To go to the beaches of South Carolina for an entire week is to lose all sense of time, as well as good internet connection. After the initial night of exuberant partying and excessive drinking in celebration of the commencement of vacation, time slows down, days of the week are forgotten, and the day's agenda involves nothing more serious than taking a shower — at some point.
Everyone brings essential provisions, as well as summer's last hoorah from their gardens to stock the kitchen. Trips to the Piggly Wiggly for restocking Blenheims ginger ale and beer, stops at the roadside vegetable stand for peaches, and visits to the seafood store down the road for fresh local shrimp complete the kitchen.Not a single meal was eaten at a restaurant the entire week. Why? Because it doesn't get any better than homemade coastal Carolina cuisine.
This roadside farm stand sign just about sums up what you'll be eating at the beach in South Carolina come late August. 
As well as pimento cheese. Lots of it! These are pimento cheese sandwiches I made in Philly to take along on our ten hour road trip to the coast.
The first night, M. rocked her pimento cheese on toast set under the oven broiler. The house has canners, too! Two kinds of pickled okra, dilly beans, and pickled Jerusalem artichoke accompany fresh veggies for the evening happy hour of snacks and drinks. 
Deep into puzzle mania (three puzzles were completed before week's end), C. busted out her version of pimento cheese presented on celery sticks.
Everyone makes pimento cheese a little bit different. K. likes to add a little hot pepper to her pimento cheese. 
Sorry, but SC peaches really are better. There's both a little bit of bias and truth in that statement.
You know you're at a beach in SC, when the realty company dishes out boiled peanuts as a welcoming gift. 
These huge cans of boiled peanuts displayed under the boiled peanut hot bar (yep!) at Piggly Wiggly are actually not bad, especially the spicy ones.
But you'd do better getting them from the side of the road, though. 
This is a lowcountry boil, which is a traditional one-pot coastal dish. Shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes are all boiled in a big pot with seasonings, then put in the middle of the table to be ravaged. 
Blue crabs were caught right off our marsh deck one evening. Crabbing involves tying a chicken neck to a trap, casting the trap, sitting back drinking a beer, and checking on the trap whenever the mood strikes. Might be even lazier than fishing. 
The collaborative cooking of fried okra, grits, and gravy. Gravy here is not red sauce or a flour-based sauce, but diced tomatoes, corn and onions.The coarse-ground grits we used are actually from Bradley's Country Store near Tallahassee, FL, and they are exceptional! Bradley's is a tiny county store known for their homemade smoked sausage and grits. They ship 'em, if you're interested.
If you want exceptional SC grits, there's always Anson Mills. They ship, too.
Shrimp and grits with gravy. 
Shrimp salad. 
Hush puppies fried up in a cast iron skillet as an afterthought to frying fish. Did you know that black eyed peas are green when they're fresh?
Homegrown speckled butterbeans with tomatoes, slaw, and a slice of soft white bread. 
'Nanner puddin'.
And a plate of some of SC's best whole hog barbecue from Scott's Bar-B-Q in Hemingway, SC. Pit master Rodney Scott stopped by our house to chat a bit on his way to Myrtle Beach. We talked about his uncomfortable new-found fame from being featured in The NY Times, as well as the documentary Cut/Chop/Cook produced by the Southern Foodways Alliance; felling trees; and how he comes to Philly for Eagles games. Turns out he was born in Philly!
Oh, how I'll miss the pimento cheese and boiled peanut snacks, happy hour every hour, warm ocean waters, and marsh dock sunsets. Til next year!
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