Local vendors bring vegetables, fruit, homemade products to students
A steel kettle popped bags full of sugarcoated popcorn as students wrapped around a red pickup truck full of watermelons, planning their week’s organic cooking ventures.
Healthy Carolina Farmers Market is back.
Vendors set up shop on Greene Street Tuesday afternoon, lining the street with local and homegrown vegetables, fruits, peanuts and other organic or family-made creations. The market, which is held weekly from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., keeps prices low and aims to educate students by bringing local products and eco-education to their doorsteps.
“We’re informing people about the local movement,” said Tiara Johnson, a fourth-year sports management student and member of Sustainable Carolina. “We’re making it all accessible to students because it’s such a cool thing to get fresh and local food.”
Asyas Organic Farm from Sumter started off the line of locals, selling herbal teas and fresh greens, including bok choy, okra and bottled muscadine juice, all under the family name. The farm’s namesake, 13-year-old Asyas Harris helped her parents, recommending her favorite fall greens and the muscadine juice that is “good for the hair and skin.”
Picking out a bag of okra and watermelon — $5 each or two for $8 — first-year chemical engineering student Daniel Fischer planned out his week’s dinners with friends from his dorm using an uncle’s olive oil okra stir-fry recipe.
“If you really like organic, you can go that route, and there’s a lot of produce,” Fischer said as he stole a scoop of kettle corn from a passing friend. “I came for the fresh fruit. And, now the kettle corn, because it’s delicious.”
James Rennick and his sister-in-law Jamie Heis represented Sweet Southern Kettle Korn — whipping up batch after batch in their 160-quart steel kettle. The whole process takes about 3.5 minutes. It’s made with corn oil, sugar and salt, and the end product, which is one of the main draws at the market, is simply delicious.
“We make it all here fresh, usually minutes before you buy it,” Rennick said. “It goes quickly, so we keep it poppin’ and keep it fresh.”
Rennick founded Sweet Southern four years ago as an extra-income family business that has gone local with the kettle corn showing at Sandhills Farmers Market and Irmo High School football games in addition to the Healthy Carolina market.
“It’s always family owned,” Rennick said. “My oldest son [15 years old] is soon to be a master popper himself.”
The Veggie Patch from Orangeburg County, identified by students as the “blue tent,” was the fresh fruit hot spot, and sold out of their selection of honey crisp apples, peaches, plums and grapes.
Phyllis Churchwell, the farm manager’s mother and Veggie Patch “VP,” said farming is a part of the family. She said she has been farming ever since she could walk. Both her father and grandfather worked as sharecroppers, and her daughter is now the head of the business.
“Our mission is to get fresh fruits and vegetables out to the public without having to pay an arm and a leg,” Churchwell said. “We want to give customers quality produce.”
First-year nursing student Elyssa Easterling snagged the last few apples and peaches at The Veggie Patch.
“A lot of the fruits from Russell House aren’t fresh; they’re imported and frozen. These are fresh and a lot better for you,” Easterling said.
Chris Hinely, the “Peanut Man” sold his boiled and roasted peanuts, an extension of his old-fashioned candy store in Sandhills. Making all the peanuts and chocolate-dipped in-store candies at The Peanut Man location, Hinely also hopes to sell fresh-squeezed lemonade at next week’s market.
Cosponsored by the S.C. Department of Agriculture and Healthy Carolina, USC student organizations like Sustainable Carolina, Outdoor Recreation, SAGE and the Mountaineering and Whitewater Club help to make the local cause known.
Sustainable Carolina hopes to expand the market’s list of vendors, and bring issues like composting to the forefront.
“We want to change USC, and make this an educational opportunity as well,” Johnson said.
The Healthy Carolina Farmers Market will be on Greene Street every Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., until Oct. 25.
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