Charleston City Paper cuisine writer Eric Doksa in 2011 laid out “the ultimate taste of Charleston,” listing “Classics to Get Schooled In.” From she-crab soup to pimento cheese, he gave readers a taste, if you will, of all the Southern classics you’ve got to try around town.
From left: zinnias; this year s Souther Exposure Seed Exchange catalog; a red alpine strawberry.
“I wish we could bottle and sell the hope and enthusiasm that comes with the newness of a fresh start every spring, a stack of seed catalogs, and the come-hither whispers of new plants at local garden shops,” says Mary Beth Shaddix, who with her husband, the nurseryman David Shaddix, grows a garden filled with both new and tried-and-true vegetable varieties each year in Shelby County, Alabama. “Hope keeps me going back to the garden, watching, studying, staying surprised.”
As those seed catalogs hit mailboxes across the South, gardeners reconnect with the roots that link us to plant people through the ages. “If you want to grow heirloom varieties or save seed from your plants, you’ll need to order seeds from a catalog that specializes in heirloom varietals and grow your own,” says Michael Washburn, the garden manager at Blackberry Farm. His role model, Blackberry’s mast