoceros – for a museum exhibition and was paid a total of $200 for her work.

In 1909 Anna Hyatt was working in a rented studio in France. Here, she produced the first life-sized Joan of Arc, shown in plaster in the 1910 Paris Salon. Although she performed all the work herself, building the armature and emplacing over one ton of clay – a job she described as “a terribly brutal piece of work” – the jury awarded her only Honorable Mention, believing that no woman could have completed the sculpture without male assistance.

Nevertheless, she returned to the United States with an award to her credit and a promising future.

One of the people who learned of her achievement was J. Sanford Saltus, member of a committee in New York City to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Joan of Arc. In 1914, the group commissioned Anna to create a monument of Joan that would occupy a prominent location at Riverside Drive and 93rd Street.

This version in bronze was completed and unveiled in 1915 in the presence of a corps of dignitaries including the French ambassador and Mrs. Thomas Edison.

Anna Hyatt’s Joan of Arc was the first equestrian monument of a woman by a woman sculptor in New York City. It was also the first monument to Joan that depicted her with the correct period arms and armor. The sculpture is in this location to this day.

Fighting Stallions, aluminum, 1950, collection of Brookgreen Gardens.

Joan of ArC in Riverside Park at 93rd Street, New York, NY.

The climax of this period of her work was Diana of the Chase, winner of the Saltus Award for Merit of the National Academy of Design. One of her few compositions where the human figure is primary, it is the work that sealed her reputation as an important American sculptor and set new standards for American garden sculpture.

The casting now in the collection of Brookgreen Gardens was owned by the sculptor and after her marriage to Archer Huntington was placed in the dining room of the Huntington townhouse at 1083 Fifth Avenue in New York City.

When Anna Huntington developed tuberculosis in the late 1920s and was advised to seek treatment and to live in a warmer winter climate than New York, the Huntingtons began to look for options.

In 1930 they purchased four former rice plantations comprising thousands of acres on the coast of South Carolina. Their original idea was to create a winter home that would serve as a retreat from the world while Anna recovered her strength.

Lured by the beauty of the land and its environmental treasures, they established a corporation on July 13, 1931 to protect its 9,127 acres and named it Brookgreen Gardens, A Society for Southeastern Flora and Fauna. “Brookgreen” was taken from the name of one of the plantations. Brookgreen Gardens’ purpose was to collect, exhibit, and preserve American figurative sculpture and the plants and animals native to the Southeast. Rather than in a building, the sculpture was exhibited outdoors. Anna drew the design for the first walls and walkways in the shape of a butterfly’s wings.

Brookgreen Gardens opened to the public in 1932 and by 1934 it had grown to include several gardens featuring landscaped settings for sculpture interspersed with structures and other reminders of the 18th and 19th century property.

Through the founding of Brookgreen Gardens, construction of Atalaya, and other gifts, the Huntingtons helped to support area residents throughout the Great

Depression. The creation of a significant sculpture collection also provided help for struggling artists nationwide.

Fighting Stallions was created in 1950 to provide a sculpture at the entrance to Brookgreen Gardens that served as a landmark and an enticement for the highway traveler. At sixteen feet high, twelve feet wide, and six-and-one-half feet deep, it was the largest sculpture at that time cast in aluminum and has become a symbol of Brookgreen Gardens.

Among other large sculptures created in this period was The Torch Bearer, a monumental single rider carrying aloft the torch of knowledge. It was modeled in 1959 and later placed in front of the college of education on the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

Despite her age, her output of monumental works did not cease. From 1950 until her death in 1973, Huntington produced ten equestrian monuments, all life-size or larger.

Two depicted heroes of the American Revolution – Sybil Ludington, the teenage female Paul Revere sounding the cry to arms, and General Israel Putnam escaping from the British by riding his horse down a flight of stairs, shaking his fist and cursing.

Others drew upon Hispanic themes including an heroic monument to the Cuban patriot, Jose Martí, portrayed as he was cut down by an assassin’s bullet.

DIANA OF THE CHASE, bronze, 1922, collection of Brookgreen Gardens.

Anna Hyatt and Archer Huntington did not meet officially until he commissioned her to design a medal for The Hispanic Society of America in 1921. In the following year, they served together on a committee to coordinate a landmark sculpture exhibition opening under the auspices of the National Sculpture Society in the spring of 1923.

They were married March 10, 1923, a date which was also their shared birthdates and came to be known as their “3-in-1-Day.” He was fifty-three and had been married once before with no children; she was forty-seven and had never had time for the demands of a relationship.

Azaleas in bloom at Brookgreen Gardens, courtesy of Christopher John.

Anna Hyatt Huntington, Herbert Bohnert, oil on canvas, c. 1957, collection of Brookgreen Gardens.

She continued to work until illness prohibited her from going to the studio about one year prior to her death. Anna Hyatt Huntington died at Stanerigg Farm, her home in Connecticut, on October 4, 1973. Her body was interred next to Archer’s in the Huntington Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City. Her death was acknowledged around the world.

In 1992, Brookgreen Gardens was designated a National Historic Landmark due to Anna Hyatt Huntington’s significance as an artist and patron of the arts, and because of the number of women and their works represented in the art collection, making it an important site for women’s history in America. Today, the Brookgreen sculpture collection is the finest of its kind in the country. Anna Hyatt Huntington’s list of awards, prizes, and honors is lengthy. Her name lives on in awards given by organizations such as the Pen and Brush, National Association of Women Artists, Brookgreen Gardens, and the Scottish Deerhound Club of America.

Toward the end of her life, Huntington felt that her work had been forgotten as the art world focused on abstract and avant-garde art. Nevertheless, she continued to create sculpture that celebrated the equestrian tradition of heroes on horseback and the portrayal of animals, both domestic and wild. Today, her legacy is a large body of award-winning work produced over seven decades, a lifetime of supporting the profession that embraced her, and a desire to give to the people who needed her help and encouragement.

American Animalier: The Life and Art of Anna Hyatt Huntington, Rosen Galleries at Brookgreen Gardens, January 29-April 24, 2022.

Anna Hyatt Huntington in her studio, c. 1963.

COURTESY OF ORCHARD POINT

A KISS FROM THE SEA

THE JOY OF

Words by Darlene Greene / Photos by Braden Stocks

A FARMER'S DREAM On the rural Eastern coast, along the shores of the beautiful Chesapeake Bay is the Orchard Point Oyster Company, one of Maryland’s first oyster farms.

The Chesapeake, often referred to as “the great shellfish bay”, is the largest estuary in the United States. In 2009, Maryland passed legislation that would allow oyster farming along its shores on the Chesapeake.

COURTESY OF ORCHARD POINT

T

o enjoy an oyster fresh from the shell is like kissing the sea. Oyster lovers can tell you that, much like wine, the region from whence the oyster came will account for its unique flavor. Some of the common flavors you may experience are buttery/creamy, hints of melon or cucumber, slightly sweet, slightly salty, briny, and even coppery. Climate, water temperatures, salinity, and food sources all affect the taste of oysters.

Good oysters can have a firm, chewy, soft and/or plump texture. There are roughly five species of oysters found in the U.S. and they are typically separated by coast or Atlantic versus Pacific. While the West coast boasts sweeter oysters with flavors that hint of melon and cucumber, East coast oysters, which make up around 85% of all the oysters harvested in the U.S., are typically more savory in flavor.

Oysters are a delicate, bivalve mollusk that can live in both marine and brackish waters. They are protein and mineral rich including vitamins D, zinc, iron, copper, C, phosphorus, niacin, and riboflavin. In addition, they are rich in antioxidants and Omega-3 fatty acids. Many people consider oysters vegan as they have no central nervous system.

Oysters are also extremely beneficial for the environment. Oysters eat by straining algae from the water, providing natural filtration, thus improving water quality. A single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. This filtration process is key to ensuring water quality for other aquatic life and underwater grasses.

Oysters have been a popular food source along coastal regions for generations.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence that Native Americans sustainably harvested oysters, long before European settlers found their way to America’s shores. As oysters gained more popularity in the late 19th/early 20th century as a delicacy, wild oysters were over-harvested and natural beds depleted.

Due to their beneficial role for shorelines, waterways, estuaries and marshes, oyster farming has become a rapidly growing segment of aquaculture. Oyster farms provide natural support to the water, air and wildlife that make up these valuable ecosystems. Oysters filter the water, provide nitrogen and carbon cycling, and create habitats for many other aquatic life forms.

Orchard Point’s founder, Scott Budden, grew up on the Eastern Shore in Kent County, Maryland. After college Scott found himself in the cubicles of corporate America longing for a way to return to his childhood roots and making living on the water. Years of over-fishing and nutrient pollution had a detrimental effect on the Chesapeake, but by paving the way to sustainable farming methods, Maryland is now seeing an improvement in the Chesapeake Bay’s overall health.

How are oysters farmed? are they safe to and as tasty as wild oysters?

Much different from farm-raised fish, oysters grown in farms eat and develop in the exact same way as wild oysters, so they retain all their deliciousness and nutrients. Because of the sustainability of oyster farming methods, the environment benefits as well.

"

Our farms actually help the environment by providing habitats for a multitude of sea creatures and aquatic birds that live along the coastal marshes. It is cool to see all the wildlife as we are working, and they become familiar with us and our boats.

They become very comfortable around us," said Scott.

Farmers typically grow oysters in “condos” which are cages, racks or Taylor floats.

These devices allow the oysters to be held above the water part of the time which is essential for deeper shells and fatter oysters.

Scott Budden is proud of what they have accomplished with the farm and states, “each oyster we produce is raised by hand, carefully monitored during their two-year growing process to ensure they are cultivated with care. The surface floats use wind, tidal and wave energy to naturally tumble the oysters which promotes a deep shell cup, and a firm, satisfying consistency—perfect for anyone that wants to enjoy a beautiful half-shell oyster with a full flavor.”

“Orchard Point has a nursery but does not have its own hatchery. We purchase oyster seeds or spats from a hatchery at about 1 millimeter in size or less, very small. We place them in our nursery, called an upweller, which looks like a beehive. We use pumps to run water from the bay through the upweller to feed the spat to allow them to grow to around 4 millimeters in size. We then place them in bags that allow us to put them into the water to grow until they are about 9 millimeters in size. Then we move them out to the farms,”said Scott.

While Scott started Orchard Point in 2015, by 2018 he was able to expand his footprint when he joined forces with Brian Connelly and Hal McBee, Jr. Hal got into the business to improve the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem and economy. “Big Brian” just loves the Shore and eating oysters. The partners, along with the rest of their team, proudly produce the Upper and Mid-Bay’s best oysters. Their lyrical tag line says it all, “Little salty, little sweet – Quintessential Chesapeake.”

Direct sales, through both their website and several wholesale distributors, allow Orchard Point to sell their premium oysters to restaurants up and down the East coast and as far inland as Denver, Colorado. Their website also allows oyster lovers anywhere to order for delivery to their doorstep yearround.

They offer club subscriptions for 3, 6 and 12 months. Orders placed by the last Friday of the month are shipped by the 1st Friday of the following month and subscribers receive a cold shipment of 50 premium oysters. A great gift idea for anyone that loves fresh oysters.

THE STRENGTH TO MOVE

M O U N

AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS CROLLEY

T

his Spring, as businesses bustle, tourists tour, and traffic (both car and boat) traverses over and in the Charleston Harbor, something special will be quietly taking place on a little spit of land located at the mouth of Shem Creek. The story of Crab Bank Island is a testament to the fact that when people come together, they have the strength to move mountains. Or, in this case, build an island.

Created in the 1950’s from Charleston Harbor dredge material, Crab Bank evolved into a resting and nesting area for myriad shorebirds and received designation in 2006 as one of five seabird nesting sanctuaries off the coast of South Carolina. Over time, rising water levels, storms, and boat wakes

eroded the island and by 2017 the island had reverted from a ‘nesting’ area to simply a ‘resting’ area. By 2018, the island was all but gone, having slowly deteriorated from a 20acre island to a small, insignificant sandbar.

Chris Crolley, local naturalist and owner of Coastal Expeditions is one of a handful of passionate people and organizations that came together to restore this coastal treasure.

This restoration was made possible through the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project which will deepen the harbor’s shipping lanes by 52 feet. Some of the dredged material will be used to add 28+ acres back to Crab Bank Island. Chris sat down with us to answer a few questions and share his thoughts on this incredible project.

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CHRIS, WHAT MAKES CRAB BANK ISLAND SUCH A unique asset for charleston south carolina?

Well, let’s go back to the ‘old’ Crab Bank.

It was special because it was one of only 5 protected seabird nesting sanctuaries in the South Carolina. That alone, made it an asset for the Lowcountry and the state.

Today’s Crab Bank is an asset because it is an example of what people can do to save something they love. It went from success to total failure, and now, starting with this spring’s nesting season, we will see success once again. That’s pretty special. you have played a key role in saving crab bank. why is it special to you personally?

Crab Bank has been a part of my life for 30 years. One of my earliest memories of Crab Bank was watching in awe as 1000s of seabirds rose at once from the island because an eagle landed. It was such an impressive sight; truly a “National Geographic” moment. The island has been a part of my outdoor experience and my life’s work. It inspired me to get involved with nature, both enjoying and protecting it. To watch it decline down to nothing and now be a part of a community effort to facilitate its comeback…it’s just important; very, very important.

As I became involved in conservation I remember looking to the “Giants” of the ACE Basin project; Charles Lane, Hugh Lane, Mike Prevost, and Dana Beach to name a few. In a time when practically no one knew what a conservation easement was, they set the bar high and protected what is now one of the largest undeveloped estuaries along the Atlantic Coast. It was a metaphorical change in the tide; the environment had won out over development.

When I saw what was happening to Crab Bank, I felt called to be a part of something really big; and big it is. It’s a small piece of land, but with enormous effects on our coastal ecosystem.

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what would the fate of the island have been without this project?

Let’s first talk about why Crab Bank is so important. Seabirds will rest anywhere they can easily escape danger. But they will nest only where they feel safe for longer periods of time. This is also true of turtles. As our ocean levels rise, these animals are dealing with “coastal squeeze” or coastal habitat loss.

In addition to the rise in sea level, many of the places they would historically seek out in the past are now parking lots or buildings.

Without places like Crab Bank, seabirds and turtles have no place to nest. Populations will decline. It’s that simple.

And let’s talk about how important this project is beyond Crab Bank. Born from the Crab Bank project is a new program specifically designed to care for the coastal nesting birds of South Carolina for generations to come. The Coastal Bird Conservation Program (CBCP) is an interest-bearing fund held by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Funding donated to the CBCP will be utilized for habitat protection and restoration, increasing nest success, education, and research what's next for crab bank?

The best is yet to come. The most important chapter hasn’t been written. That will come when the birds return. The nesting season will begin in April and June is when the young birds will fly. What a great sight that will be.

Soon, efforts to plant spartina grass and oyster reefs will be discussed. But for now, Crab Bank is still settling into its new position. It’s reshaping and settling and is not quite ready for those efforts just yet.

SCDNR will assess how it settles and make the call for next steps.

how do you suggest that people enjoy this amazing little sanctuary?

Visit Crab Bank but do so on a self-powered vessel (kayak or paddle board). Watch the birds from an appropriate distance and gain an appreciation for what has been accomplished. It is a State Heritage Preserve and is off limits. It’s very important that people do not land on it!

And get involved. Volunteer. Contact SCDNR to get engaged with the Coastal Birds Conservation Program; or, other organizations like the South Carolina Aquarium or the Coastal Conservation League. If you want to make a difference, the opportunities are out there.

And I encourage everyone to simply pay attention. When you’re on Folly Beach or the Isle of Palms, or any of the Charleston area beaches and you see the beauty of pelicans flying in their “V” formation, gliding gracefully down across the water, just know, you are enjoying Crab Bank Island.

Courtesy of Adam Boozer

Post-restoration of the island. Courtesy of Jon Engle

The of change Words by Ashley Dolnack South Carolina Aquarium Public Relations Coordinator

Take a moment to close your eyes and visualize yourself visiting a dream aquarium.

You may see larger than life tanks filled with aquatic creatures of all sizes and colors.

Perhaps you can envision hand-feeding stingrays and feeling their smooth backs beneath your fingers. Maybe you smell the saltiness of the air.

Now try to picture those sights unseen: the places reserved for the aquarists, veterinarians and technicians. Do you picture the sights and sounds of a hospital, with whirring machinery, intensive care units and a CT scanner fit for a whale?

L

ocated in Charleston, South Carolina, alongside the breathtaking Charleston Harbor, is the South Carolina Aquarium.

A unique combination of aquarium and hospital, it houses animals representative of each of our state's regions while also focusing on the rescue, rehabilitation and release of ailing sea turtles. At the Aquarium, animal care is much more than a job — it's a calling to help ensure that sea turtles have a future in our oceans.

To fulfill this calling, the South Carolina Aquarium Sea Turtle Care Center™ aids sick and injured sea turtles in partnership with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Our committed team of biologists, veterinary staff and volunteers have spent countless hours performing critical, lifesaving work behind-the-scenes to care for these sea turtle patients. Upon arrival, each patient undergoes triage, which includes blood tests, vitamins, medications and fluids, until the patient is stabilized. Next, Care Center staff begins the careful consideration and buildout of an individualized care plan for each patient based off their diagnosis and species, with the end goal of releasing healthy turtles back into the wild to become reproductive members of their population.

All seven species of sea turtles are listed as threatened or endangered, a reflection of the growing concerns of climate change, sea level rise, plastic pollution and human impact. Sea turtles arrive at the Care Center suffering from a variety of ailments, including debilitated turtle syndrome, predation and boat strike wounds, injuries from accidental interactions with fishing gear and even exposure to dangerously low temperatures. It is a joint effort between veterinary and Care Center staff to diagnose and treat each sea turtle patient.

The Care Center has seen a wide variety of injuries over the course of 17 years. Their innovation and out-of-the-box thinking has led to many successful release stories, including that of a mighty little green sea turtle named Timon, who spent 28 months at the Care Center. His case was notable not just for his longer length of stay, but for a particularly unique treatment he received while in our care. Timon had a significant joint wound on his front flipper, one that our veterinary team treated with the help of a Kerecis fish skin graft to speed up the healing process. Thankfully, with this innovative treatment and the continuous care he received along the way, Timon was successfully released into the Lowcountry saltmarsh this past September.

Timon

Susie B.

Care Center staff not only rehabilitate sea turtles, but occasionally they help out their land-dwelling counterparts as well. Such was the case with Susie B., a diamondback terrapin. After being struck by a boat on her way to nest, Susie B. was rescued by a good samaritan. When she arrived, Susie B. had multiple fractures along her carapace and plastron, the top and bottom of the shell. Our vet staff quickly got to work on a solution for these severe fractures, utilizing some unconventional materials in the process. Bra hooks secured with epoxy and wire, coupled with orthopedic plates and screws, were used to pull Susie B.'s shell back together. After a few short months, she was released back into her natural environment.

Though the success of these innovative treatments is cause for celebration, many of these injuries could have been avoided — we would be remiss to discount the dire effects of negative human impact on sea turtles and their homes. It is stories like Timon and Susie B. that help inspire others to take action and enact change, ultimately creating a better world for wildlife.

Our coast serves as a refuge for humans and sea turtles alike. As we seek out beaches for recreation and relaxation, sea turtles utilize them as nesting grounds, providing shelter and incubation for the next generation of sea turtles. Respecting this delicate balance is essential. We can all make changes to become better stewards of the environment while enjoying all of the beauty nature has to offer.

In this day and age, we are not strangers to the dangers of plastic pollution; our Care Center staff witnesses its detrimental impacts firsthand. In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the number of sea turtle patients arriving with injuries due to marine debris, like entanglement from monofilament fishing line and or ingestion.

You have the opportunity to help alleviate this threat on an individual level by making small changes in your daily routine, like replacing single-use plastics with reusable alternatives and following proper recycling measures.

Even when you're spending days basking in the sun, keeping the "Pack In, Pack Out" mentality front of mind before you head home can make a world of difference for the future of sea turtles. Bringing home everything you arrived with (including trash, toys and food containers), along with filling in any holes you might have created throughout your stay, helps ensure sea turtles can safely nest on our shorelines without obstacles.

The South Carolina Aquarium and its animal care staff continually strive to give wildlife its best chance, both within and outside of its walls. Animal caregivers are more than just veterinarians or biologists; their work doesn’t stop with the prick of a needle or the installation of an IV bag. They are harbingers of change, creating a ripple of inspiration that emboldens people, just like you, to protect our world and the animals that call it home.

To learn more about the South Carolina Aquarium, and to stay up to date on current patients residing at the Sea Turtle Care Center, visit www.scaquarium.org/sea-turtlecare-center

At the South Carolina Aquarium, animal care isn't a job, it's a mission. Visit the Aquarium to support the innovative care and recovery of ailing sea turtles, like Timon.

Buy tickets at scaquarium.org

Providing Tools and Resources on Litter Prevention for 20 Years.

WATERGOAT, Greenville County, Oak Grove Lake

PalmettoPride.org

MEMORIES REFRESHED VISION RENEWED AND A

a story of how one county is taking steps to protect its natural legacy Words by Ken Roper

In Upcountry Carolina, words like history, tradition and legacy are in our common vocabulary. At the root of these words is the idea of remembering, of looking back at a time gone by. For my own part, these nostalgic glances are often of mountain scenes: hiking Table Rock with friends, picking blackberries near Rocky Bottom, or trout fishing with my father in Eastatoe Creek. Even today, I can remember the smell of my grandfather’s old smoke house and his overgrown muscadine vines, which grew near Cove Creek in Northern Pickens County. When I think about my childhood in Pickens County, I most often think of the mountains. Norman Maclean famously claimed to be “haunted by waters” but for me, I feel emboldened by a chorus of remembered mountain voices.

No county in South Carolina can claim ownership of the Blue Ridge Mountains and its deep Appalachian heritage more than Pickens. The summit of Sassafras Mountain, our state’s highest point, marks the border we share with our North Carolina neighbors. We are also home to Pinnacle Mountain, the tallest mountain located entirely in South Carolina. Among the list of other high peaks in Pickens County is Laurel Fork Mountain and what we believe to be the most photographed natural feature in the state, Table Rock Mountain. Along with these mountains come interconnected expanses of lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and natural areas.

The current generation can still recall a time when our mountains were remote and when our foothills were uniformly rural in nature.

But those times are quickly changing. Our foothills are threatened with urban sprawl, and our mountains will not be far behind.

As stewards of our natural beauty, and recognizing both the opportunities and the challenges that stewardship entails, Pickens County Council recently set one of its formal guiding visions to be the Protecting and Enhancing of Our Unique Nature. Taking this council vision as a call to action, our county staff moved quickly toward initiatives aimed at promoting and protecting our natural resources so that they are enjoyed by all and preserved for generations to come.

The first step to any such community undertaking is another form of remembering. County staff set out to catalogue our existing resources, both those under threat and those that were underutilized. Think of this effort as flipping through an old school yearbook or photo album, reminiscing on the people you once knew, or that you haven’t heard from in a while. But for a written record, many of these relationships would be neglected, or worse yet, forgotten entirely. So, with the fragility of unrecorded memory in mind, Pickens County underwent a Tourism Resource Assessment in partnership with

Clemson University’s PRTM department.

The goal of this asset inventory was to identify our existing resources in Pickens County and determine their condition, and then use those findings to discover resources we may be lacking.

Continuing with this new comprehensive assessment approach, Pickens County participated in a rebranding and marketing study led by the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor (SCNHC). That process yielded great suggestions and positive changes to launch a new logo, wordmark, and slogan. We now proudly proclaim that “Adventure Starts Here” in Pickens County.

Our Parks, Recreation, and Tourism team embraced these changes and now creates an online Adventure Guide each season highlighting the attractions throughout the county, including within our partner municipalities. This overarching view benefits the cities and towns by drawing attention to their own sites of interest and informs residents and visitors alike of the hidden gems throughout our county, including opportunities for outdoor recreation, dining, and historical and cultural attractions.

thesouthernedgemagazine.com 53

With our memories refreshed and our vision renewed, we looked forward with an eye toward protecting our cherished resources. In 2021, we became an official affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, a national non-profit that emphasizes “the shared responsibility to build and maintain clean, green, and beautiful spaces.” The Keep Pickens County Beautiful program partners with Palmetto Pride to provide litter education and litter reduction. We schedule regular community clean up events that bring citizens together to remove litter from our parks, roadways, and waterways. These collaborative efforts help us to maintain our county parks and instill in our locals a renewed desire to practice “pack it in, pack it out” on trails as well as general best practices for a litter-free Pickens County.

Furthermore, the County has increased our enforcement efforts with additional environmental enforcement officers and park rangers appointed as constables for litter enforcement within our county parks.

By caring for our natural resources, we are ensuring they are beautiful and safe for our citizens and visitors to enjoy now and in years to come.

Additionally, Pickens County enjoys a remarkable and beautiful stretch of S.C. Highway 11, the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Byway. Through the SCNHC study, this stretch of highway was identified as a place of opportunity, and also a place under threat.

Based on the study’s recommendations, two new county parks have been established along the scenic byway. First, the Grant Meadow Overlook, funded by a South Carolina Parks, Recreation, and Tourism PARD Grant and the Pickens County Transportation Committee (CTC), our new overlook provides a safe roadside area for taking the most iconic photos of Table Rock Mountain. Second, through a collaboration with the South Carolina Forestry Commission, County PRT took over operation and maintenance of the State Forestry area known as Long Shoals Recreation Area, which includes the trails immediately surrounding Little Eastatoe Creek. Several much-needed repairs and enhancements to access, fencing, and picnic areas have already been completed. These two county parks established our renewed

presence along the Highway 11 corridor, one located roughly on each end of the Scenic Byway’s length in our county.

The most powerful statement about our desire to protect our natural resources came in January 2022 when Pickens County Council voted unanimously to place a temporary moratorium on development along scenic Highway 11 until a collaborative Appalachian Council of Government-led study of proper development standards and preservation techniques could be drafted, debated, and enacted. Up until now, our county has been extremely fortunate to be spared rampant development along our portion of the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Byway. We can no longer leave the preservation of this cornerstone of our unique nature to mere chance. These efforts ensure that our natural resources are protected and enjoyed for many years to come so that one day, generations after us will also look back and remember the history, tradition and legacy of our county and the importance of preserving it.

My grandfather’s smokehouse is long gone, and his muscadine vines no longer grow nearby. But Cove Creek is still flowing through our foothills, and time goes with it. Cove Creek, and all the other creeks and streams up and around our beloved mountain home, are preserved and enhanced by tools with unexciting names like corridor studies, development moratorium, intergovernmental leases, or subdivision standards. But these mundanesounding endeavors are only expressions of the underlying - and much more compelling - truth: here in Pickens County, we are remembering.

OH MY DARLIN' CLEMENTINE...

Southern churin’ become masterful entertaining themselves with simple pleasures complements of nature. Even the smallest of creatures can provide hours of adventure and offer profound life lessons.

I had a pet worm, no kidding. I named the wiggly green creature, Clementine. I rescued her or him (I mean seriously, how can you tell the gender of a worm) from an ear of corn that I was shucking with my friend, Orlonzo. Every Summer, we prepared fresh corn from the farm for the freezer; this was a Southern tradition that you dare not skip.

My parents made sure we all were in full team mode to put up corn. It was an annual event that lasted the entire day. We had an assembly line of workers; each knew their jobs. First, we would pull the corn, shuck it, remove the silks, then par-boil the ears. My job was to sit in front of a large, galvanized tub filled with ice water, cool the ears and then slice the kernels from the cob with either a sharp knife or grater. Thinking back, using a sharp knife was not the best job for a tenyear old. Finally, the corn was bagged in a clear plastic pouch. A twist-tie was added to the top of the bag to seal the corn, but only after all the air was let out of the bag. Finally, the golden delicacy was placed in the chest freezer. In the dead of winter, the bag was retrieved and thawed. The delicious silver-queen corn warmed out hearts and satisfied our appetites….oh, so good!

The worse part of the whole experience was finding a worm or even worse, half a worm. The habitats of unsuspecting, innocent earworms were being disturbed. The guilt was overwhelming.

Being young and ambitious, my Johns Island childhood friend, Leize and I started a “Save the Worm” campaign and considered starting our own worm farm. As children of the 60’s we were definitely in sync with the “Summer of Love” movement.

Our course of action was very simple: rescue the worms then place the creatures in a Mason Jar with a few blades of grass. It seemed like a great plan until another annual family tradition was celebrated…. vacation.

56

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After the harvest, my family planned a trip to Maggie Valley, North Carolina but there was no one to take care of Clementine except Leize.

The pet worm would be safe and well-fed staying with my barefoot buddy, or so I thought. The only problem was her mother was extremely prissy, very particular and always had every hair in place.

Most southern women will admit that the only event that would interrupt their weekly visit to the beauty salon was death.

Upon returning from the family trip, I called Leize. I could tell that something was wrong… terribly wrong.

Now Available for purchase.

“Jane, Clementine escaped,” said my tearful friend.

“Oh, no!” I exclaimed. “Clementine is lost?”

“Sorta, kind-a,” said Leize. “We found Clementine in Momma’s hairbrush. She just returned from the beauty shop and as she was using it to rearrange her “do”, and, uh, her hair turned green…”

To say that worm had a brush with death is an understatement.

I remember those hard plastic brushes. Avon sold them. The strands of hair lodged in the brush could have resembled corn silks that confused the creature. Poor Clementine probably thought it had made its way back home.

But all is not lost; Leize and I took advantage of the lessons from Clementine’s short life. As adults, we developed a “go-to” phrase from that childhood experience.

When things got rough, we would always refer to our adventure with the earworm.

Well, it can always be worse… remember Clementine.

Jane is the best-selling author of four books and a professional Southern humorist.

For speaking engagements visit janeherlong.com

THE LESSER and GREATER OUTDOORS

Here in the south, we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to nature and the outdoors.

Whether it be the great outdoors of our beaches and mountains and swamps or the lesser outdoors of our yards and gardens, there’s no end to what we can enjoy and appreciate. Southerners have long been called a people of the land, and certainly we have our share of folks who hunt and fish, water and snow ski, swim and climb, plant and sow and reap, hike and run and walk, and just about every other activity the mind can envision; how about zip-lining, canoeing, kayaking, camping, hang-gliding, horseback riding?

I remember when we stayed outside no matter the season or temperature or weather. Maybe I’m looking through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, but I never felt hot or cold, did you?

We came inside only when forced by parents, when we got hungry, or to watch Adam-12, Emergency, or The Dukes of Hazzard. At least in South Carolina, we didn’t have fire ants until sometime in the 1980s (or so I’m told), and going barefooted (that’s how we say it) was normal— many mothers allowed going barefooted on May 1, though I have no idea where that specific date originated. Instead of fire ant bites, we didn’t like stepping on snails, animals’ leavings, or thistles, but we didn’t complain much about those either.

One activity I didn’t mention above is biking.

Having a bicycle meant freedom, and I don’t think we ever felt tired? Just beyond our street and neighborhood was the whole wide world just waiting to be explored. I remember getting a banana seat for my bike, just like everyone else’s, and seeing my first English racing bicycle when a Yankee teenager came to town on a visit. I thought I’d never seen anything more beautiful, and I cajoled my daddy into taking me to the bike store. This was the early 1970s when I was about 10, and I found just the bike I wanted—for $92.00 (I’ll never forget that amount). That seemed like a fortune to a kid, and daddy wasn’t having it. “There’s nothing wrong with your bicycle and I’m not about to pay that much for another one.” FYI, that $92.00 in 1972 would be the equivalent today of $585.54 (according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator).

No wonder daddy wouldn’t pull out his billfold.

Instead, I got a job delivering the afternoon

Greenville Piedmont and worked only long enough to buy the bike (which seemed to take forever and a day). And I rode that bike until there was barely anything left of it.

Thanks to our temperate, semi-tropical climate, we can luxuriate in the outdoors year ‘round, and there is no good reason not to enjoy the beautiful south. As William Shakespeare allegedly said “[t]he earth has music for those who listen…”.

Can you hear that siren song calling you? Maybe to the mountains of North Carolina, the shores of most of our states, the swamps and lakes and rivers and bayous and woods? Have you been asked whether you’re a beach person, mountain person, or lake person, and your answer was yes to all? One of the happy benefits of living in a state that is both Appalachian and coastal is that we don’t have to choose. Even if you’re only cloud gazing from your Pawley’s Island hammock, being outside is sublime, the next best thing to heaven.

And because we have so many hunters and outdoorsmen and -women, I believe we’re more conscious of being stewards of the earth and taking care of it for those who come after us.

John James Audubon, who spent some of his most productive time in the south, taught that “[a] true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.” Children should be taught the importance of being outdoors from an early age so those electronic gadgets don’t become permanently attached to their hands. A longtime friend of mine, a distinguished jurist from the South Carolina Upcountry, is very active in scouting, and provides many opportunities to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance, to camp, cook over an open fire, and be careful to leave where they’ve been in at least as good a condition as they found it.

pig-pickin’ with sauce all over your hands and face. Do some star-gazing, kids or no kids—a truck bed makes a great place to lie down and stare up). Hit the slopes in winter and the lakes in summer, or a bridle path, or a hiking trail anytime of the year. You’ll remove the cobwebs from your mind, get your blood pumping, work out all those stresses and strains of the workaday world, and appreciate what you’ve been loaned (no, we can’t take it with us). Maybe you can get an older relative to teach you how to preserve some of those fruits and vegetables you planted after Good Friday (if your “old” relatives can’t teach you, the University of Georgia has tons of information on “putting up” food for the winter).

You can’t have pear preserves on your hot buttered biscuit without having made those preserves— you know they’re better than store-bought.

As soon after reading this as possible, grab your sweetheart and head outdoors on a clearsky evening with a blanket, a fire or firepit, and the following: graham crackers and/or saltine crackers, peanut butter, marshmallows, a chocolate bar, and a straightened-out shirt hanger. Don’t sneer at the thought of saltines in place of graham crackers because the salty crispiness makes a nice change. Spread a little peanut butter on the crackers, plop on a piece of chocolate, and add the marshmallow when it’s as burned as you like it. Get your hands all sticky, and maybe your sweetheart will give you the other kind of sugar (that’s a kiss, duh, and the final “r” is pronounced as an “h”).

As I write this essay, we are going into a third year of one of the worst pandemics in memory, and getting outside reconnecting to nature and ourselves is more important than ever. Get on your feet or wheel that chair down a path. Row the boat down that stream, fly that kite, catch that fish (and maybe cook it); take your animals for walks, fix up your yard, plant some flowers and vegetables. Have that cookout or picnic or thesouthernedgemagazine.com 57

Southern humorist Jane Jenkins Herlong brings joy and humor with her 50 unusual-but-true faith-filled stories of growing up in the South Carolina lowcountry. Whether you love Southern ways of life or find their ways strange and amusing, you’ll be entertained and inspired with warm Southern-fried humor and tried-and-true tips for attaining the best version of yourself. Colorful and beautifully illustrated, this collection of stories addresses specific landmark events in Jane’s life, along with issues in a Southern woman’s life, such as fitting into the covered-dish church culture, sacred sisterhood, finding hope in every season of life, and why so many people are drawn to beauty pageant competitions.

For more information, visit Jane’s website www.janeherlong.com or check out her YouTube Channel.

Available wherever books are sold.

V is it Valdese, NC Nestled between Mineral Springs Mountain and Lake Rhodhiss, Valdese is the perfect place to spend the weekend. Conveniently located along I-40, between Morganton & Hickory. The quaint small town offers a great getaway. Plan to catch a show at the Cranford Amphitheatre, experience Waldensian heritage at the local museum, take a hike to McGalliard Falls and enjoy the lake views at Valdese Lakeside Park.

Upcoming Events

Spring Craft Market April 30, 2022

Hunchback of Notre Dame April 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29 & 30 Family Friday Nights FREE Concerts May 27-Sept. 2

Plan your visit at visitvaldese.com

F L AVO R

meet

Duke

AN INTERVIEW WITH CHEF DUKE GARY

Tell us how you became a chef.

I believe that I was always a good cook as a kid. Everyone in my family cooked. My mother was my first teacher, my aunts were my second teachers, and my cousins were my competition.

So my family helped me become a what I am today.

How old were you when you started cooking and how did you learn?

I was 10 when I first started cooking and I loved cooking eggs. I used to watch my mother cook eggs all of the time for breakfast. My mother has the credit for inspiring me to cook. I didn’t really take it seriously until I was hired at a restaurant in 2007. I would watch hours of videos and write down everything from the videos. From there I would add my own twist to a recipe and cook it over and over until it was perfect.

What is your favorite cuisine to prepare?

My favorite cuisine to prepare is probably lamb.

There's nothing like lamb chops braised in a port wine sauce and garnished with sautéed grapes and rosemary.

Favorite dish you created.

My favorite dish is my signature tenderloin.

It's marinated in pineapple juice and spices, and every time I cook it people love it.

It's always important for a chef to have that one signature dish no one can create, and I found mine with the tenderloin.

Have you ever taken a traditional dish and added your own signature touch to it?

Yes, I have taken the traditional shrimp and grits and added my signature touch to it. Instead of pot boiling the grits, I put the grits in the oven and bake. I let them cool down, cut them into squares, dip the grits in a wet batter, then fry the grits. Instead of making a traditional brown gravy, I like to make a white sauce gravy using heavy cream and vegetable stock and other spices.

One word to describe your cooking style.

If I were to put a style on my cooking I would call it "on the fly." The reason why I would call it that is because I’m great at creating any dish on the fly. I love to make sauces right on the spot. A lot of people make their sauces beforehand, then heat it up to be served with their dish, I don’t do that. I’m more of a straight out of the pan, onto the plate, keeping it as fresh as possible.

What are 3 kitchen tools you cannot do without?

Three kitchen tools that I cannot do without are a sauté pan, a knife, and a whisk.

What’s next in the kitchen for Duke Gary?

What’s next for Duke Gary is opening up a jazz bistro. It will have all the vibes of Harlem’s Cotton Club. Excellent food, live jazz, and live performances. Camden has never had anything like this and that’s how I will make it successful.

Instead of a traditional restaurant, I will change the game by having famous people performing at Pearline’s in our small town. All I can say... is stay tuned.

shrimp scampi (over Pasta) INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

1/4 cup olive oil

PASTA

2 tablespoons butter

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water and olive oil to a boil. Cook angel hair

1/4 cup Chardonnay wine

pasta in boiling water stirring occasionally, until tender yet firm to the bite, 4

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

to 5 minutes. Drain.

1 lemon wrap ( juice from half of lemon) 2 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro

SHRIMP SCAMPI

1/4 cup diced cherry tomatoes

Heat olive oil and butter into a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic

1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper.

and cook until garlic is fragrant. Add tomatoes, Chardonnay, and crushed red

Salt and Pepper

peppers and bring to a simmer. Let wine reduce about half way. Add shrimp

1 cup of feta cheese

and sauté until shrimp turns pink. Stir in lemon juice, feta cheese, and

1 3/4 of large shelled and deveined shrimp

parsley and serve over pasta.

CR AB CAKES (with Mustard Jalapeno Sauce)

Mustard Jalapeno Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup of Mayonnaise

Combine all Ingredients steps through 1-7. Do not over mix.

4 jalapeños peppers minced

Using a blender, crush plank into fine bits.

Carefully combine both lump and special crab meat together. Do not break up crab meat. Fold together with 1-7 mix.

2 cups of whole grain mustard

Portion crab cakes using a slightly rounded 1/3 measuring cup.

DIRECTIONS:

Place portions into pan containing Panko bread crumbs and lightly coat on both sides

Whisk all ingredients into a mixing bowl. Put in proper container and keep cool until ready to serve.

1 Cup of minced yellow onion 8 eggs lightly beaten 2 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon of salt 2 teaspoons of dry mustard 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper 3 pounds of Lump crab meat 1 pound of special crab meat 1 cup of Panko bread crumbs, finely crushed 3 cups of reserved Panko

Place breaded crab cakes into preheated oven at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or crab cakes are toasted all the way around.

4 cups of mayonnaise 4 tablespoons of lemon juice 4 teaspoons of chopped parsley

BROCCOLI BITES INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

2.5 Pounds of chopped broccoli, drained.

Drain thawed broccoli in a china cap or colander, press out all moisture if possible.

15 large eggs 2.5 pounds of jack cheese, shredded 1 pound of bacon bits 1 and 1/4 cups of diced yellow onions 1.5 cups of flour Seasoned bread crumbs ( as needed) 4 cups of cooking oil

Crack eggs into large mixing bowl. Beat with mixing wire whip until smooth.

Combine drained broccoli eggs and other ingredients into large mixing bowl and mix with gloved hands or rubber spatula until throughly combined.

Portion mix using a 3/4 scoop, into balls and place in a pan containing seasoned bread crumbs.

When pan is filled, cover with plastic wrap, and place in freezer for 1 hour to harden.

Heat cooking oil up to 350°. Place breaded broccoli bite in oil and fry for 3 minutes.

Serve hot.

a

Twist to the

traditional Words by Yuka Greer / Recipes by Mayumi

What kind of food do you pack in your backpack for your day hike? If you often stick with the usual trail mix and energy bars, but would like to try something different, we have two Japanese-inspired recipes that might just be the answer. When deciding what to take on a hike, snacks must be nutritious enough to fuel our bodies, compact enough to store in our backpacks, and safe to eat without refrigeration. Along with some nuts and fruit, these two simple recipes pack a nutritional AND tasty punch for your time on the trail.

kimchi Onigiri This Japanese rice ball is made from cooked short-grain rice formed into triangle or cylindrical shapes with vegetable and/or meat filling and sometimes wrapped in nori (seaweed sheet). Much like sandwiches, you can combine your favorite protein, vegetables, and condiments/spices all in one ball of rice. It’s a favorite of hikers in Japan and I guarantee that if you love to hike and you like Japanese cuisine, Onigiri will be a new favorite while out exploring.

INGREDIENTS (FOR FOUR RICE BALLS)

DIRECTIONS

1 cup cooked short-grain/sushi rice

Warm the cooked rice.

(could use instant sticky rice)

¼ cup minced onions 1 hotdog wiener/frankfurter, sliced 1 tsp butter 1 Tbsp Ketchup ¼ tsp salt 1 tsp garlic powder 2 Tbsp Kimchi, chopped A handful shredded Italian cheese

Mix ketchup, salt, and garlic powder.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and sauté the onion until transparent. Add wiener slices and sauté more.

In a large bowl, mix rice, the onion/wiener mix, and the remaining ingredients.

Divide the rice mixture into four parts. Place one part at the center of a piece of plastic wrap. Pick up four corners of the wrap, twist the wrap right above the rice mixture, and tie with a twist tie or a decorative ribbon.

A handful chopped cilantro, optional thesouthernedgemagazine.com 65

10 Amazing Benefits of Kimchi

kimchi!

Kimchi, pronounced “kim-chee”, is a fermented food that has been THE staple item in Korea for over 3,000 years. It is typically made with cabbage, other vegetables, ginger, garlic, chili peppers, fermented seafood, and spices and aged for as short as a couple of weeks to as long as several years. A side dish to the basic Korean meal, Kimchi has recently grown in popularity because of its health benefits, much like Kombucha, and can now be found at grocery stores and local farmers markets.

Healthy Gut Kimchi is rich in probiotics with lactic acid bacteria. In the intestines, it increases good bacteria (microbiome) and keeps intestinal bacteria in balance. Probiotics aid digestion by activating those bacteria and improves intestinal health.

Stronger Immunity A majority of immune function is concentrated in the intestines. The better the intestinal bacteria are, the stronger the overall immunity.

Lower Cholesterol Multiple studies show that people who consume kimchi daily tend to have a LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein), also known as a “bad” cholesterol level.

Healthy Heart Some ingredients commonly used for Kimchi – ginger, garlic, and chili peppers are known to be abundant with antioxidants, which prevent heart disease and other chronic conditions.

Anti-inflammatory Effect Probiotics may help counteract inflammation in the intestines.

Healthy Brain The nerve system in the intestines is connected to the brain. Healthy gut also means healthy brain.

Yeast Infection Prevention The probiotics in kimchi have an antibacterial effect and could help prevent yeast infections.

Healthy eyes Kimchi is abundant with the antioxidant beta carotene, which when consumed, is converted into vitamin A and helps to maintain eye health.

Healthy Blood Sugar A report says participants with prediabetes who consumed kimchi for over 8 weeks showed improvement in blood sugar level.

HAP (ham, apple, and cream cheese) A Japanese-inspired twist to the traditional ‘ham and cheese’ sandwich is as simple as adding a flavorful nut paste.

Switch up the meats and cheeses for a variety of sandwiches that will keep your meals as interesting and adventurous as the trail itself.

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

Sandwich bread

Spread cream cheese on one slice of bread and the peanut butter/balsamic vinegar paste on the other slice.

Sliced ham or your favorite deli meat Thin apple slices Lettuce Garlic and herb cream cheese

Place apple slices, ham, and lettuce on one slice and top with the other slice.

Cook sandwich in a panini press, in a skillet on the stove, or in a toaster oven.

PEANUT BUTTER/BALSAMIC VINEGAR PASTE 2 Tbsp peanut butter or nut butter of your choice 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar 2 tsp soy sauce 2 tsp or more honey 1 tsp garlic oil (store bought or homemade) Salt & pepper thesouthernedgemagazine.com 67

PL AN YOUR NEX T

farm adventure AT

SCFARMFUN.ORG

South Carolina

AG RITOU RISM PA SSP O RT Pick up your passport to SC Farm Fun! View the list of participating farms at scagritourism.org.

WELLNESS

Essential Oils: A NEW TOOL IN YOUR HEALTH & WELLNESS TOOLBOX Words by Jaimie McCollum

Essential oils may be new on your radar, but their origins can be traced back centuries. They not only smell great, but they are known to reduce stress, treat infections, help you sleep, and even clean your home. The modern lifestyle, coupled with an excess of environmental toxins can have a negative effect on our health and well-being. Essential oils can help restore balance to your life and leave you and your home feeling better.

Jaimie McCollum, new wife and mom, and distributor for Young Life Essential Oils, answers some of the most frequently asked questions regarding the new-found love and modern use of essential oils.

What are essential oils?

Essential oils are concentrated extracts harvested from plants, herbs, and trees, which are steam distilled or cold pressed.

These pure oils are more potent than the botanicals from which they’re extracted and contain a variety of health and wellness benefits.

How do essential oils work?

Essential oils have a variety of uses; from oils that help heal cuts and wounds to oils that help you combat that lingering cough. There are oils that assist with weight management, stress relief, healthy skin, and much more.

You can feel confident in Young Living’s oils because they are in their purest form.

How are Young Living oils different from other brands?

Not all essential oils are the same. You should research your product prior to buying. Young Living oils are sourced from corporate-owned farms, partner farms, or Seed to Seal—certified suppliers. Young Living’s Seed to Seal commitment ensures that you are getting the highest quality available. You can even visit the farms where they source their oils. In short, you get what you pay for.

Is it safe to share essential oils with my dogs or cats?

Most oils are perfectly safe for your furry friends! It is best to avoid high-phenol oils such as Oregano, Wintergreen, Clove, Mountain Savory, and Thyme. You should always leave the door open to allow your pets to leave the room if they wish. Young Living also offers animal-specific products, including essential oil blends made just for animals, cat treats, dental pet chews, and shampoo.

Can I ingest Young Living Oils?

Young Living offers ‘Vitality Oils’ which means you can ingest them. Add a drop of lemon (which is equivalent to the juice of half a lemon) to your morning water, a drop of basil to your favorite pasta dish, or even a drop of peppermint to your morning coffee.

What else does Young Living offer?

Young Living offers more than just oils.

From soaps and household cleaners to the delicious NingXia Red drink, which packs a punch full of antioxidants.

One ounce of NingXia contains the antioxidant power of: four pounds of carrots, two quarts of carrot juice, eight oranges, one pint of orange juice, two pounds of beets, two cups of beet juice, three cups of raspberries, and two cups of blueberries… Combined!

Thieves: Thieves has a variety of uses. One capful for a cup of water is all you need to make your household cleaner. Have a cold that won’t go away? A few drops of Thieves essential oil on the bottom of your feet should do the trick. Need a chemical free laundry detergent?

Thieves has you covered!

What's the best way to get started? I feel overwhelmed!

The best way to start your health journey with Young Living is by purchasing a starter kit. With a beautiful diffuser, twelve oils, samples of NingXia Red and Thieves, you can’t go wrong. It retails for over $400 and you can get this bundle for just $165. myyl.com/jaimiemccollum jaimiemccollum@icloud.com Member ID: 31150526

*Some information derived from the Young Living Website

Meet Jaimie A spark ignited in me when I became pregnant with my daughter, and I looked into all of the chemicals in everyday cleaners, foods, and medications. There were so many things I had to give up during pregnancy and I began to question why. As I did my research, I realized that if I was pregnant or not, there were some serious things that I wanted to change to make my home healthier.

I use the Thieves line to clean our home. I now reach for a bottle of peppermint oil for a cough rather than cough syrup. I used a few drops of Thieves Vitality into my morning tea for a cold instead of grabbing the usual cold medicine. It has worked wonders for me, and I will never go back. My family is better for it.

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RICH HISTORY. BRIGHT FUTURE.

•PARKS•RECREATION• and TOURISM

One Berkeley

exploreberkeleycounty.com

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AT THE HEART of it ALL

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Paddle SC is a partnership initiative that aims to increase public awareness and enjoyment of blueways across the state of South Carolina by providing regularly updated maps and information.

Visit GoPaddleSC.com for web-based maps of South Carolina blueways and information on individual paddle trips with put-in and take-out locations. From the site, you can plan your trip and see other kayakers’ comments on given trips.

To kick off the 2022 Paddle Season, here are a few of our favorite trips: WHITEWATER ADVENTURE: RAFTING THE CHATTOOGA WITH WILDWATER, LTD. As a National Wild and Scenic River, rafting the Chattooga is a true wilderness experience with twenty-six miles of natural white-water adventure for all experience levels. Choose from family-friendly Section III, or the exhilaration of Section IV. Or do both sections on a Chattooga Overnighter (Camping or Cabins). An easy drive northeast from Atlanta, the Chattooga River is an experience no one should miss.

As a free-flowing river, no two trips are the same, with rain there is higher water with bigger rapids and during periods of less rain the trip pace slows down with more time for swimming! wildwaterrafting.com FLATWATER ADVENTURE: MEANDERING THE EDISTO WITH EDISTO RIVER ADVENTURES Edisto River Adventures is a unique tubing experience like no other. Taking in the scenery of one of the world’s longest blackwater rivers is a true adventure specific to the Lowcountry of South Carolina. The trip ends at the riverfront Outpost and the after-float fun begins, with a full-size sand volleyball court, cornhole, and other beach games.

Sunbathe, swim, or mingle on the sandbar where locals and other floaters rendezvous to wade and relax in the cool waters of the river. Food trucks are also available on weekends with plenty of shade and picnic areas. edistoriveradventures.com COASTAL ADVENTURE: KAYAKING WITH KIDS AND COASTAL EXPEDITIONS Setting out for adventure with kids but not sure how they can handle the duration? That’s what the 2-hour Family Paddle is all about. You’ll have the same top-tier guides and gear that you’d have on any other Coastal Expeditions trip, they just tailor it to make sure that the kids are having as much fun as the adults. It’s a great introduction to kayaking, taking in the sights of the Charleston Harbor, and looking for dolphins and manatees as you paddle down Shem Creek. Your guide will engage everyone in your group, sharing stories about local history and explaining the unique habitats that make up the Lowcountry landscape. www.coastalexpeditions.com

SOUTH CAROLINA

S O U T H C A R O L I N A 7. C O M

The SC7 Expedition Team is prepping for their 3rd annual trek across South Carolina from the mountains to the sea. The mission: get people in the outdoors so they gain an appreciation for the outdoors, and ultimately, begin to do their part to protect the outdoors.

What started as an expedition in July 2020 to highlight seven natural wonders of South Carolina (you know, like the 7 wonders of the world?), has turned into a movement to preserve, protect, and promote all natural resources across South Carolina.

The expedition calls attention to the ‘7 Wonders’ unique to the state, but fans and followers of the expedition are encouraged to get outdoors and explore ALL of South Carolina.

The theme of the 2020 expedition was focused on getting outdoors for health and wellness, which was perfect for a time when people were dealing with the ramifications of social distancing and quarantining. The 2021 Expedition highlighted the work of the Governor’s Floodwater Commission to make our state more resilient to severe weather threats. (Did you know that South Carolina has had a catastrophic weather event every year for the past five years?).

This year, the expedition will highlight the work of businesses, government entities, and organizations across the state that are passionate about doing their part to protect the environment and to encourage outdoor recreation as a part of their corporate wellness plans. One of the leaders in this area is the Medical University of South Carolina. The Charleston-based academic medical center is now expanding their services of patient care, research and development, and education as they open new centers across the state.

As part of growing their footprint across South Carolina, MUSC has officially come on board as the SC7 2022 Presenting Sponsor. Expedition team leader and worldrenowned explorer, Tom Mullikin, is excited to welcome MUSC to the team. “MUSC is one of the premier medical providers in the United States. We are honored to join with them to bring awareness to protect our beautiful environment and enhance health initiatives across South Carolina,” stated Mullikin.

Building off the amazing work of MUSC to improve the health and wellness of the citizens of South Carolina, their participation, led Dr. Susan Johnson, will highlight outdoor recreation as a key component of healthy living. “Recognizing the connection between human health, wellbeing and the natural environment, we welcome the opportunity to join forces with SC7 to promote green health and the importance of protecting the precious natural resources of our state,” stated Johnson.

Danielle Scheurer, MD, Chief Quality Officer for MUSC, is thrilled with the partnership. “The challenge encourages outdoor fitness and recreation for people of all ages,” she stated. “MUSC is proud to be a part of this creative and engaging endeavor, which will improve the health and wellbeing of citizens throughout the state.”

Another important focus of the MUSC partnership with SC7 is getting children outdoors for health and wellness. Mark Scheurer, MD, Chief, Children’s and Women’s Services stressed, “Nature is a

child’s best first playground: offering a chance to experience the joys of movement, discovery and growth in glory of the outdoors. In South Carolina we are so fortunate to have the country’s finest natural settings. We are proud to partner with SC7 in their efforts to raise awareness of our state’s treasures and encourage all South Carolinians, young and old, to actively explore them.”

Thanks to the partnership with MUSC, this year’s expedition will include several new large-scale public events; the “Appalachians to the Atlantic Virtual Fitness Challenge,” the “Midlands Adventure,” and the “Adventure Out Weekend” to be held the final weekend of the July expedition.

Information on these, and other public, events can be found on the SC7 website (www.southcarolina7.com). The website also contains a link to the documentary “Higher Ground”, which highlights the work of SC7 to make South Carolina more resilient to the effects of severe weather. We encourage you to watch it. It will make you proud to be a South Carolinian.

Come out and join SC7 and MUSC on the public event days! See you on the trail!

Pictured (L-R) Michelle McCollum, SC7 Logistics Officer; Susan Johnson, PhD, Director of Health Promotion, MUSC; Dr. David Zaas, CEO of MUSC Health Charleston; Kaitlin DaPore, MUSC’s Director of Health Coaching and Wellness Programming; and Abbey Stevens, SC7 Project Manager.

LEADING EXPEDITIONS HERE IN THE PALMETTO STATE AND AROUND THE WORLD CONGRATULATING DR. TOM MULLIKIN on his recent doctoral degree and 2022 works-in-action

THE SOUTHERN EDGE congratulates Dr. Tom Mullikin, the celebrated global expedition leader from South Carolina, founder of Global Eco Adventures (GEA) and chair of the S.C. Floodwater Commission, who is planning several new grand adventures for 2022: The first being the GEA-directed POWERPLANTSC, which is the second-annual statewide tree-planting event. Then there are the four WORLD OCEAN DAY cleanups, each directed by GEA, from South Carolina to Maui to the Galapagos. Then there is the third-annual month-long SOUTH CAROLINA SEVEN (SC7) expedition across the state from the mountains to the sea. SC7 is jointly directed

by GEA and the S.C. National Heritage Corridor.

Lastly, there is the HUMBOLDT TO DARWIN expedition partnering with the Universidad San Francisco Quito which will begin on Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo (highest summit on Earth) and will conclude in the Galapagos Islands.

Author, film producer, university professor and so much more; Dr. Tom Mullikin was awarded his PhD from Columbia International University in Dec. 2021. He is a former U.S. Army officer and retired major general (commander) of the S.C. State Guard, who for decades has been exploring, educating others about and researching the planet’s most remote and often

dangerous environs. Mullikin’s expeditionary accomplishments to date are legion: Having already logged SCUBA dives in every ocean on Earth and having climbed mountains on every continent, Mullikin has also navigated isolated stretches of desert, rain forest, and arctic tundra often at the head of groups of former U.S. military special operators and scientific leaders.

HIGH CAMP ON MT. ACONCAGUA (THE HIGHEST SUMMIT IN THE WESTERN & SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE)

SHARK DIVING

GLOBAL ECO ADVENTURES was founded by Dr. Mullikin in 2014. His son, Thomas Mullikin, Jr., was named president of the non-profit exploration and education organization in Dec. 2021.

Again, congratulations from your friends and supporters at THE SOUTHERN EDGE. ABOVE MT. EVEREST BASE CAMP

REGISTER NOW join the fun and virtually bike, hike, run, walk or paddle from the appalachians to the atlantic with us! a program of SC7, this event will conclude on july 30, 2022.

VISIT EACH OF SOUTH CAROLINA’s 7 WONDERS AS YOU TRACK YOUR MILEAGE AND VIRTUALLY PROGRESS ACROSS THE STATE.

Southcarolina7.com