Music to your mouth 2011

AND IT ALL STARTS WITH THE FOOD
A quick review of the history of Palmetto Bluff shows that people have eaten well in the Lowcountry for a very long time. The earliest Native Americans, the Altamaha and Yemassee, found sustenance in the remarkable bounty of fish and game. Their shell middens on the high bluffs are testament to the first oyster roasts—a social and culinary tradition still carried on with great relish here today.

Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, R.T. Wilson, Jr. entertained lavishly in his magnificent “Palmetto Lodge.” The Palmetto Bluff estate was designed with guests in mind.

Visitors arrived at the estate by way of a Savannah Line steamship, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, or the Seaboard Airline train. The social pages of the New York Times listed the comings and goings of the New York elite with frequent mention of individuals “leaving today to visit Mr. and Mrs. R.T. Wilson of Palmetto Bluff, S.C.” Guests would stay for weeks, enjoying Mrs. Wilson’s lavish parties. One can only imagine the elegance and bounty of the meals served there, with the freshest ingredients harvested from the surrounding waters and woods and the produce of Wilson’s extensive farms.

In the 1950s, Union Camp Paper Company built a rustic but charming hunting lodge overlooking the May River. In the long, wood-paneled “Trophy Room” sumptuous game dinners and feasts of local seafood were presented nightly. Prepared by lifelong Lowcountry cooks, an evening’s meal might include quail, venison, boar, shrimp, crabs and oysters—all harvested on the property or from the adjacent waterways. As many as 28 guests would visit the 14-bedroom lodge at one time.

In the modern South, such formality has given way to a more casual approach to food. But the food is always there. And it is front and center at Palmetto Bluff. From afternoons spent “porching” and sipping sweet tea (or something stronger) to crab cake socials that spill from the sidewalks to the Village streets, to oyster roasts where guests stand elbow-to-elbow at a common table partaking in the sweet bounty of the river and the enduring camaraderie that the tradition creates. Food is paramount. And, the greatest testament to the ever-evolving food traditions at Palmetto Bluff is Music to Your Mouth.