"South Carolina" news and stories

Few publicists instruct reporters to destroy their press releases. But in keeping with Food Lion's roll-out of what it is billing as its "first environmentally friendly grocery store," spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown issued materials printed on paper saturated with seeds.

"You tear it up, put it in soil and it grows," Phillips-Brown says.

Food Lion is counting on its green grocery in Columbia, S.C., to blossom, too. The store -- the first supermarket in the state built according to LEED Silver Certification standards -- is a major element in Food Lion's ongoing attempt to rehabilitate its image.

"Certainly we want to serve our customers," Philips-Brown says of the project. "But it's more about being a good corporate citizen."

Chicken bog is a seasoned chicken, rice and sausage dish that's not half as soupy as its name suggests. What chicken bog isn't -- at least according to the organizers behind the 30th annual Loris Bog-Off being held this weekend in Horry County, S.C. -- is pilau.

Samantha Norris, executive assistant to the Chamber of Commerce's board of directors, maintains that bog is distinct from the beloved African-tinged casserole served one county over, also known as pilau, perloo, pilaf and perlau.

"Some people tell me bog is wetter, some people tell me there's more chicken in bog," Norris says.

Food historians don't necessarily agree: In her book "The Carolina Rice Kitchen: The African Connection," Karen Hess posits that bog is really just pilau made on a massive scale. "It is difficult to make very large amounts of a proper pilau, so it ends up being 'boggy,'" she writes.

Photo: terren in virginia, Flickr.

So much for putting a wiener on a stick and calling it dinner.

Campground cooking, once the province of anyone who could wrap a potato in tin foil, is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Vicki Loughner, who's coordinating the 2009 South Carolina Campground Cookoff, reports it's not uncommon for campers today to get cracking on a recipe for spinach sausage quiche.

"They are very serious about the cooking they do," Loughner, project manager for the Old 96 District Tourism Commission, says of the teams registered for this weekend's competition. "When you look at their food, you'd never know it was cooked over a campfire."

In pursuit of the $500 prize, some entrants this year have purchased their own Big Green Egg, the fetishized grill with the startling price tag. But Loughner says it's not just the promise of riches that's inspiring outdoorsy gourmands to up their dinner game. According to Loughner, more and more South Carolina campers are applying their "Top Chef" sensibilities to campground menu planning.

Recycling heap in South Carolina. Photo: huggingthecoast, Flickr.

Coastal conservationists say the first South Carolinians had the right idea when they flung the remnants of their oyster feasts back into the ocean.

"Native people didn't put their oysters in a cooler and head down the road for a party," says Joy Brown, marine restoration specialist for the South Carolina Nature Conservancy. "They put their oysters right back in the water."

The Nature Conservancy is now trying to replicate the Cusabo's recycling habits, which they credit with sustaining the state's oyster crop, filtering its waters and preventing shoreline erosion. The advocacy organization is partnering with the Department of Natural Resources on a pilot program to collect emptied oyster shells from Charleston-area restaurants and return them to the sea.

"A lot of times, these shells are going into landfills," Brown says. "But they can serve a better purpose."

Boiled peanuts. Photo: flickr, jasonlam

Before new students at the University of South Carolina can tackle physics and philosophy, they first have to confront boiled peanuts.

Hundreds of out-of-state Gamecocks each year enroll in the school's optional workshop, "What's the Big Deal About Sweet Tea?", intended to ease the transition into Southern-style eating. Acknowledging that discomfort in the dining room might cause some northern-born USC'ers to consider transferring somewhere where eggs are served with hash browns instead of grits, the retention-minded university recently added the immersion seminar to its orientation-week schedule.

"We want to help people feel better about their new home," explains Angela Street, coordinator of Initiatives for Special Student Populations (i.e. Yankees).