If you Give a Child an Apple

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If You Give a Child An AppleSlow Food Charleston helps develop taste for local ingredientsBY HELEN MITTERNIGHT

It starts with teaching a child that an apple isn’t just an apple – there are lots of kinds of apples, some tart, some sweet, some red and some green.

“Teaching kids that playing with food is OK, or teaching a child what a shrimp looks like before it becomes shrimp cocktail, piquing a child’s interest and engaging in healthy ways, is a foot in the door for building a healthy, well-rounded set of consumers for the next generation,” says Carrie Larson, Slow Food Charleston’s board chair.

You may have seen Carrie and others from Slow Food at the Marion Square Farmers Market, offering samples of food to children and adults. It’s part of Slow Food’s mission: to preserve the taste and biodiversity of our foods and to make sure that our food system is good, clean and fair for all. That means nominating foods for the international Ark of Taste, Slow Food’s roster of foods that qualify as tasty, culturally significant, able to be raised sustainably, and at risk. Local foods such as Jimmy Red corn, the Ossabaw Island Hog, Bradford watermelons and Carolina Gold Rice, among others, have been added to the list.

Carrie’s love of the food business started with a relationship with her mentor, Celeste Alber, beloved by local foodies for her raw milk.

CARRIE LARSON

“I did chicken chores; I fed baby piglets,” Carrie recalls. “I also helped her cultivate vegetables, learned to bottle her milk, and helped with the dairy operation, which I absolutely loved.”

It was a first step that would lead her to head Slow Food and to work with Lowcountry Local First, an advocacy group supporting locally owned businesses. Carrie’s time with Celeste gave her an appreciation of locally produced food and helped her form relationships.

“I like knowing where my food comes from, knowing I’m buying something that supports an individual I respect and admire,” Carrie says. “It’s a driving force in my decision-making.”

Relationships help with thefirst step in Slow Food’s mission: convincing farmers to grow these crops. Carrie talks about her experience with Seashore Black Rye.

“Greg Johnsman (of Geechie Boy Mill) was growing Seashore Black Rye on his farm as a windbreak to protect his cash crops.”

Slow Food lobbied to get the crop elevated to an Ark of Taste crop.

“Once he realized the financial viability of the rye, it changed the conversation altogether,” she says. “Now it’s being milled by bakers, brewers are using it. It’s serving him much better than just protecting his corn and preventing sand from Edisto blowing all over.”

The second step is persuading chefs to use the crops. Although you can pick up Carolina Gold rice at your local Harris Teeter, before the movement to

preserve and promote the grain, you were stuck with Uncle Ben’s. Now heritage crops are becoming the pride of local merchants – try to buy High Wire Distillings’s Jimmy Red whiskey at holiday time and you’ll not only pay a premium, but you may find it is sold out.

Some crops may speak for themselves, like the group’s current project, the lemon cling peach.

“We’re having 150 trees grown at nurseries in Albemarle, Virginia, using scion wood from Albemarle CiderWorks to graft this peach,” Carrie says. “One of the only places it has been grown is Monticello. We’re bringing the trees down the winter of 2020 and we’re identifying partners. The goal is to repatriate this peach that used to be called the Carolina Kennedy. Thomas Jefferson said it was one of the most flavorful, juicy peaches.”

The final step is persuading the consumer to try the products and to taste the difference.

“Seeing the reaction of a child when they’re trying something for the first time, or touching on a subject they’re already curious about and being able to engage them in a meaningful way, it’s really fulfilling,” she says.

Carrie has plenty of practice at home, where she has a 6-year-old son with chef Jacques Larson (owner of The Obstinate Daughter and Wild Olive).

Slow Food will host an Ark of Taste event June 23 at the MUSC Urban Farm. The event will include educational activities, a seed swap and a ticketed evening dinner.

“I hope that we are encouraging our farmers to

“ I’m very relationship-driven,” says Carrie Larson. “I like knowing where my food comes from, knowing I’m buying something that supports an individual I respect and admire. It’s a driving force in my decision-making.”

think outside of the box in terms of the plans and aspirations of their production; I hope consumers are more aware of the historic and cultural ingredients of our Lowcountry food shed,” Carrie says. “I think more and more restaurants are willing and able to use these lesser-known ingredients when they know there’s organizational support and a really rowdy group of cheerleaders standing behind the diverse ingredients of Charleston.”

FERRIS KAPLAN

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NEWS

COURTESY OF CHARLESTON GRILL

OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS The Neighborhood Dining Group (including Husk, McCrady’s, McCrady’s Tavern and Minero) is opening its first Charleston venture post-Sean Brock. The group has announced its newest restaurant venture in Charleston: Delaney Oyster House, a raw bar and seafood-focused

restaurant opening this summer at 115 Calhoun Street. Although it is opening in what used to be the meeting space affiliated with Hotel Bella Grace, the restaurant will not be affiliated with the hotel and will be free-standing in this historic Charleston single home from the 1830s. The restaurant will be led by chef Shamil Velazquez, formerly of Husk Greenville, and will feature an extensive raw bar as well as other seafood. The beverage team will be led by general manger Kevin King.

Mpishi, Swahili for “chef,” is now open on Daniel Island. The café serves almond-zucchini pancakes, Nutella French toast and grilled macand-cheese sandwiches and will be adding dinner service. It’s at 162 Seven Farms Drive, Suite 340.

KinFolk has plans to open on Memorial Day on Johns Island, serving quirky beach food, sweet treats and fried chicken. KinFolk will be at 4430 Betsy Kerrison Parkway, near Freshfields Village on Kiawah. The brothers who own the place hope to cater to both year-round beachgoers as well as visitors.

Brown Dog Deli abruptly closed its Calhoun Street location last month. The location at 40 Broad Street is still open.

CHEF AND STAFF MOVES Chef Sean Brock, who left Charleston for Nashville, has cut his last remaining ties with the Holy City and is no longer the culinary adviser at the four Husk restaurant locations around the Southeast. Instead, he’s focusing on his big Nashville project dedicated to Appalachian food, and Charleston is trying not to be bitter about the “abandonment.”

Some new chefs at Indigo Road: Dung “Junior” Vo from O-Ku Atlanta moves over to the Charleston King Street location of that restaurant, and chef Jeremiah Bacon can get away

from The Macintosh kitchen again as Stuart Rogers from Oak Atlanta arrives to take over chef duties at The Macintosh.

Charleston Grill has some new talent: Michael Zentner is now chef de cuisine and Julie Hennigan is dining room manager. Zentner was most recently executive chef at Butcher & Bee and culinary director at that site plus The

MICHAEL ZENTNER

Daily, The Daily at The Gibbes, and Workshop. Julie was general manager at The Macintosh for the past three years.

EVENTS Bay Street Biergarten on East Bay Street is hosting its first Gartenfest on June 22 with live music and more.

MENU AND VENUE CHANGES Circa 1886 brings a new menu that promises to take you through “the belly of South Carolina Foodways.”

Parcel 32 is offering a new cocktail menu. Highlights include: Holy Benediction with bubbles, Benedictine, orange bitters and orange peel for garnish; The Southern Gin-tleman

with Beefeater Gin, lychee puree, lemon simple syrup, egg white, hellfire bitters and St. George Raspberry Liqueur; and Deja Bloom with Tito’s Vodka, Lillet Rouge, Cocchi Americano and Liqueur de Violettes. “Jen’s Hideaway” bar, upstairs in the West Ashley Tatooed Moose is now open. Drinks and food will be offered next to the site’s game room.

The Ocean Room at the Sanctuary has launched a summer menu with lots of fresh produce and seafood.

Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit has a new flavor. Owner Carrie Morey has partnered with Pappy & Company to create Bourbon Maple Biscuits. You can get them in the freezer of your grocery store or online.

Chef Jamie Lynch of 5Church is going to be sourcing menu ingredients from his new farm near Charlotte. He says this is all part of the restaurant’s farm-to-restaurant lifestyle.

KUDOS Steve Palmer of Indigo Road Restaurant Group was featured in Forbes Magazine as running one of the best small companies of 2019.

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