Last month Our Carolina Foothills took a small sampling of local food and wine to Feast by the Field in Greenville, S.C. in order to promote the area and our local culinary and agriculture talent. 

Southside Smokehouse and Stone Soup restaurants, both of which have been in business more than a decade, found that many people from the Upstate who had come to Landrum had never visited their establishments since they both sit off the main downtown intersection.

Young farmers Nicole and Aaron Bradley from Bradley Farms in Saluda had donated meat to Stone Soup and they were able to interact with people who tried their pork and answer questions about the area and their products.

Looking Glass Creamery’s chocolate lab cheese and coconut creme fraiche proved to be a huge hit as well as Windy Hill Orchards’ sampling of four different flavors of hard cider. Both Looking Glass and Windy Hill are among the new arm of agri-tourism joining forces in the Foothills.

John Toomey was present representing Tryon’s upcoming Beer Fest, and I handed out our very popular wine trail guide and maps that explained where all of our towns were in respect to Tryon Resort (since many people had gone there but not to the towns).

We were thrilled to connect with people from Atlanta, Charleston, Florida and even someone flown in by S.C. tourism from Brazil. Most attendees were from Greenville, Greer and Traveler’s Rest. We were in the right spot as most of these people were foodies who had no idea there were wineries less than an hour from them or that there was so much to do in our area.

Our Carolina Foothills is a nonprofit that promotes the towns of Landrum, Tryon, Columbus and Saluda through marketing campaigns and events. Funds earned through prior fundraisers paid for this event. To learn more about Our Carolina Foothills, visit our web, Facebook or Instagram pages or contact President Suzanne Strickland at 828-817-1079.

– submitted by Mindy Wiener