The South Will Rise

Back in December there was a devastating fire at Keegan Filion Farm down in Walterboro.  This farm provides a lot of produce and meat to restaurants in the area that support local farmers, and in keeping with that support, many of the restaurants in Charleston held a “barn raiser” yesterday to raise money to help save the farm.  The restaurants included Fish, McCrady’s, Husk, FIG, Luca, Cypress, Fat Hen, Wild Olive, Slight North of Broad, Macintosh, EVO, Glass Onion and on and on.  With this line up, of course we went.  The event was at Lowndes Grove Plantation, and the food was amazing.  We took Walker with us mainly because it was free to bring him, but also because unlike most 8 year olds, the way to get Walker to try something is to say it is “exotic”.  Walker and his dad go on “bizarre food” trips- they have been to Spain, Italy, France, and Switzerland, and still to this day, Walker says his favorite food is tripe.  Gross- as an 8 year old, there would have been no amount of money that you could have paid me to try the lining of a cow stomach, and to be honest, it might take a lot today.  Walker is an extremely adventurous eater.   His favorite dish yesterday (it was my favorite dish as well) was from FIG.  Mike Lata, I know I have said this before, but is an absolute genius.  FIG had as their station ricotta gnocchi with a lamb ragu sauce.  So delicious.  Some of the other dishes provided by these amazing restaurants were turkey sausage with sweet peppers and beer mustard on a toasted slice of French Bread, Hoppin Johns, Hot Tamales, blue cheese lamb lasagna, braised beef taco with grilled greens and onions, and others that I tried and loved and don’t remember exactly what was in it.  And, I am happy to report that it seemed like they made a lot of money for the farm.  I am so sorry that they had a fire, but I was thrilled to support them in this event as it was just wonderful! If you would like to help out Keegan-Filion farm, you can mail donations directly to the farm, at 1475 Keegan Drive Walterboro, SC 29488.