The only way I can really relax (according to my husband) is to get out of town. So last week we spent four days in Beaufort, South Carolina. My husband is right about these things. I read almost two books (that’s how relaxed I was) and spent the rest of the time exploring the area around the town.

One of the spots we really enjoyed was the site of the old Seabrook Packing Plant. The climate there is much more moderate than ours is (and much more humid!). In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, this area became a prime source of fresh fruits and vegetables. Independent farmers grew lettuce, cabbages, peas, radishes, beans, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelons and cantaloupes. At the packing plants, locals and migrant workers readied the produce for shipping by rail and boat.

Today, the state has a program called “Fresh on the Menu”. Restaurants which participate promise to have at least twenty-five per cent South Carolina grown foods and products on their menu. The move to organic growing is afoot as well. This past weekend there was a tour of nineteen farms growing organically or very close to doing so. It included producers of pasture-raised meat, dairies, honey producers as well as vegetable and fruit growers.

Even “on holiday”, organic gardening is on my mind.