Bulls Bay Saltworks

It was a rainy, last minute Saturday drive to visit Teresa and Rustin Gooden at their home and salt farm, Bulls Bay Saltworks. I received the most warm, generous welcome by the Gooden’s, their excitable dog, a mooching drooling cat, a chatty pregnant pig, many egg laying chickens and one fly away, self-homed peacock. Their one acre homestead is a little dream land – full of veggie gardens (including the world’s hottest chili plant), happy animals and of course, a salt farm.

Teresa and Rustin approach salt naturally – their small batch, locally harvested, sustainable process makes for an efficient, innovative and humble saltworks. Situated just north of Charleston, SC, they harvest water locally from a protected class 1 wilderness area in Cape Romain. They then use a solar power evaporation process to form four different types of salt including crystals, flake, a ‘margarita’ variety and their most delicious bourbon barrel smoked salt. As we trudged around the farm in our gumboots (their property was part flooded due to an unseasonably large amount of rain) I was completely swept up by Teresa and Rustin’s simple yet quality approach to living and farming. They love what they do and work so well together at it – quite inspiring to be around and great to know that their product comes from such a heartfelt place.

Lately, I have been finding that more and more I am enjoying the times where I get to see and photograph food in its most natural, basic state. I love learning where it comes from, how it is made and then I love getting excited about how I can turn it into something delicious for the dinner table. Not only is the process and the story such an invigorating part, but the people, like Teresa and Rustin, who make their life's work about producing innovative, quality, and natural products from the land - and sea - is what pulls at my heart strings most.  It gives me goosebumps. It leaves me curious, thankful and wanting to learn more.

Keep an eye out next week for a recipe using Bulls Bay Saltworks Smoked Sea Salt. I hear that mushrooms are involved… and there may just be a little Bulls Bay Salt giveaway too – it is quite delicious and very much worth sharing. 

A Low Country Boil

As an edible ode to summer and a sweet summoning of the fall, we gathered on a friends dock to feast on the southern flavour of the low lands and sea. Crab was cracked. Shrimp was peeled. Corn was splattered. Our hands became sticky and our belly's became full. A low country boil - a perfectly placed tradition, meant for the dearest of friends and seagulls to share. 

Low Country Boil

prep time: 5 minutes
cook time: 20 minutes 
total time: 25 minutes
yields: 12 servings

For Boil
1.8 kg / 4 pounds small red potatoes
5 liters / approx. 5 quarts water
bag of boil seasoning (see below)
6 full cobs of corn, halved
1.8 kg / 4 pounds fresh prawns / shrimp unpeeled
1.8kg / 4 pounds seasonal crab legs (we used snow crab)
2 lemons, halved                                                                                                                          
butter and cocktail sauce for dipping

For Seasoning
12 dried bay leaves, crumbled into fine pieces
12 teaspoons celery salt
8 teaspoons dried mustard powder
6 teaspoons black pepper
6  teaspoon paprika
4 teaspoon smoked salt
4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 teaspoons red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground ginger

Mix all of the dried herbs together to form seasoning. Place the water into a large pot and bring to boil over high heat. Add lemon and all but 1 tbs of the seasoning to the water. Add potatoes and cook at a rolling boil for 5 minutes. Add corn and cook for a further 10 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Add shrimp and crab to the pot and cook for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow shrimp and crab to continue to cook for a further 2-4 minutes or until shrimp are pink and cooked through. Drain. Toss with remainder of seasoning. Pour out onto brown paper bags and serve with plenty of melted butter and cocktail dipping sauce. 

Pomegranate Elderflower + Gin Cocktail

Sometimes there’s reason to celebrate. The changing of seasons - summer surrendering its thick aired, brighter days to the fresher, lighter days of autumn. Exciting life events – feeling deeply happy and with so very much to look forward to. Days full of opportunity, travel and life – the smaller parts, the larger parts, the more complex and the very simple. The good. Or, just because it’s Friday. Or any day, really. And then there’s the time to celebrate autumns beautiful fruit, currently gracing farmers markets and the like with its seasonal warm tones and welcomed strange shapes. Autumn fruit is by far my favourite. Persimmons and waiting for them to ripen to their silky cotton texture, will forever remind me of my Grandma. Quince and guava make me think of jam as they sit all odd and exotic looking. But by far my favourite and most celebrated this time of year, is the pomegranate. They will forever remind me of walking the streets of Istanbul with my dear friend Sarah, watching the fruit being pressed at road side market stalls and walking away with a tall cup full of pure pinkish-red juice to last the afternoon.

Sometimes, celebrations call for a cocktail. Preferably made with gin. And preferably made with my favourite – pomegranate juice.

I recently treated myself to a locally brewed bottle of gin from (another of my favourites) a St. Augustine restaurant and distillery called The Ice Plant. I was also recently introduced to the delicious new Jack Rudy holiday tonic made with elderflower extract, harvested in Kentucky and bottled up to carry us beyond the summer seasons bloom. I couldn’t think of a more perfectly paired flavor to combine in a cocktail made specifically to farewell the summer and welcome in the fall. Hello autumn. You are very much worth celebrating.

pomegranate elderflower + gin cocktail

yields: 1 serving

25 ml gin
25 ml Jack Rudy elderflower tonic
50 ml freshly pressed pomegranate juice
25 ml freshly squeezed seasonal citrus (not a lot of citrus is in season during the autumn. I used two little meyer lemons that had fallen and ripened early from my own tree. Key limes and eustis limes are also currently in season which would taste wonderful too if you can get your hands on some)

Pour all ingredients into a shaker. Shake over crushed ice. Strain and pour into a martini glass. Garnish with a rubbed rosemary stem. Enjoy.

Happy Friday.

*no one paid me to advertise these little beauties. I just really like them and wanted to share them with you. 

Scalloping | Port St Joe

Never ever have I been so excited about a boat outing. I love boats, I really do. But this time there was food foraging involved. We were going scalloping. 

My dear friend Suzanah had invited us to join her family out on the bay of Port St Joe. We went out on her dad, Danny's, boat. The water was like glass in the early morning and the sun was already beginning to reach the end of its harsh summer glow. Indian summer was upon us and it felt good. Danny, a local fisherman and town resident for the past 30 years had so much to tell us about the water. I listened hard, trying to soak up his generous knowledge and his broad southern accent. 

It was quite a slow season for scallops, he told us. Not quite sure what we were looking for, we snorkeled over the sand and through the sea grass searching for a find.  I became fearful that we wouldn't find any scallops in the bay, but I was terribly excited when, after a quick trawl through the ocean bed floor, Danny came back with four little scallop shells nestled in his hands. Jakob, determined, went out and found one more. Danny then showed us how to shuck the scallops, to remove the guts and to keep the muscle. And then, like sweet raw sushi, we ate them right there on the boat.

The beauty of the bay struck me. How have I lived just a short few hours drive from this place and never been out on this water. We watched as fish skipped across its surface, found sea urchins and in the distance, the sugar sand glowed white. After scalloping we took the boat around the peninsular, walked on a dune island and had a swim in the shallow, warm water of the Gulf. On the way back to shore, my mum and Emily sat and talked, Jakob and Trevor had a nap in the sun, Danny steered the boat and I breathed and took it all in. 

I am so grateful to the Raffield family for showing us a morning out on the bay. Foraging for food is my ultimate idea of heaven - and to learn the bays culture of harvesting scallops and to be shown a little of the lifestyle of the area put us all in a very happy, grateful place. Those five little scallops were the most delicious pieces of Florida that I have tasted.

It really, honestly, was the best boat trip. Ever.