Choose Charleston

You know you’re in Charleston in August when skipping the weekly lawnmowing chores leaves the backyard a wilderness gone wild, grasses grown long enough to hide a herd of antelope.

That ’s what happens when the deadlines line up back to back.

But once I saw a sliver of opportunity to fire up the lawnmower, it was back to the salt mines, a return to manual labor for the writer, time to push through the shag.

We acknowledge, of course, that push through the shag would have another meaning altogether on Folly Beach, to say nothing of the U.K.

The lawnmower, self-propelled, takes a good bit of the manual out of the labor. It complained a few times as I walked it through the thickest stands of grass but it did the job.

Autumn, can’t you come on home a little quicker? I’m ready for pumpkins, color tours of the leaves in the foothills, cooler days, chilly evenings, and starry skies at night.

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.

Local is the big buzz-word in food these days, outpacing organic by a long chalk.

The “old” food distribution system (which, of course, is still very much in effect and still moving the vast majority of food) always was a head-scratcher for me, personally.

How exactly is it more economical to ship shrimp from Southeast Asia all the way to South Carolina when we already have had shrimp fishermen aplenty harvesting local waters?

Crazy as it sounds, it is actually the truth of the situation: It’s cheaper to buy product that has been hauled halfway around the globe than to buy from the farmer who lives next door. Please explain the logic.

The simple answer is that the system is just set up that way. It’s all about planes, trains, boats, and big rigs, contracts and warehouses, economics and business as usual; you know - the system.

None of which has stopped a growing number of consumers from trying to draw attention to the fact that, in the United States, small farms and local producers have been slowly going the way of the Dodo for quite some time.

Some shrug it off as “just the way it is.”

Others choose to make it known that they support small farms and local producers. With the launch of the Certified South Carolina effort, there is now a way to at least know which apple is local and which is from far away.

The beginning of a new (well, really, a return to an old) way of thinking about food or a final show of support before the last few traditional family farmers are forced to retire the John Deere and take jobs in middle management like everyone else? We’ll see in time.

Early afternoon thunderstorms drenched the South Carolina Lowcountry on Saturday. It was pouring down so hard at points that visibility dropped on the highways and slowed traffic to a crawl.

It put a bit of a dent in the heat. But with August gearing up right around the corner, these runs of hot, hot, hot are not going away anytime soon. More, once all that rain soaks way down deep in the soil, grass and kudzu are going to spin up toward the sky like magic beans had been planted. Better get the lawnmowers and weed-whackers ready!

And more is on the way. Today and through most of the coming week, cloud cover and a chance of thunderstorms are the watch words.

This is the time of year when the long, hot summer really starts to shake off the last lingering snarls of springtime and gear up for serious business.

All the way up and down Ashley River Road, greenery is bursting out.

It’s getting to be “mow the lawn twice a day and it still looks shaggy” season - that time of year when all it takes is a few thunderstorms to give the ground a good soaking. There are vines winding up the T-posts where the laundry lines used to be that are winding skyward like a magic beanstalk straight out of a fairy tale. You can practically stand in the back yard with a tape measure and record its progress hour by hour.

If I’m exaggerating, it’s not by much.