Upstate SC Farm Tour: Connecting Consumers with Farmers

We spent Saturday exploring a few local farms with the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association’s 8th Annual Upstate Farm Tour. The tours are designed to connect consumers with local farmers who use sustainable agricultural practices.

I love the chance to see where and how food is grown …and sneak a few cooking tips from the pros who eat these foods regularly. I left with a trunkful and wanted to share some of my finds with you.

My husband and I toured four local farms on Saturday with our two children.

First up was our very own Furman Farm that is manged by the talented Bruce Adams and many different Furman students throughout the year. The Farm is located at 3300 Poinsett Highway, right beside the Furman Lake.

The Furman Farm uses sustainable agricultural practices such as crop rotations, cisterns to gather rain water, solar panels, and new no-till/no irrigation practices.

They also compost food and paper scraps from the Furman Dining Hall to make “compost tea” -a nutrient rich liquid to fertilize the crops. Compost fertilizer is available for purchase at the Farm Stand.

The Furman Farm offers a Community Supported Agricultural (CSA) Program where participants receive a bag of freshly picked produce each week for a fee ($80 per month/ $40 per month for Furman students). CSA participants may pick up their bags between 3:30- 5:30 p.m. on Fridays during the summer months.

Not ready to commit to a CSA? The Randy Blackwell Farm Stand also sells items that are individually priced during this time frame.

An example CSA bag is shown below with freshly picked peanuts, spearmint, zucchini, beets, collards, Swiss chard, broccoli, carrots, zucchini, and yellow squash. (See link below for making Spearmint Green Tea and Homemade Honey Roasted Peanut Butter!)

For more information about the Furman Farm or CSA program, please contact Assistant Farm Manager and Furman student Phoebe Ferguson (pictured below) via email at phoebe.ferguson@furman.edu.

Our second stop was Greenbrier Farms located at 766 Hester Store Road in Easley. This large 300 acre sustainable farm offers grass fed beef, pastured pork, and organically grown vegetables. They offer a CSA program and sell products at the Downtown Greenville Saturday Farmer’s Market and Whole Foods in Greenville. Most of the animals were out to pasture so all we really saw was well… pasture.

Thankfully our third stop was Happy Berry Farm because the little ones were getting hungry and restless. Happy Berry is located at 510 Gap Hill Road in Six Mile.

Travel down Blackberry Alley to pick your own ripe and juicy blackberries (only $2.50 per pound!) or purchase them already picked.

Happy Berry does not spray any pesticides on their berries and boy, were they delicious!

We easily filled up a gallon bucket, washed some off, and munched on them on our way to the next stop.

Blueberries were almost ripe and ready to pick. They should be ready around June 15.

Later this summer, the farm will produce seedless grapes, figs, muscadines, and scuppernogs.

Our final stop on the Farm Tour was the Clemson University Student Organic Farm at 190 Field Station Drive in Clemson. This five acre farm is packed with produce! It offers a CSA Program with a wide variety of seasonal produce, culinary herbs, and freshly cut flowers.

Just a few of their items are pictured below:

Beets

Purple kale (yes, I made the Kale Salad with Lemon, Olive Oil, and Parmesan with this again… I am seriously addicted to that stuff)

Yellow squash (I sauteed it in a pan with caramelized onions)

Zucchini (tried a new delicious zucchini salad with pesto and grape tomatoes)

Look out vampires… this was a little solar greenhouse filled with garlic. After it is picked it is stored in here to dry. I have never seen so much garlic in my life!

Hydroponic lettuce (grown in water instead of soil)

And finally, the crowned jewel of the day… check out this GORGEOUS Rainbow Chard! This has to be one of the prettiest vegetables in the garden. It is a mix of red and golden chard and related to beets.