Food festivals fill the calendar in South Carolina

Come for the oysters and catfish, the peaches and melons. South Carolina is also where you'll get peanuts well boiled, and grits by the gallon. And the good news is, no matter when you come, there will likely be a food festival on the calendar. Food is celebrated big time in the Palmetto State.

Oysters are especially popular and are celebrated often, since those tasty little mollusks are considered best consumed during the “r” months. Here along the coast, it would seem that oyster feasts have been going on for quite some time, judging by the ancient shell rings and mounds still found in the marsh and maritime forests.

One of the biggest celebrations is the Lowcountry Oyster Festival with information online at: www.charlestonrestaurantassociation.com/oyster_festival.php. It takes place on the last Sunday of January at the historic Boone Hall Plantation near Charleston. Typically, about 65,000 pounds of oysters feed a group of humans of similar number.

Then spring hits and it's time for another traditional southern favorite—the World Grits Festival in St. George: www.worldgritsfestival.com. A highlight is the grits-rolling contest, where people literally roll in the grits. Grits will also be served, of course, in far more savory fashion.

Come summer and it's melon season in South Carolina and the oldest food festival of them all is the annual Hampton County Watermelon Festival in the picturesque Lowcountry town of Hampton. Information at: www.melonfest.org.

South Carolina also is a major peach producer and there are several peach festivals on the calendar, including the Lexington County Peach Festival: www.lexingtoncountypeachfestival.com. It attracts tens of thousands of folks every Fourth of July to little Gilbert, not far from Columbia.

There's also a peanut party (www.scpeanutparty.com) and catfish feasts (www.catfishfeastival.com) and the Bog Off (www.lorischambersc.com) to see who can cook the best chicken bog, a traditional name for a concoction of rice, chicken, and vegetables from the state's Pee Dee region. There's even the Chitlin Strut (www.chitlinstrut.com) around the time of the American Thanksgiving, knowing that for many, this November holiday would not be complete without fried pig intestines.

Last but not least: barbecue. In South Carolina this means chopped smoked pig and there's a whole series of festivals and cooking competitions focused just on that savory subject.

Of course, vendors serving up the local specialties are a highlight at every food festival too—and participants always say that it's the pageants, arts-and-crafts booths, parades, and street dances that will make these gatherings a small-town classic.

The state's official tourism site at www.DiscoverSouthCarolina.com and its culinary site at www.SavorSouthCarolina.com contain more complete lists of food festivals. For barbecue festivals, there's also the South Carolina Barbeque Association Web site at www.scbarbeque.com.

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