Visionary museum leader Dana Hand Evans takes the helm at Middleton Place Foundation
from Staff Reports
Last month, Middleton Place Foundation welcomed Dana Hand Evans as the organization’s new President & CEO. Evans, recognized for her visionary leadership, previously served as the Executive Director and CEO of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. She has extensive experience in historic preservation, public history, and museum management.
Identified through a nationwide executive search, Evans officially began her new post at Middleton Place last month.
Foundation chairman Mike Laughlin made the announcement citing the Board of Trustees’ enthusiastic endorsement of Evans as the Foundation’s next leader.
“Dana brings a wealth of knowledge, vision, and a career-long commitment to historic preservation and public history,” said Laughlin. “We’re thrilled she will lead Middleton Place Foundation into its next chapter.”
Charles Duell, founder of Middleton Place Foundation, echoes that enthusiasm for the organization’s new CEO. “Dana brings new zest to the Foundation’s mission of preservation, research, and education,” said Duell, “and we are excited to see Middleton Place, a national treasure, reach new heights under her leadership.”
Evans is joining Middleton Place at a notable time in its history. This year Middleton Place kicked off a year-long celebration to commemorate the Foundation’s 50th anniversary and to celebrate its long-standing commitment to inspiring positive change through an understanding of American history. Moreover, the completion of a forward-thinking master plan by the renowned landscape architect Thomas Woltz has provided a visionary roadmap to move Middleton Place into the future.
“It is an honor to serve Middleton Place Foundation as its next President and CEO,” said Evans, “and I look forward to working with its talented staff and dedicated Board to build on past successes and forge new ones going forward. I am especially excited to join Middleton Place at such a pivotal time as it celebrates its 50th Anniversary and strategically looks to the future.”
Evans has served for 14 years as Executive Director and CEO of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV) in Winchester, Vir., a year-round regional history complex encompassing three historic houses, eight acres of formal gardens, 200 acres of working farm, a 50,000 square-foot history museum and administrative center designed by architect Michael Graves, and Virginia’s largest art park, with 85 acres of hiking, walking, and Art Trails. Working with a Board, staff, donors, and community partners, over her tenure at the MSV Evans created a new vision, mission, and brand for the MSV and then developed and implemented five-year Strategic and ten-year Master Plans. Today, the MSV greets more than 200,000 visitors annually, has a membership of 4,200 households, and is a relevant, transformative gathering place for shared ideas that has enriched the local and regional community.
Earlier in her career Evans was director and curator of Wilton House Museum of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Virginia and then Executive Director of both, located in Richmond, Virginia. Before that, she served on staff at Agecroft Hall and Gardens and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, both in Richmond.
Evans earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Art History, Painting and Printmaking from La Salle University, Philadelphia; and a Master of Arts Degree in Art History, Historical Studies, and a Master of Public Administration Degree, both from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She is a Certified Fund-Raising Executive (DFRE) in the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and, notably in the museum field, a Fellow of the Museum Leadership Institute of Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University, California. Educational training has included study abroad at Lorenzo de Medici Academy of Arts, Florence, Italy.
With a long list of professional and community service affiliations, Evans’s consultations have included Adjunct Instructor at Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia, and Accreditation Peer Reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums.
The Giving Tree(s)
West Ashley becomes home to the state’s first food forest
by Joan Perry | Contributing Writer
There is nothing as delicious as biting into ripe fruit handpicked from a tree. Nothing.
I picked fruit one summer as a teenager and remember it like it was yesterday. Perched on a ladder at the top of a tree, I reached for the highest, most perfect peach. The sky was blue, the air was fresh. When I bit into that peach the juice ran down my arms and my world was perfect. I am happy for anyone to enrich their life with a similar experience.
I learned of the ribbon cutting festivities for the inauguration of the Mulberry Food Forest a few hours before it was scheduled. I walked up the West Ashley Bikeway to the Ardmore community in the nick of time to be welcomed by Darlene Heater, CEO & Executive Director, Charleston Parks Conservancy Director and the project team.
Little did they know I’d already made multiple visits to watch their garden grow. The Mulberry Food Forest is a hop, skip and jump off the Bikeway just below Wappoo Road, and is on my regular wandering route. I detour past the pond, greet the turtles, dodge the flock of guardian geese and cross the bridge to the grass roofed pavilion installed by Clemson University students in the garden location. I was pleased to be there for the official opening festivities ,sip ice cold lemonade on the hot, humid day, and see the progress.
Located in the Ardmore community, the Food Forest is planted with a thriving pollinator and rain garden, fruits, nuts, vegetables and herbs and the produce is free and open to the public. It is already thriving and producing and anyone can access it at any time. The neighborhood was selected as one that might greatly benefit from access to healthy affordable food.
Darlene Heater said they expect to see 30,000 pounds of produce come out of the food forest each year after it is established. “The project was initially funded through a grant of $50,000 from the South Carolina Forestry Commission. The Conservancy along with teams of volunteers is handling the horticulture, while the City of Charleston’s parks department continues to do the structural work to add pathways and soon to install a new playground at the park.”
A throng of lively children, community and neighborhood leaders, sponsors, board members, project partners and press were on hand to listen to the opening remarks for this ambitious project and celebrate the ribbon cutting, before wandering through the garden paths, sharing and learning along the way.
Sponsors, including Trident United Way, the City of Charleston, Bank of America and the South Carolina Forestry Commission there, pleased to see the successful outcome of their support.
Madison James, Health Program Manager with Trident United Way spoke, saying, “At Trident United Way, we know that having access to fresh foods contributes to household financial stability. That’s why the Mulberry Food Forest is a shining example of a community partnership that just makes sense. Households that have access to fresh foods through programs like this are not only taking steps towards financial stability, they will also experience lower rates of chronic disease, better productivity, and reduced healthcare costs, just to name a few.
This increased access, partnered with the great educational resources Charleston Parks Conservancy will add throughout this space, helps to further inspire the next generation to establish healthy habits early on, to reap the benefits over a lifetime.”
Planning began in the spring of 2023 with community input sessions clarifying the goals of the project and the understanding that the Food Forest would be both community-led and driven.
Sam Haab, Community Garden Manager, Charleston Parks Conservancy, has been involved since March, designing and selecting the plants for the thriving pollinator garden. She has been doing a monthly pollinator census and has already noted a huge increase in number and species. Thanks to the Trident United Way funding, Sam is planning programming for summer camps for the Pink House to start the following week, and anticipates bucket mushroom classes. Ninety six logs have been inoculated with oyster and shitake mushrooms.
Katie Bell, Director of Programs, Charleston Parks Conservancy, was guiding visitors through the garden, when she pointed to a small tree and exclaimed, “That was full of plums the other day. They are gone! That means someone found them!” Nothing could have pleased her more. The produce in the Food Forest is free for the taking.
We saw multiple kinds of citrus, banana trees, blueberries, strawberries, olives, pomegranates and artichokes. There is a melting pot of cultures in the neighborhood and plant choices such as figs, persimmons and lemongrass, deliberately reflect multicultural experiences for cooking and familiarity. Some are already producing, while others like the pecan trees will take many years.
I overheard Reverend Kim Bryant of Grace United Methodist Church, reminiscing about hearing her father say, “You like food, don’t you? Take care of your plants. Care for them, and they will take care of us.”
The Charleston Parks Conservancy did the initial planting with community volunteer support. Seventy five plants from nut trees to berries were planted and so far only three have been lost. The City of Charleston provided the irrigation system that is automated and controlled by smartphone, which helped through the recent drought.
Amanda Barton, Landscape Architect, shared how exciting it has been to be part of the project from the beginning. “It is the first of its kind in South Carolina, and we hope it will be the model for others. It is already an educational tool. The Conservancy will offer camps, classes and training on how to prepare the crops, harvesting and preserving.”
I inquired about the rules. There aren’t many. Community members are asked to be reasonable. We should take only what we will use, and leave enough for others. Be respectful.
Owen Vogel is President of the Ardmore Sherwood Forest Neighborhood Association and had the honor of officially cutting the ribbon. He described the afternoon’s experience as almost surreal, to see the finished garden open and producing in real life after all the discussion and planning. “Neighbors have been walking through, seeing fruit and vegetables they’d never heard of.”
One of the best features of the garden is the long term planning. I might snip an herb for my dinner tonight, but the nut and olive trees will take years to produce. Community members may well walk their grandchildren through the garden in years to come at harvest time. Board member Sean Wesley Holleran said, “It is an absolute privilege to serve as a board member for the Charleston Parks Conservancy, and I am so excited about the long-term possibility of getting sustainable fresh produce into the hands of Charleston families that might need a little extra help through this innovative food forest.”
My grandparents retired to a small fruit farm that had a cherry tree with branches overgrowing the country lane. Neighborhood children on bicycles would ride by, take their hands off the handlebars, reach up to grab a handful of cherries and sail on down the road, their mouths full of red sweetness and laughter. It delighted my grandfather, and the kids felt they’d gotten away with mild mischief. The Mulberry Food Forest is a wonderful addition that will pay off for West Ashley residents in joy, finance and health for years in the future.
For more information or to sign up to volunteer, visit: www.charlestonparksconservancy.org/project/mulberry-park-food-forest/
A Flair for Fashion
West Ashley designer Gina Marie reps her brand in New York for Fashion Week
by Elise Lusk | Contributing Writer
Thirteen years ago, Gina Marie was working in battery manufacturing, a job she despised. Her son was on the brink of graduating from high school, and she felt it was time she discovered what she wanted to be when she grew up. Thankfully, she worked in the same industrial park as Kohl’s corporate and one day wandered into their job fair where she encountered designer jobs. Always a creative person, the career immediately piqued her interest. She recalled thinking, “Ooo, designer. What’s that?”
From there Marie started taking online art courses through her local community college in Wisconsin and then later with the Academy of the Arts in San Francisco. She quickly realized she didn’t want to work for anyone. She wanted to be her own designer, but she knew Wisconsin wasn’t a suitable place to grow her business. After looking at a few different places, she decided to fly to Charleston for Charleston Fashion Week.
“I fell in love as soon as I got off the plane,” she said. “It was like, ‘Oh, this is where I need to be,’” said Marie, who then briefly attended the Art Institute of Charleston before deciding to call it quits and put her money into her own brand, Brooke Wilder Atelier.
“Brooke is my inner wild child. She is my idea of a free woman. A woman who is unrestricted and just living in all of her natural, dramatic, romantic flair. Think Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City,” Marie said.
Wilder derives from an old English name that means one who is unafraid to adventure, and Atelier in French means studio. When brainstorming the name Marie was deeply inspired by Tommy Bahama and how the creators made a character and then built the brand around that character, as well as artists such as Sasha Fierce, Beyonce, and Chappel Roan who opt to use stage names rather than their own.
“I don’t want anything tied to my name,” Marie said. “I don’t want to be a brand. I want to be me, and I want to be free to be me. Brooke allows me to do that.”
Marie described the Brooke Wilder Atelier aesthetic as bohemian, but not in the way we typically think of the word today.
“Bohemian is more European, it is more referential to art and creativity and design. It’s not necessarily hippy, it’s more like the Bohemians in the ’20s and ’30s who sat around at cafes and talked art and music, and they had on all of their different garbs and things like that, said Marie. “That is very much my style. I like to mix and match worldly kinds of things. I grew up with the idea of a melting pot. So I’ve always seen British culture and Asian culture, and worldly cultures and been inspired by them all.”
One of the brand’s defining elements is that it’s environmentally friendly and sustainable. This is something that comes naturally to Marie as she grew up very poor with frugal parents who found inventive ways to use what they had. Her couture pieces are one of a kind, and one and done. She doesn’t remake anything. All of her ready-to-wear collections are small-batch, limited production. This year Marie also started doing bridal fashion, but even that will be done ethically.
“We use pieces that are reusable, functional, and if we make the piece in one of our natural fibers, we can dye it,” Marie explained. So the bride could wear an all-white look, and then after the wedding, we could dye it for her to use another way.”
Marie only acquires eco-dyes and eco-friendly fabrics. She doesn’t use polyesters or even recycled polyesters because they don’t decompose. She even often makes her own non-toxic botanical dyes in house in her West Ashley studio. It’s this kind of meticulous environmental care that contributes to Brooke Wilder Atelier’s reputation as a standout, successful brand.
On Thursday, Sept. 5, Marie is headed to the Big Apple for the legendary New York Fashion Week. It’s her second year attending the event, and this time Brooke Wilder Atelier will represent the South Carolina Red Cross in Elysian’s Furbaby Catwalk competition. This show is a benefit event that raises money for animal rescues across the country. Marie’s design is inspired by the history of the women in the Red Cross and Wonder Woman because, to her, they are the true Wonder Women.
“It’s an amazing event. It’s the first event of fashion week,” Marie said. “Last year my look was the first look on the runway. It was amazing.”
Marie’s design was also used as the movie poster for Elysian’s documentary about the show which won Best Fashion Documentary at the New York Film Festival.
This year Belle Scott, a Charleston School of Law graduate and Marie’s model, will don the runway look and walk Fiona, a rescue dog from New York, down the runway. Voting will take place after the event.
Shuck Cancer
Veteran Nashville songwriter Dave Gibson and newcoming Charlie Argo play Shuckin’ Shack as part of Fresh & Raw Tour
from Staff Reports
Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar aims to Shuck Cancer with a live music fundraising event featuring a mix of nostalgic country and new country. The 2024 Fresh & Raw Tour is a concert series and charity event launched with Truist to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The tour makes a stop in West Ashley this month with a free show from 2-5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 22.
“For us, community extends beyond city limits and restaurant walls. When we’re talking about a community of people affected by cancer, we’re extending our reach beyond any geographics,” said Jonathan Weathington, CEO of Shuckin’ Shack. “We don’t use Fresh & Raw as a publicity stunt, we truly don’t make any money off of it. Fresh & Raw is for our customers and their families, giving them a place to come and celebrate life and togetherness, all for the benefit of seeking cures for terrible diseases.”
While the show is free to attend, attendees are encouraged to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Over the past two years of The Fresh & Raw Tour, Shuckin’ Shack and its guests have raised more than $130,000 to help find a cure for and support those fighting blood cancers.
The tour will feature legendary Nashville singer/songwriter Dave Gibson, who has written #1 hits for Alabama, Tanya Tucker, Confederate Railroad, Montgomery Gentry, and more. Plus, his own band The Gibson/Miller Band was a country fan favorite in the early ’90s with multiple charting songs and it even won the Academy of Country Music’s New Group of the Year award in 1993.
Joining Gibson on this year’s Fresh & Raw Tour is up-and-coming Nashville singer/songwriter Charlie Argo. A native of Selma, AL, his music an unmistakable blend of Southern blues and country influences. Argo is. Inspired by artists like Otis Redding, Gregg Allman, Amos Lee, and Travis Tritt, Charlie’s musical influences converge into a unique sound that transcends traditional country boundaries.
Additionally, each date on Shuckin’ Shack Fresh & Raw Tour will feature a local singer/songwriter who will open the show. Shuckin Shack is holding a “Battle of the Openers” contest where each local artist will
be featured on www.theshuckinshack.com.
The local artist with the most votes at the end of the tour will win a trip to Nashville and be featured on a singer/songwriter show at 6th & Peabody in the heart of Downtown Nashville courtesy of Grindhouse Nashville.
The Fresh & Raw Tour, featuring music from Dave Gibson and Charlie Argo will be Sunday, Sept. 22, from from 2-5 p.m. at Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar in West Ashley, located at 40 Grand Oaks Blvd. Suite 500. To attend, RSVP at www.facebook.com/shuckinshackwestashleysc.
Getting More Bang
For Your Bite
Mex 1 Coastal Cantina steps up its game with new Culinary Director
and Director of Operations
by Lorne Chambers | Editor
For 11 years, Mex 1 Coastal Cantina has been bringing the flavors of Southern California to West Ashley. But a lot has changed in the last decade, especially in the ever-changing world of restaurants. And that’s why marketing and beverage director Morgan Hurley says the company has decided to step its game up by bringing in some new blood.
“We’re an established brand, but we needed to inject some energy back into it,” said Hurley, who grew up in the restaurant industry in Charleston and knows very well that you can’t sit on your laurels in this business. “We wanted to bring more creativity, energy, and innovation to what we’ve already been doing here.”
Last month, Hurley announced the appointment of Chef Ruddy Bollat as the new Culinary Director and Michelle Longo as the new Director of Operations for all three Mex 1 Coastal Cantinas located throughout the Lowcountry. These dynamic additions to the Mex 1 team mark an exciting new chapter for the local restaurant group, renowned for its craveable Baja-style tacos, fresh-squeezed margaritas, and laid-back atmosphere.
Bollat, a native of Guatemala, has worked in some of the hottest restaurants in New York and Nashville before being lured by Longo to the South Carolina coast to take over the kitchen at Mex 1. The two previously worked together at Bartaco and remained in touch over the years. When Longo was hired as operations manager, she knew she wanted Bollat to come in to help Mex 1 continue to grow and evolve as it heads into it’s second decade in business.
Longo has a strong track record in restaurant operations and hospitality. According to Hurley, her role with Mex 1 will primarily focus on optimizing guest experiences and supporting the existing team to ensure guests have a great time while dining there.
Bollat brings a wealth of culinary expertise and creativity to Mex 1 Coastal Cantina. With a distinguished background in culinary development, Hurley says he’s set to elevate the menu with innovative dishes that celebrate fresh, coastal ingredients while staying true to the cantina’s signature style.
Some immediate changes regulars will notice are in the technique and preparation. While many of the Mex 1 favorites will remain on the menu, Bollat is changing how they are made to enhance flavor. For example, the adobe chicken is packed with zest, the esquites or street corn is now roasted, giving a much richer flavor, and the guacamole is made using fresh avocados.
“You’re getting much more bang for your bite now,” says Longo about the modifications Bollat has made already. More changes are coming and will be slowly implemented over the next several months. Bollat says he plans to roll out some new menu items via daily and weekly specials that play of the coastal theme, such a Seared Tuna Taco and Crab Enchiladas. He also will be adding new veggie items, like Fried Buffalo Brussels Sprouts.
In the meantime, Hurley says they plan to pause brunch and lean into football on the weekends, with a special gameday menu featuring wings, Mexican sliders, fajitas, and carnitas taquitos, fajitas, and nachos.
You will also see some immediate new additions to the menu, such as Mahi-Mahi Skewers, Mexi-Cali Burrito, and a Ranchero chicken Sandwich.
“We are excited to welcome Ruddy and Michelle to our team. Their expertise and vision align with our commitment to delivering great food and service,” says Hurley. “We look forward to seeing the positive impact of their leadership while helping to refocus Mex 1 Coastal Cantina on the spirit of road trips down the Baja coast, coastal tacos, and margaritas, while invoking the feeling of community.”
Mex 1 is located at 817 St Andrews Blvd. For more information, call 877-363-4093
or visit www.mex1can.com.
Rethinking, Rewriting, Reshaping
Can changing the City of Charleston’s zoning codes help
make West Ashley’s corridors more appealing?
by Jenny Peterson | News Editor
Over the years, residents have often been asked and have long provided input on ways they felt West Ashley could be improved. But in the past, some felt that their suggestions had fallen on deaf ears. However, with new city leadership in place and a continued desire to revitalize West Ashley—the City of Charleston’s largest district—many hope this time will be different.
Ideas for how to improve West Ashley flowed like water when around 50 community members attended the “Shaping Our Corridors Charette” event at the Citadel Mall on Monday, July 22. Almost everyone in attendance agreed West Ashley’s main corridors had little curb appeal, traveling by bicycle was a dangerous endeavor with no safe connections to major throughfares, and they wanted to see smaller scale shopping areas.
City planners encouraged everyone to draw ideas over a rendering of West Ashley’s roads, no matter how “off the wall” or unlikely the ideas seemed—even something they may have seen work in another city.
This new city-wide effort hopes to reshape West Ashley from a different angle: through rewriting the city’s zoning codes. Planners are hoping to implement “form-based” zoning codes in major thoroughfares of West Ashley that would tackle not just appropriate uses, but require specific design elements.
It would include height, setbacks and scale, as well as basic building and site design standards such as façade composition, architectural design standards, the arrangement of doors and windows, the inclusion of elements like sidewalks, open spaces, landscaping and parking.
Essentially, even if an industrial use was allowed for a site, “form-based” zoning would require certain design standards that would make the community proud, resulting in, say, the most beautiful gas station or auto dealership where public open spaces and parks can be built around for a more walkable community.
“(Form-based zoning) has been making a real comeback in the last 25 years,” said Victor Dover, founding principal of Florida-based Dover, Kohl & Partners, a consultant firm working on the project.
“It’s creating memorable and enjoyable spaces,” added Steve Postma, an urban designer & town planner with Dover, Kohl & Partners. “Perhaps on Sam Rittenberg and in suburban single-use corridors, there’s opportunities to retrofit walkable neighborhood centers.”
The meeting on July 22 was the first of a three-day open house charette facilitated by the City of Charleston’s zoning department and under its newly elected Mayor William Cogswell to help inform new “form-based” zoning codes and districts.
“(Regardless of) if a gas station can go here, a park here, offices here, residential here, where form-based zoning focuses on is what it looks like and feels like—the layout on the ground,” explained Philip Overcash, a senior planner, with the City of Charleston Planning Department. “The idea has been around awhile but hasn’t been implemented in a lot of places.”
The form-based zoning information session focused on specific areas including the Sam Rittenburg Corridor, parts of Highway 61 and Savannah Highway. City staff is also including the Maybank Highway corridor of Johns Island in this effort for form-based zoning code rewrites and updates.
“How do we determine a place people love, or more or less a place that we have to ‘tolerate?’ What makes a difference is design. In form-based codes, we move design to the front of the discussion,” said Dover. “Streets are given their shape by these privately developed buildings. It’s the difference between a place where you might want to get out of your car and walk around and another place that feels like if you’re not driving (by), you’re doing it wrong.”
The consultant team will work with city staff and take resident feedback to create a draft for a form-based zoning code and present it as part of the city’s zoning code rewrite. Planners say the city’s zoning code rewrite is already underway.
Breakout groups met at various tables with facilitators and then presented to the room their biggest priorities which overwhelmingly were to improve traffic and public infrastructure, move away from large, industrial type businesses on main thoroughfares and add more appealing shopping and dining destinations—possibly a boutique hotel, something West Ashley does not currently have.
For nearly three hours, citizens participated wholeheartedly in what type of land use, density and growth they’d like to see, but asked planners a very important question: would a zoning code hold developers accountable for following through with these lofty dreams?
“It’s legal to build a boutique hotel. Somehow, (developers) haven’t done it, or done it yet. We have to inspire the property owners and investors to do the things they could have done already if they had wanted to,” Dover said. “People seem to be looking for change on these commercial corridors. And these conversations reinforce this effort in form-based coding to work in at least a pilot way in these corridors.”
Dover adds, “It’s about how you want to grow on the community’s terms and how to grow out of your (existing design) problems.”
To learn more about the effort and city zoning rewrite progress, visit www.newchsstandards.com.
The Giving Tree(s)
West Ashley becomes home to the state’s first food forest
by Joan Perry | Contributing Writer
There is nothing as delicious as biting into ripe fruit handpicked from a tree. Nothing.
I picked fruit one summer as a teenager and remember it like it was yesterday. Perched on a ladder at the top of a tree, I reached for the highest, most perfect peach. The sky was blue, the air was fresh. When I bit into that peach the juice ran down my arms and my world was perfect. I am happy for anyone to enrich their life with a similar experience.
I learned of the ribbon cutting festivities for the inauguration of the Mulberry Food Forest a few hours before it was scheduled. I walked up the West Ashley Bikeway to the Ardmore community in the nick of time to be welcomed by Darlene Heater, CEO & Executive Director, Charleston Parks Conservancy Director and the project team.
Little did they know I’d already made multiple visits to watch their garden grow. The Mulberry Food Forest is a hop, skip and jump off the Bikeway just below Wappoo Road, and is on my regular wandering route. I detour past the pond, greet the turtles, dodge the flock of guardian geese and cross the bridge to the grass roofed pavilion installed by Clemson University students in the garden location. I was pleased to be there for the official opening festivities ,sip ice cold lemonade on the hot, humid day, and see the progress.
Located in the Ardmore community, the Food Forest is planted with a thriving pollinator and rain garden, fruits, nuts, vegetables and herbs and the produce is free and open to the public. It is already thriving and producing and anyone can access it at any time. The neighborhood was selected as one that might greatly benefit from access to healthy affordable food.
Darlene Heater said they expect to see 30,000 pounds of produce come out of the food forest each year after it is established. “The project was initially funded through a grant of $50,000 from the South Carolina Forestry Commission. The Conservancy along with teams of volunteers is handling the horticulture, while the City of Charleston’s parks department continues to do the structural work to add pathways and soon to install a new playground at the park.”
A throng of lively children, community and neighborhood leaders, sponsors, board members, project partners and press were on hand to listen to the opening remarks for this ambitious project and celebrate the ribbon cutting, before wandering through the garden paths, sharing and learning along the way.
Sponsors, including Trident United Way, the City of Charleston, Bank of America and the South Carolina Forestry Commission there, pleased to see the successful outcome of their support.
Madison James, Health Program Manager with Trident United Way spoke, saying, “At Trident United Way, we know that having access to fresh foods contributes to household financial stability. That’s why the Mulberry Food Forest is a shining example of a community partnership that just makes sense. Households that have access to fresh foods through programs like this are not only taking steps towards financial stability, they will also experience lower rates of chronic disease, better productivity, and reduced healthcare costs, just to name a few.
This increased access, partnered with the great educational resources Charleston Parks Conservancy will add throughout this space, helps to further inspire the next generation to establish healthy habits early on, to reap the benefits over a lifetime.”
Planning began in the spring of 2023 with community input sessions clarifying the goals of the project and the understanding that the Food Forest would be both community-led and driven.
Sam Haab, Community Garden Manager, Charleston Parks Conservancy, has been involved since March, designing and selecting the plants for the thriving pollinator garden. She has been doing a monthly pollinator census and has already noted a huge increase in number and species. Thanks to the Trident United Way funding, Sam is planning programming for summer camps for the Pink House to start the following week, and anticipates bucket mushroom classes. Ninety six logs have been inoculated with oyster and shitake mushrooms.
Katie Bell, Director of Programs, Charleston Parks Conservancy, was guiding visitors through the garden, when she pointed to a small tree and exclaimed, “That was full of plums the other day. They are gone! That means someone found them!” Nothing could have pleased her more. The produce in the Food Forest is free for the taking.
We saw multiple kinds of citrus, banana trees, blueberries, strawberries, olives, pomegranates and artichokes. There is a melting pot of cultures in the neighborhood and plant choices such as figs, persimmons and lemongrass, deliberately reflect multicultural experiences for cooking and familiarity. Some are already producing, while others like the pecan trees will take many years.
I overheard Reverend Kim Bryant of Grace United Methodist Church, reminiscing about hearing her father say, “You like food, don’t you? Take care of your plants. Care for them, and they will take care of us.”
The Charleston Parks Conservancy did the initial planting with community volunteer support. Seventy five plants from nut trees to berries were planted and so far only three have been lost. The City of Charleston provided the irrigation system that is automated and controlled by smartphone, which helped through the recent drought.
Amanda Barton, Landscape Architect, shared how exciting it has been to be part of the project from the beginning. “It is the first of its kind in South Carolina, and we hope it will be the model for others. It is already an educational tool. The Conservancy will offer camps, classes and training on how to prepare the crops, harvesting and preserving.”
I inquired about the rules. There aren’t many. Community members are asked to be reasonable. We should take only what we will use, and leave enough for others. Be respectful. ^
Owen Vogel is President of the Ardmore Sherwood Forest Neighborhood Association and had the honor of officially cutting the ribbon. He described the afternoon’s experience as almost surreal, to see the finished garden open and producing in real life after all the discussion and planning. “Neighbors have been walking through, seeing fruit and vegetables they’d never heard of.”
One of the best features of the garden is the long term planning. I might snip an herb for my dinner tonight, but the nut and olive trees will take years to produce. Community members may well walk their grandchildren through the garden in years to come at harvest time. Board member Sean Wesley Holleran said, “It is an absolute privilege to serve as a board member for the Charleston Parks Conservancy, and I am so excited about the long-term possibility of getting sustainable fresh produce into the hands of Charleston families that might need a little extra help through this innovative food forest.”
My grandparents retired to a small fruit farm that had a cherry tree with branches overgrowing the country lane. Neighborhood children on bicycles would ride by, take their hands off the handlebars, reach up to grab a handful of cherries and sail on down the road, their mouths full of red sweetness and laughter. It delighted my grandfather, and the kids felt they’d gotten away with mild mischief. The Mulberry Food Forest is a wonderful addition that will pay off for West Ashley residents in joy, finance and health for years in the future.
For more information
or to sign up to volunteer, visit:
www.charlestonparksconservancy.org/project/mulberry-park-food-forest/
