Around 75 people gathered for dinner last week on the promenade behind the Town Clock.
WINNSBORO (June 23, 2016) – If you missed it, you missed the event of the season in downtown Winnsboro.
About 75 people attended Winnsboro’s first annual Farm-to-Table dinner sponsored and organized by the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce. It was the kick-off event for Fairfield County’s third annual Ag + Art Tour.
The evening began at 6 p.m. on the promenade behind the Clock Tower with a strumming guitar, a wine bar, iced watermelon punch, appetizers served from large trays before dinner – and, ah, the dinner! Seated at long formal tables that stretched the length of the promenade, diners enjoyed choice local produce prepared by local chefs and served by the most attentive volunteer wait staff.
And all this was followed with Norma Branham’s sour creme pound cake served with o-so-sweet fresh-picked peaches and blueberries.
“It was just a wonderful evening and the food was so delicious,” Chamber president Terry Vickers said. “It was so much fun and I think everyone who came had a lovely time. It was a joint effort by a lot of people in the community who donated food, time and lots of work. I would like to thank all of our citizens who made it possible.”
*Look for more photos of the Ag + Art tour in next week’s edition of The Voice.
This whimsically painted ‘flower bed’ made from discarded items, was featured in artist Christy Buchanan’s painted garden during Fairfield County’s Ag & Art Tour last year.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY (June 15, 2016) – The rural, fair fields of Fairfield County will be busy with visitors this Saturday and Sunday during the County’s third year participating in the Ag + Art Farm Tours. Terry Vickers, President of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce, said this year’s exhibits are going to top everything tour visitors have seen in past years.
Bit and Annabelle, the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep, and their family will greet guests at Gypsy Wind Farm, as will Mangalitsa pigs with long, curly hair. A number of artists will be on site – one will be milling white, yellow and blue grits in a stone-ground grist mill.
Magnolia Farm in Ridgeway dates back to the early 1800s with the original smoke house, barn and chicken coops still on site. The farm is home to The Barclay School with its curriculum for students who learn differently. Their raised-bed garden is configured as a sun. The students have cured hams hanging in the smoke house, and their farm animals include pigs, horses and goats. The kids will be making goat’s milk cheese. Samples of cheese and fudge will be available for tasting. The children’s art will be available for sale as well as the works of Plein Air Painters Yongue, Holland and Finch.
Visit Forevermore Farm’s exotic miniature Zebu cows and Pygmy Dwarf goats and chickens of all kinds. A backyard critter encounter featuring a ferret habitat, baby cows, baby goats and chickens is a must for everyone. Artisans on site include Matthew Dickerson’s Dulcimer Music Concert on both Saturday and Sunday at 2 and 5 p.m. One Eye Ink, an acrylic painter, will be presenting on-going painting demonstrations both days.
Triple J Farm is relatively new and produces grass-fed beef using controlled grazing. It also features pastured poultry and fresh eggs. Katie Langdale of Rosewood Farm will be featured in a freestyle riding performance with her Andalusian horse, Maluso II, on Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Artist Julie Rambo will use barn tin for canvas and barn wood for frames. Julie is a three-time first place winner at the S.C. State Fair.
For the whimsical in all of us, The She Garden will be a popular spot again this year at the Painted Picket. This fun studio space offers unusual garden creations including a thriving container garden in file cabinet drawers and a wine bottle house with a live herb garden on the roof. Also of interest are several free-range chickens and ducks, handcrafted honey, goat’s milk products with 100 percent essential oils in Earth-friendly packaging. And meet the goats as well. NaNa’s Art will be on hand cleaning, burning and drilling gourds in preparation for de’coupage and embellishment. Brenda Tobin-Flood will also be at The She Garden selling her Ruby’s Naturals dog, cat and horse treats made from all-natural, human-grade organic ingredients.
Kick off for the Ag + Art Farm Tour will be a Farm-to-Table Dinner on June 16. Ingredients will be supplied many of the farm sites. Tickets are available online at eventbrite.com. For information, call 803-635-4242.
BLYTHEWOOD/FAIRFIELD (June 9, 2016) – Volunteers are need for 12-15 teams with that many Big Grab volunteer leaders, organizer Dennis Jones told The Voice on Monday.
“We are needing folks who will, with a few friends, help with 7-12 mile sections of the 85-mile route,” Jones said. “They will stake out directional signs on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 8 and pick them up on Sunday, Sept. 11.”
Jones also said that prior to the sale, volunteers are needed to go out and encourage those who live along the routes or have churches or businesses along the route to set up sites to sell their goods on the two sales days.
Other volunteers are needed to solicit sponsorships ($50 per group/church/business) to help defray costs of security, advertising, temporary restrooms, etc. For their $50, sponsors will receive a yard/window sign and their sale site will be listed on the Big Grab website www.biggrabyardsale.com
“Having a sales site listed on the website can be a big boost to that sales site,” Jones said. “People from near and far start analyzing the route early online, looking for ways to maximize their purchases in two short days. We want them to fine plenty of treasures and know how to navigate the route when they get here.”
“The Big Grab is more successful every year,” Jones said. “The bigger it is each year, the more successful it is. But the more work it is as well.”
Those who wish to volunteer, please call Denise at 803-361-2013.
BLYTHEWOOD (May 26, 2016) – The Wall that Heals convoy arrived in Blythewood under a giant American flag on Wednesday afternoon with a motorcycle escort after making its way through downtown Winnsboro and Ridgeway earlier in the day.
Blythewood town officials will host an opening ceremony on Thursday, May 26, at 1 p.m. As part of the ceremony, the Columbia chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America will lay a wreath at the Wall exhibit.
Also on Thursday, the Blythewood Historical Society will host an educational program featuring a video tribute to local veterans, a Quilt of Valor presentation to area veterans and a display of four restored Vietnam-era military vehicles. The program will be presented at The Manor at Doko Meadows, starting at 6:30 p.m. Some seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Throughout the weekend, the Blythewood Historical Society together with the Town of Blythewood will be honoring and remembering those who served in the Vietnam War during the town’s second annual Memorial Day observance. Events include a public exhibition of The Wall That Heals that runs May 26-30, and a historical education program about the Vietnam conflict on May 26.
The weekend’s observances center on a public exhibition of The Wall, which is open for around-the-clock public viewing from 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 26 through 5:30 p.m. on Monday, May 30 (Memorial Day).
The Wall That Heals, a 250-foot portable replica of the original Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., features the names of more than 58,000 men and women who lost their lives in the Vietnam conflict.
The exhibit, an outreach program of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation, also includes an education center where visitors can learn more about the Americans who served in the Vietnam War.
All events are free and open to the public. Doko Meadows Park and The Manor are located at 171 Langford Road near the corner of Langford Road and US Highway 21 in Blythewood.
Community volunteers will be on hand around the clock to assist visitors in locating the names of friends and loved ones inscribed on The Wall That Heals. For more information, Call Hazel Kelly at Blythewood Town Hall, 754-0501.
Blythewood resident and Voice photographer Kristy Massey takes a break from training last weekend for her upcoming cross-country bike journey.
BLYTHEWOOD (April 28, 2016) – Your ancestors might have headed west by covered wagon, seeking greener pastures, a new life or perhaps a few flakes of gold from the American River near Sutter’s Mill. It was an arduous journey, often through hostile territory, difficult terrain and unforgiving climates.
And it took a long time.
Next month, Blythewood resident and Voice photographer Kristy Kimball Massey will be following in the opposite direction some of those same trails blazed by 19th century pioneers; but not by covered wagon. Massey and her high school pal Donita Walters, of Kokomo, Ind., will be making the trek by bicycle.
“I did my first bike tour when I was 16,” the 46-year-old Massey said. “It was a two-week ride through Vermont and New Hampshire, and I fell in love with the idea of traveling through states on a bike. Traveling through small towns, going to small restaurants, you really see America; and not from the interstate.”
While the cross-country voyage is a personal challenge for the duo, they are also hoping to raise funds along the way for Homes for our Troops – a 501(c)(3) non-profit committed to building specially adapted homes for service members nationwide who have returned home from duty with life-altering injuries. They have christened their journey “The Wandering Project: Two Girls, two bikes, one cause.”
“We looked into several charities when we were planning the trip,” Massey said. “As soon as I saw Homes for our Troops, I decided it was what I needed to do.”
Both Massey and Walters have military in their families – Massey’s husband Scott, as well as her father, brother and uncle and are all former military, while her son Derek, 21, is a rising senior at The Citadel and will be heading for the Army after graduation. Walters, meanwhile, has a father-in-law and a son-in-law who are both veterans.
Homes for our Troops assists some of the most severely injured veterans who have returned home from places like Afghanistan and Iraq with missing limbs, varying degrees of paralysis, blindness or traumatic brain injury. The charity provides the homes mortgage-free.
The goal is to raise $1 per mile, Massey said, or about $3,800 total. They will hand out cards along their route, collecting as they go. Walters is looking for corporate sponsorship as well, Massey said, for the charity and to help fund the trip.
“We’d also love to have some local business support as well,” Massey added.
America on Two Wheels
Massey and Walters, who will dip their tires in the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco on May 29 before heading east, will see plenty of states on this trip. The duo will travel through 10 states along the 3,744-mile journey, climbing to heights of more than 11,000 feet as they cross the Monarch Pass in Colorado before leveling out along the Great Plains as they make their way to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. There, approximately 67 days later, they will dip their tires in the Atlantic Ocean and call it a summer.
The first week, Massey said, would be the toughest, with navigating urban terrain more challenging than the 124 miles of nothing they will traverse in Utah in week three. They plan to travel light, she said, but for the dessert crossing in Utah they will have to pack 15 pounds of just water. The Utah crossing will also be the only anticipated camping they will have to do along the way, and Massey said they will include a pair of small tents among their gear. Once they are through the wilds, she said, they will mail the tents home to lighten their load.
Right now, Massey said, they plan to go it alone; however, there is the possibility of a family member following along by car for at least a portion of the trip.
Reunion Tour
Like so many high school friends, Massey and Walters lost touch after graduating from Lewis Cass High School in Indiana in 1988. But thanks to the magic of Facebook, they found each other again just a few years ago.
In 2014, when Massey embarked on a 520-mile ride from Nags Head, N.C. to Hilton Head, Walters followed her progress on Facebook. Walters had done some mountain tours in Colorado, and the two of them decided to take a riding trip together.
“We discussed riding with each other, and then realized we both wanted to do a cross-country ride,” Walters recently told The Kokomo Herald.
After Massey completed her Head-to-Head ride in November of 2014, the two began making their plans.
“She got a bike right away,” Massey said. “I crashed my bike in Hilton Head 2 miles from the finishing point. Cracked the frame. I ordered a new bike in May (2015), and it just arrived in November. So I’ve gone a whole year without riding.”
Last weekend, the two got together for some training along the Blue Ridge Parkway, climbing Mt. Mitchell to work the kinks out.
For their cross-country ride, Massey said she hopes to average around 85 miles a day on the straightaways, 30-60 miles a day in the mountains.
“I like the challenge,” Massey said. “I like the adventure and pushing myself to the limits. I like to experience new places and meet new people.”
The adventure begins May 29.
Massey and Walters will chronicle their ride with journal entries on CrazyGuyOnABike.com and will post photos along the way on their Instagram site, Wanderingproject. Their website, www.wanderingproject.com, will also detail their journey.
Anyone wishing to donate to Homes for our Troops can go to http://fundraise.hfotusa.org/kristymassey.
Instructor Kitty Rabb of Winnsboro instructs Sharon Swofford of Ridgeway in watercolor technique. (Photo/Barbara Ball)
RIDGEWAY (April 17, 2016) – St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Ridgeway began hosting a watercolor class last year with six students. Today, five of those students plus six more are still taking the class and have become accomplished artists.
While art instructor Kitty Rabb said the students had little or no art background when they began taking the classes, several of them will be offering their work for sale at next month’s annual Arts on the Ridge Festival.
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays, soft music wafts through the room as the women work on their projects under Rabb’s one-on-one guidance. Rabb said that while the atmosphere is relaxed, the work is intense and during each class the participants each complete a painting.
While Rabb instructs most of the classes, concentrating on technique, guest artists like Esther Melton instruct special classes. Melton recently demonstrated how to paint on glass and silver.
Rabb said newcomers are always welcome. The church is located at 307 Longtown Road in Ridgeway. For information about the classes, call 315-8006.
Roman Russell, Ethan Ingle and Austyn Zeis harvest critters from a rotted log during last year’s Wildlife 101 camp at Camp Discovery in Blythewood. This year’s camp begins March 28 and runs through April 1.
BLYTHEWOOD (Jan. 7, 2016) — If you think your child might like to spend spring break on the wild side, Camp Discovery may have just what you’re looking for.
For a 5-day spring break like no other, “Wildlife 101” focuses on a different topic each day to learn the secrets of nature’s incredible design. Camp activities include field experiments, exploration, games, lots of animals and fun hands-on learning. Children can sign up for one day or for all week! No two days are ever the same.
The camp, for ages 6-11, runs from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., March 28 – April 1. Cost is $40/day or $185 for the week. Space is limited. Registration fees include all activities, daily snacks and a camp shirt. Limited financial assistance is available.
A complete listing of topics and registration information is available at www.campdiscoverysc.org.
Camp Discovery is a 501(c)(3) non-profit providing recreation and experiential learning in nature.
Located in Blythewood on 104 acres of natural spaces, Camp Discovery provides the ideal outdoor classroom to awaken a child’s senses and to engage with the natural world!
For more information, call (803) 754-2008 or email info@campdiscoverysc.org.
