♪ Beryl Dakers: Hello, I'm Beryl Dakers.

Welcome to Palmetto Scene.

In this episode we'll give you a slice of what makes our state so special.

We'll take a look at amazing rural arts programs.

And we'll sample that low country delight known as frogmore stew.

But first we begin in the Upstate, where we'll visit an ordinary couple who overcame the many challenges of the Jim Crow South.

To live an extraordinary life.

Doretha: Upon conception, begins life.

Nurtured, protected until birth, continuous life.

Born into a world unknown, a journey of life.

Well, my name is Doretha Spurgeon.

I am retired from one of the leading manufacturers here in Greenville, South Carolina.

Alton: My name is Alton Spurgeon.

I retired as well.

Doretha: My position was a facilitator slash planner.

Alton: I was a manager and manufacturer and had responsibility for several 100 people.

Doretha: I took early retirement while AL was working, I was able to sleep late and did crafts, I enjoy making soap, lotion, stain remover and different things.

Alton: When I first retired.

I started in organic farming, which was one of the very few in Greenville at that Time.

We would take our produce to the Greenville Market downtown.

Doretha: We do a lot of vegetables for our families.

All our children were working, and we can and freeze vegetables for them.

Alton: And we enjoy things like being outside, taking walks, fishing.

Doretha: And we have days when we say well, we got to work in the yard, do housework.

And once that's done, we're free to fish a little bit more.

That's it.

Alton: I catch the most fish though.

Doretha: Growing up in the south, there were many challenges because we grew up during the Jim Crow era, schools were segregated.

You couldn't ride on the front of the bus, you could not eat at certain restaurants, I or any restaurants really.

Alton: And we would walk to school.

And regardless of the weather raining or snow, Doretha: We had to walk five miles from where we lived, we had to walk in the opposite direction to get back around to school.

Because if we had walked through the white neighborhoods, and they will throw rocks at us until it ran us out of their neighborhood.

Alton: On the way to school and back, we see these beautiful yellow school buses passing us by with all of the white kids and they would open the window and hurl profanities at us, and would often throw things out the window at us.

And that was over 65 years ago.

But the memories of those things day after day, are still very vivid in my mind.

And one of the things that I learned from that was I never ever treat anyone the way we were treated just because of their race, or for any other reason.

Doretha: And the one thing that really was the problem was that there were no good jobs and we had to take jobs like domestic work, cleaning jobs, and that was about it.

Alton: I harbored those feeling for a long time.

But thankfully, it didn't make me hate.

But it made me more determined.

Doretha: Many times no people will call you names and say you wouldn't be amount to anything but there was always some old person in the community to tell you to never pay any attention to what someone say or call you, you.

Keep your focus, educate yourself, set your goals, give it your best shot, and that you would succeed.

Alton: Those ideals and concepts instilled within me.

I have never met a person regardless of his color or race, or his education that made me feel inferior.

Doretha: All of these things have collections from Africa.

And you notice the wood work how they cut it, call that in.

These from China.

I never expected to ever see another part of the world.

But the unthinkable happened.

Alton: In my professional life.

Dodie and I travel all over the world.

We lived in Nigeria for two years.

We lived in China for one year, we spent a lot of time in Canada, in France and the UK.

Doretha: When we got to Nigeria, it was a real culture shock, Alton: there were conflicts on a weekly basis.

And some days we were not able to go to work because of the ethnic conflict.

And one of the biggest things was that there was a conflict between the Christians and the Muslims.

And we saw remnants of fighting for people sadly had been burned in the streets, very disheartening, very hurtful.

Doretha: But we had decided that we will make the best of this trip, we found a church there, we began to making friends.

If we had an opportunity to help someone along the way that we would help whoever with the help in whatever way that we needed to help them in.

Alton: Oh, we loved China.

It was one of the most memorable things that we've ever done.

We were building a new plant in Shenyang I was the assistant plant manager.

And it was just like being home.

The food was absolutely sensational.

Doretha: I enjoyed going to market while Al worked, just talking to people and I met so many young people, they love to talk to Americans, and also worked in orphanage.

It was just so rewarding.

Alton: We would meet people that had never seen black folks before.

Doretha: We went to one of the villages, way up in the mountains.

And it was really funny.

I mean, they were nice and they were kind but they come out and they rub your skin to see if it will rub off the color would rub off.

And they tried to talk to us.

Alton: And they could not understand how coming from the same country.

We could be black.

And some of our friends with us.

They were white.

Doretha: I can tell you Chinese were really, really good people.

And they don't want a hand out, they're hard workers.

Alton: People are people.

And the way I feel about a person in my heart, has nothing to do with who he is, what color they are, or where they come from.

The pandemic didn't really affect either of us, other than we've missed the get together's with our families.

Doretha: The only thing that we haven't been able to do was to go out and eat go to the grocery stores and things of that nature.

Alton: But we missed our church family.

Because she couldn't go to physical church we had virtual service, and our hope come from above.

We are believers.

We made a concerted effort to treat everyone the way we want to be treated.

Doretha: We just try to live our lives and help people wherever we can, Alton: In all things we do.

Be respectful, so that people can see the way we live our lives and be glorified.

Doretha: Born into a world unknown.

A journey of life for one moment are years.

The way of life between war and peace, struggles life destructions sickness or disease, fleas life.

A place are unknown to man, eternal life.

Beryl Dakers: There is a lot of love in small rural communities.

In 2016, the South Carolina Arts Commission created the art of community project to connect with these rural small towns to address the needs and concerns of its citizens.

And to recognize their artistic wealth.

Johnny: Home to me is about building relationships.

Home is where my heart is, Naviree: it's the place that you wouldn't trade anywhere else, Narration: the place that you feel comfortable.

Naviree: There's a whole lot of love and a lot of rural communities.

Of course, they have their own economic troubles and stuff like that.

But the people here genuinely care about one another.

Matt: People forget about the value of the arts, overcoming problems with creative solutions.

Susan: We were looking at how can we have more connections in local communities that are meaningful and lead to something more than just a drop?

And then out, Evelyn: You know, she contacted me and she said, what about you being a Maven, and I said, Oh, I don't know Susan.

Matt: I fell into that role as a Maven when my predecessor left and been working with Susan and it's been fantastic.

Audrey: They all kinda said, Miss Audrey, I think you'll be the person for your county because you're there, you're on the ground, you know, you pull things together.

Johnny: My roles and Maven is to get people in place to do what they do best to do what they do great.

Audrey: We have a creative green space here.

It's called Estill walking and nature trail, I started putting things into the, into the walking trail, so that people can realize that, you know, once you come to the trail, you can have lunch with your family, you can, you can take your kids and walk around the trail.

In 2019 we had our art resident, Marcus Tracy that came through, and we actually implemented some social, healthy social things into the park.

I even have an area of this set up out there now is sort of like classroom.

Lottie: When the pandemic started, we felt like, you know, we needed to do something to support what was happening in our town, because there are people here that had to continue to work and provide services.

So we wanted to do something to honor them and celebrate them.

We provided a mural that's on 278 that says thank you.

It has pictures of all the frontline workers.

Matt: They come up with this idea of combining the museum with a farmers market, which is completely unique.

From there, the incubator kitchen started up in 2015.

And that kind of grew from this idea of farmers were asking how they could create and take their raw agricultural product and make more money from it.

Now have almost 50 active businesses in that facility that bring economic development to the area and give people the opportunity to be creative, and chase their dreams.

If grandma has an old pound cake recipe and they think is worthy of being in market then so be it.

One of the great things the first couple years the Arts Commission work has brought us is, it made us step back and look at what we had.

Susan: In a second program, we created kind of a subset program called Create Rural SC.

And we identified creative connectors in each one of these communities.

And we asked them to help us at the State Arts Commission to identify more creative's.

Tamara: It was really great for me to become a connector because it was also a way for me to get a little bit more involved in the community.

I'm the executive director here at the Morris center, we are a museum and cultural center.

When our primary gallery we usually talk to a topic that centers around Jasper or the four County area that we serve, which is Jasper, Hampton, Colleton, and Beaufort.

And in our travel gallery, we use that space to talk about arts and culture.

Some of our kids don't get a chance to get out of our community.

And so we can bring those things to them here.

Narration: Chatter at a distance.

Naviree: Yeah there's this organization called growing cob is for is cob stands for Calhoun Orangeburg and Bamberg counties.

And I was made the garden advocate for the community garden we have here in Denmark.

Ashley: Technically we live in a food desert, we host some community gardens, to provide our community members with some fresh produce.

Naviree: It's one of the things that gives the community pride.

It's something that they can genuinely be involved in.

And that's what people that's what people want.

People want something to do people want something to care about.

Susan: What stands out to me about the people we've worked with this initiative is a kind of gritty self determination and persistence.

People who are passionate about where they live, Narration: We don't have resources like, like the big cities do.

We don't have the money, the staff to do what they do in those cities.

So we've got be creative Evelyn: After we started with the Arts Commission, and we did this partnership, it has really made a big difference in what we're doing with it now.

We're involving the people in the community we're involving the town we're involving, you know, the mayor and the council there have come on board.

Narration: Infusing art back into the community that allows a community to see its worth and, and continue to work together and push towards greater goals.

Arts mean that we have a table at which everyone can sit.

Evelyn: Art, builds relationships, and builds bridges, and builds communities.

♪ Gentle piano ♪ Beryl Dakers: It's the dish that has a little something for everyone.

You might call it Low Country Boil, or Beaufort Stew, or even Frogmore Stew.

ETV Low Countries.

Holly Jackson tells us where the name and the dish originated, and how you can make it a crowd pleaser.

Danny: In the low country, we have what has been called now deemed as Low Country Boil.

So Low Country Boil.

People think that it's really a real real old dish.

But really everything is coined and documented to 1960.

A gentleman Richard Gay.

He was feeding some of his National Guardsmen.

He was on duty there was 100, 100 guardsmen, and they'd asked for him to cook.

Well, he come in from shrimping and obviously had plenty of shrimp, but he wanted to create a dish, something he could do all in one pot.

And he had farmers with potatoes that he could trade shrimp for potatoes.

He had farmers that had sausage, he could trade the shrimp, so it kind of got into a bartering system.

And he had different leftover stuff.

So 1960 Richard Gay, started the Frogmore Stew.

The Gay family is iconic to St. Helena Island.

Their dock is still in frogmore, South Carolina.

They continued with the frogmore stew and it slowly gained popularity just because it's just it's shrimp sausage, corn potatoes, which is an incredible ingredients.

Very simple, but very delicious.

Well, they started getting asked, you know, okay, well, how many frogs are in it?

Or does it have frogs in it?

No, no, no, no, no, it doesn't have frogs in it.

It's from Frogmore.

Yeah, so basically when you're looking for a good fresh shrimp, you know, obviously the Carolina shrimp, but wild caught USA shrimp.

These are white shrimp.

So these little potatoes I like to use a little potato pearls.

But what I love about these is they basically when they cook up, they cook up nice and tender, and the skin holds together on them.

So then basically you don't you don't end up with mush.

But the real deal is a good smoke cabasa.

And that's basically what we're going to go here.

So we're gonna run in, we've got a pot getting hot here.

So I just started out with a little bit of olive oil mixed with a little bit of canola oil.

So like I like to take my sausage that's been smoked.

I'll go ahead and add in a good amount of butter right in here.

So I'm gonna take my smart smokes cabasa here and we're gonna go ahead and add that in.

And you don't want to go crazy and start stirring yet but you want to make sure that everything's getting laid in there pretty good.

Once you feel good with that temperature, go ahead and raise up a little bit.

You'll start to see where the sausage is already starting to plump up a little bit.

Let's stir it about one more, one more time.

Now I'm starting to get some good sausage fat on the bottom, of that pan.

You're seeing it starting to stick in there.

Once it starts sticking, I like to add my seasoning.

And I'm gonna go in, we're gonna go ahead pretty heavy with this from the get go.

And don't be scared It's not spicy, go add any additional salt just add your good crab spice.

Once you get that to bubbling and your crab spice going on it's toasting and a little bit, you're going to add a beer of your choice.

Now I'm gonna come in with my cold beer.

Make sure they give that a good stir and then that temperature does not take long for the alcohol to cook out of it.

Once you get to that point, simply just go ahead and add some water.

And everything about this recipe with low country boil, is you know a lot of its eyesight.

You know, you can go by recipe, you can create your own low country Boil, but basically everything is you want enough liquid water beer to cover the rest of your ingredients.

I'm just going to stir that sausage around, make sure it gets good woken up and stir in all that good, good fat.

Now once you after you've added all your liquid in like this, I like to add probably about eight or 10 but good bay leaves good size bay leaves.

And if you were using any other kind of things like artichokes, or any you know crazy stuff like that, now's kind of when you would add that, but we're not we're gonna bring this back up to a boil.

Now you see that beautiful color we got there, that's what we're looking for.

You can already see the fat and the butter and oil is working, you can see that crab spice working bay leaves once they get to get good and hot, they'll break down and they'll start to get the flavor going in there.

So we're at this point, we're gonna go ahead and slap a lid on it.

Once we do that, we'll give it about five or so minutes, and then we'll check it.

Basically once you get your stuff rolling, which we're rolling here now we're getting all that happiness going on right there.

You got your bay leaf really soaking it up spreading out that bay leaf love.

And then you look out fat and plump those sausages are and now once you get to this point, this is where you want to add your other ingredients.

So I'm gonna roll in with these beautiful little baby potatoes.

We're gonna go right on in there.

Be careful of the splash.

Now you keep that stay roll going.

And very, very carefully, without splashing.

Now add that beautiful corn in there.

Alright guys, so once you've got everything rolling here we've been rolling for over 10 minutes, we're going to the key to knowing when things are done is when your potatoes are done, I can see a couple of potatoes, the skin starting to crack a little bit you see that.

But I'm gonna take the little pocket knife and just see how we do right there.

So just starting to go in there.

So now you want to get that point you know your potatoes are done.

You know you everything else is done.

I'm gonna kill the heat.

Now we're gonna add the star of the show.

We got that beautiful South Carolina shrimp that we've been talking about bragging about.

These things are just incredible.

You got green tails, we talked about any South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, best shrimp on the planet.

Anything wild caught USA is where it's at.

Heats off.

We're going to go ahead and add a shrimp in.

You want to just give it a nice little gentle stir.

And I mean, don't take shrimp long.

You can already see how it's getting that nice starting to get a little pink color.

So now at this point, you're going to start scooping it up.

So now once your company is all gathered around the table You got everything scooped out.

And down here in the low country we have a beautiful thing.

It's called a dobot.

We use a wooden dobot to serve everything in.

We love, love to do stuff, family style.

You know we plate dishes we do this that and the other, but the love country boil is like our oyster roast.

We like to do a family style, everybody gets to pick in.

So we're gonna come on over here, this dobo right here we got our friends and family over here.

We're just gonna come on in.

And you just dump that right on in there.

That's your low country boil right there.

Alright, everybody, come on in, dig in.

That's what it's all about.

Beryl Dakers: Now that's some good eating.

For more stories about our state, and more details on those stories you've just seen, do visit our web site @palmettoscene.org.

And of course, don't forget to follow us on social media, Face book, Twitter, and Instagram @SCETV# palmettoscene .

For all of us here at ETV and Palmetto scene.

I'm Beryl Dakers.

Good night, and thanks for watching.

♪