Choose Charleston

Award-winning food writer Holly Herrick, perhaps best known locally for her work with The Post & Courier, has long been an advocate for local, seasonal food choices - fresh from the farm fare that only travels a few miles down the road from where it was grown to where it is sold at farmers’ markets.

Those interested in hands-on, close up and personal, instruction in the art of orchestrating showstopper meals from ingredients selected at the Charleston Farmers’ Market on Marion Square can now sign up for small (limited to four students) Saturday morning classes with Holly.

Now only do students get a slow walk through the entire process, from choosing the freshest in-season products to top flight cooking techniques, the class culminates in a savory meal complete with wine pairings.

Information on registration for classes is available online or by calling (843) 720-3109.

It’s the big two-double-oh for the City Market, one of the top destinations in town for tourists.

To say that Market Street has a storied past is an understatement.

Longtime Charlestonians recall the days when wandering into the Market was a rather dicey proposition. When the chain supermarkets first hit the area, the former go-to place for fresh food withered and went wild with weeds, so to speak. Lots of flies and buzzards circling in the skies are some of the visuals with which oral historians pepper their tales of those days.

Luckily, King Joe and like-minded preservationists were coming into power back then. The Market did an about face in step with the rest of the slightly North of Broad Street area.

Today, it is vibrant and bustling with activity. Everything from artisan sweetgrass baskets to art prints, kitschy t-shirts, candy, and keepsakes are sold in the Market these days.

Market Street is also a good jumping-off point for just about anything else you might choose to do while touring the peninsula.

Wild Wing Cafe and Tristan are just two of the many eateries on Market Street. Charleston Legends and Lore Ghost Theatre is a short walk down Church Street from the Market. The Shops at Charleston Place are just across Meeting Street, FIG and Jestine’s Kitchen are within walking distance, as is King Street shopping.

Every now and again, I run through the local Craigslist just to catch a sense of what folks are buying, selling, or trading. What kinds of gigs are emerging, what openings for talent are on the upswing, and who is scouting out whom?

The method, I’ll grant you, is hardly scientific. Its fundamental limitation is that it only speaks of the segment of the population that chooses to use online posting to announce its hopes and dreams.

Some of it is truly scary. “Surely not in gentle Charleston,” I have whispered many a time while going clickety-click through the ads.

We could simply blame ‘bots for anything too out of character, of course, but it is also true that these are changing times and a changing place. People are moving to the South Carolina Lowcountry at an increasingly rapid rate, each bringing their own individual blend of ideas and expectations into the big old melting pot of Frogmore Stew we call home.

Even old Charleston, South of Broad, has absorbed its share of incoming new money from the North as of late.

We still have our cobblestone and the soft clop-clop of horse hooves from the carriage tours but we also have an emerging digital corridor and a medical district that is soaring skyward like something out of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Strange days may be ahead for this rapidly changing place.

We ventured out into the heart of the sightseeing crowds Wednesday afternoon, mostly because there are some top-notch restaurants in the area and also because, hey, it never hurts to renew your sense of what is changing, what is staying the same.

We avoided the worst of it by staying off of Market Street. But Meeting Street - in the vicinity of Charleston Place, Hyman’s, and Sticky Fingers - gathers its own crush of pedestrians ’round about suppertime.

Our reservations were actually at another restaurant - FIG, one of my favorites. But we had a bit of spare time, so we ambled along the storefronts, playing tourist in our own town, as it were, and even strolled through some of Charleston Place. We passed a young gentleman fussing with the staff of Waldenbooks over their return / exchange policy and then we ambled into Brookstone to sample the massage chairs.

On our way back down Meeting Street, we got called over by one of those folks who sell tour packages. Mind, I said that he called us over, not that we accepted his offer to stand there while he launched into a sales pitch - we made no response other than to laugh when he asked what we were doing while we were Charleston. Hmm, let’s see, while I’m “in Charleston,” I tend to eat, sleep, work, watch TV, read, commute, put gas in the truck, get oil changes, shop for groceries, mow the lawn, take the garbage to the curb on Monday and the recycle bin to the curb on Wednesday, and basically do all of the things one does when living in a town.

For Pete’s sake.

I really dislike that particular street vendor tactic - shouting out to passersby to try to sell tour packages - and, if I’m not mistaken, the city has asked the tour companies to stop doing this on numerous occasions. It’s tacky. It makes you feel like you are at a carnival.

I don’t blame the kids who are doing it - they are just following their instructions so that they can earn extra cash to help offset skyrocketing tuition costs. I just feel that it is a flawed sales theory. Any additional sales that are made are bound to be offset by sales lost from those who are offended by the tactic.

When the American Cancer Society first contacted me to photograph the groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of the Hope Lodge on Calhoun St., across from Rutledge Tower, I had not realized that I would be meeting one of the most amazing individuals in our area.

Margot Freudenberg grew up in a community of doctors and academics in her native Germany. It was there that she trained as a physical therapist. In 1940, as synagogues and human lives were being shattered across Europe, her family brought her to the United States.

She never forgot the warmth of the welcome that she received in South Carolina.

She quickly became a powerful voice for hope, connectedness, and positive change in the lives of others.

In 1970, she helped establish the first Hope Lodge, a place where cancer patients being treated at local hospitals can stay with their families. There are now 22 Hope Lodges across the nation, with 21 more being planned. The groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of the Charleston Hope Lodge is a major milestone for the lifelong American Cancer Society volunteer.

On August 9, the Riviera Theatre at Charleston Place will host a tribute for Margot Freudenberg, on the occasion of her 100th birthday.

Regarding her 67-plus years of service to others, she says simply, “I have a debt to pay.”

Sunday, July 8, from 6:30 - 9:30 pm in the grand ballroom of Charleston Place, a who’s who of the best chefs in Charleston will be contributing to a $150 per plate fundraiser for the nine Charleston firefighters who recently died in the line of duty.

 Not only do all proceeds benefit the families of the firemen, but those who attend will be in for an amazing night of culinary and musical delights. The 41 featured restaurants nearly run all the way through the alphabet: from Al di La to the Woodlands. Quentin Baxter & Cool John Ferguson will be entertaining. Need more? How about a live and silent auction replete with fine incentives to bid away?

 Reservations can be made through Table Maestro (843) 329-4918.

A memorial service honoring the 9 Charleston firefighters who died Monday in the line of duty has been scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, June 22 at the North Charleston Coliseum.

The service in the coliseum will be broadcast live to the adjacent Exhibit Hall and Performing Arts Center due to the number of people expected to attend.

Firefighters from across the nation are expected to travel to Charleston to pay tribute to the 9 men.

Pretty much everyone who attended grade school in the greater Charleston area remembers loading up on the field trip bus for an outing at Charles Towne Landing.

It’s where a shipload of English settlers shook out their sea legs and set up camp way back when in 1670: the birthplace of the Carolinas and the first attempt at the establishment of what would become Charles Towne and eventually modern Charleston. History aplenty can be found here, both the established kind and the still-being-discovered kind. Archaeological digs proceed here alongside walking tours and educational programs.

Major renovations have given Charles Towne Landing a whole new look. Those with an interest in learning the inside scoop on the significance of the sights along the History Trail may rent MP3 players at the visitor’s center.

Considering the abundance of English-style gardens, magnolias, and live oaks in the park, it is no surprise that the place is popular for weddings, especially among those with strong family ties to Charleston.

The Animal Forest, a small natural habitat zoo inside of Charles Towne Landing, is a nice place to take a stroll and see a few otters, shore birds, bison, bears, and maybe a puma or two.

Just watch out for the alligators. They like to nibble on your ankles when you sit at the edge of the pond cooling your feet in the water.

This Saturday, June 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Animal Forest at Charleston Towne Landing State Historic Site will host Enrichment Day. There will be live demonstrations, games, and activities to show how adding various sights, sounds, scents, tastes, and textures to the habitats of the animals can encourage healthy playing and other natural behaviors.

The idea has been building for a long, long while.

The 20th Century brought many a change to these here United States, including a long-lived love affair with horseless carriages; newfangled contraptions that came to be known as automobiles, cars, jalopies. Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs. We polished them until they sparkled in the sunlight, gassed them up, and hopped inside for a trip from here to practically wherever.

They certainly were convenient when a trip between cities or states was what we needed, but gradually we grew so accustomed to riding inside of them that we would motor up even when we only needed to travel a few blocks down the road.

Somewhere along the way, a few forward-thinking minds thought: “Enough!” They shook one leg, then the other, revisited a few stretches that they learned in gym class many a moon ago, and rediscovered the art of walking. For slightly more distant travels, they dusted off bicycles.

And they soon found that they felt better. Not just in the cardiovascular sense, but also in the sense of noticing things about their towns that they had previously zipped right past.

When the James Island Connector spanned the mighty Ashley River, not only did our marvelous medical students gain affordable island housing that was suddenly just a quick trip over the water, but they also gained a great jogging path with a scenic view.

When the great Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge replaced its older cousins above the Cooper River, a walking and bicycling path was a key component in its design. Walking, running, or bicycling that path has fast become one of the most popular outdoor activities for locals and visitors alike.

Today, it seems like everyone with a bridge nearby wants in on that feel-good fit feeling. A meeting is scheduled for the end of the month at Charles Towne Landing to discuss how the North Bridge, linking West Ashley with North Charleston, could benefit from a dedicated walking and bicycling path, among other improvements.

If this blending of bridges and physical fitness continues, who knows where it might lead? Next thing you know, we might even have to launch a major annual international 10K… hm? What’s that? Oh… that’s right…

A relief fund has been established by the City of Charleston to assist the families of the nine firefighters who lost their lives yesterday.

Those wishing to make a donation may do so at any branch of Bank of America or by mail to:

City of Charleston Fireman’s Fund  c/o Bank of America  P.O. Box 304  Charleston, SC 29402.