Tom & Sue's Incomplete Guide: Lowcountry Farmers Markets
Wed, 08/31/2022 - 8:51am
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By:
Tom Werner and Suzanne Detar
Greetings
Sue: Having grown up near Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I have fond memories of the Pottstown Farmers Market. Amish and Mennonite families would bring in wagon loads of vegetables, meats and baked goods every weekend to sell at their stalls. When I accompanied my grandmother on her weekly food shopping and if I was good, and even sometimes if I wasn’t, we’d split an ooey, gooey, Amish sticky bun the size of a Nerf football.
There are so many farmers markets in the Charleston area that I was sure Tom and I could eat locally sourced fresh food every day for an entire week. So off we went to explore the local produce and artisan scene.
Tom: My childhood farmer’s market experiences were more basic than Sue’s. There were no baked goods or stalls of produce manned by bearded menfolk and fashion savvy womenfolk suspicious of the “English.”
We had roadside stands manned by overworked farmer’s kids where you could buy a dozen ears of corn for a buck. If you were local, then you’d get people corn – the sweetest sweet corn ever grown. But, if you were one of those condescending city folk up for a weekend at your country estate, you got the tooth-busting cow corn with a side of silage. They’re proud people, these farmers, treat ’em right, don’t let on that you’ve become citified, and everything will be just fine.
Off to the Market
Charleston Farmers Market
Website: charlestonfarmersmarket.com/about/
Day & Time: Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Nov.
Location: 329 Meeting Street, Charleston (Marion Square)
Sue’s Take: This market features some of my favorite things: fresh food and artisan wares. We always pair visits to this market with a stroll downtown on King Street, the Gateway Path, or through the old neighborhoods. It’s touristy but sometimes you need to be a tourist in your own town. This market offers a great variety of fresh vegetables – we recently came home with corn on the cob, tomatoes, spinach, fresh mozzarella cheese, boiled peanuts, olives and sourdough bread – the combinations of a great summer supper.
Tom’s Take: So, what does this one-time country boy think of a place where you can get some of those ugly, but delicious, heirloom tomatoes and watch old school breakdancing within the span of a hundred yards? It’s one of my favorite places to take friends when they visit town, mainly because Sue and I are invariably gifted huge jars of benne wafers that have sometimes been known to last us until lunchtime. It’s a Charleston tradition, and a pretty good one at that.
Sea Island Farmers Market
Website: seaislandfarmersmarket.com/
Day & Time: Sat. year round, 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Location: 2024 Academy Rd., Johns Island (on Charleston Collegiate Campus)
Sue’s Take: I loved the laid back atmosphere of this farmers market – we loaded up on vegetables, coffee, sweets, sourdough bread, seafood salad, baklava and bread pudding. My highlight was the sticky buns that brought back memories of the Amish sticky buns of my youth.
Tom’s Take: OK, I think I finally get why Sue goes on and on and on and on about Amish sticky buns. We found an artisan baker who uses “healthy” whole wheat dough instead of the artery-clogging Amish variety, but wow, it would be worth a trip to the dentist to have another one of those. I mean, the dentist would have to offer nitrous to take the edge off, but still, absolutely worth the drive.
Sunday Brunch Farmers Market
Website: sundaybrunchfarmersmarket.com
Day & Time: Sundays year round - 11 a.m. – 3 p.m
Location: 1977 Maybank Hwy., James Island (behind the Pour House)
Sue’s Take: Such a fun place! This had a festival atmosphere – live music, beer, fresh vegetables and food options, lunch trucks. This would be a great place to take friends from out of town for a chill brunch. The ice cream vendor was the former food manager of the DI Club, and his homemade ice cream sandwiches are tasty and refreshing!
Tom’s Take: If farmer’s markets were rated by the availability of treats and belly rubs, this one would win hands down. Our dog Iggy warmed to the idea of accompanying us on our produce-gathering jaunts; random vendors gave her treats every time she sat and rubbed her belly every time she laid down. Of course, Iggy enforced the dog tax when Sue and I tried to sneak treats for ourselves. But, getting to eat eighty percent of a coffee-flavored ice cream sandwich is still a pretty good deal.
Mount Pleasant Farmers Market
Website: experiencemountpleasant.com/events/farmers-market
Day & Time: Tuesday, 3:30 – 7 p.m. April – September. They will also hold a holiday market on Saturday, Dec. 10.
Location: Mount Pleasant Farmers Market Pavilion (Moultrie Middle School), 645 Coleman Blvd., Mount Pleasant
Sue’s Take: They always have fresh vegetables, good music, and a couple of meal options. Plus the pizza shop and ice creamery across the street are awesome. We like to have a shrimp dinner at the market and pair it with an evening stroll on the Pitt Street Bridge. I regret I didn’t buy the pound cake on our last visit.
Tom’s Take: The Town of Mount Pleasant Farmers Market features a beautiful, purpose-built venue specifically designed to offer as little shelter from the searing summer sun and drenching afternoon rains as possible. What can be found there is consistently good music, consistently good food, and the last loaf of pound cake that was snagged by a yuppie Boomer while Sue and I were debating whether or not to buy it. Do I have regrets in life? Yes. Yes I do. Is letting that pound cake slip through our hands and obsessing about it the entire way home one of those regrets? Indeed, it is.
Other Notables:
The Green Heart Project Farm Stand
Website: instagram.com/greenheartchs and greenheartsc.org
Day & Time: Thursdays, 4-7 p.m.
Location: Urban Farms at Enston Home, 900 King St.
The Green Heart Project builds garden-based experiential learning projects and school garden programs to educate students, connect people and cultivate community through growing, eating, and celebrating food. And then they offer the produce for sale at the farm stand.
Holy City Farmers Market
Website: facebook.com/HolyCityFarmersMarket
Day & Time: Every Sunday, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Location: Holy City Brewing, 1021 Aragon Ave., N. Charleston
Near the heart of Park Circle, this farmer’s market has a notable hippy vibe. There is a large area with tables for eating and sampling Holy City’s beer. Consider pairing this trip with a game of Frisbee golf at Park Circle.
Closing Thoughts
Sue: Two of the coolest things about Charleston area farmers markets, as opposed to the Amish markets I grew up going to, is the availability of seafood and beer.
If you want to eat local fresh produce and buy local artisan wares, there are plenty of wonderful options in Charleston.
Tom: While it is easy for the cynic in me to dismiss farmers markets as some low-tech, 10-foot by 10-foot tented version of Etsy and Doordash, they are far more than that. They embrace the entrepreneurial spirit of America. They are the confluence of the test marketing of sound business models and hair brained ideas that intrigue and entertain us. By all means, go. Buy the artisanal sea salt, the hand-dyed Turkish towels and the hydroponically-grown duckweed (which is better than it sounds). Split a sticky bun with someone you love and don’t let that last pound cake slip away. But, don’t forget the farmer. The meat, the cheese, the eggs, the heirloom tomatoes, the peppers, the melons and the sweet corn – it’s all there for the taking. If we don’t support those who work the earth for our food, we’ll be fightin’ the cows over silage – which, even if it is organic, ain’t good eatin’.