Visitors

My first visitors were Kit and Nate and Fiona, but you've already read about our adventures at Tybee Island.  They were followed by my friend, Betty, a historian who was in Savannah for a conference.  Thanks to her history connections, I was able to join a visit to Wormsloe Plantation.  Wormsloe has been in the same family for nine generations.  It is now a historic site that is home to an amazing amount of research.  The studies range from boxes full of papers documenting the work and events on the plantation back to the days of Ogelthorpe to a plant which is essential to an endangered butterfly and, of course, the butterflies.  Not to mention the care of the mile and a half avenue of live oaks and Spanish moss.  It was so heartening to see someone so excited about her work as the lady who is in charge of this site is.  As a result of the work of this one lady, there are now more and more scholars engaged in more and different areas of study in this location.  Talk about jobs creation.  Who needs corporations?

As if that weren't enough, Betty and I went on to a presentation on heirloom grains from the Low Country.  Once again, it was great to hear the excitement and the commitment of the people engaged in this work.  But I have to admit that the best part was getting to taste the grains they had brought back to life -- White Flint corn and Carolina Gold rice and Hopping John with a new variety of pea beans that goes back to the settlers.  Seconds were offered and gladly accepted.  It's amazing that local and unaltered foods can really taste so different and so wonderful compared to what is usually available.  Keep on working, plant historians.  I'm ready for more.