Many people are starting to grow their own fruits and veggies for many reasons. Some cite economic reasons, others do it because they say it’s healthier. Whatever their motivation, growing food is becoming very popular. Just last week, the Obamas broke ground on an 1,100 square foot “White House Kitchen Garden.” If you’ve been thinking about starting a vegetable garden, Sustainable Ballard can help. Tonight they’re holding a program from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Sunset Hill Community Club to teach people the art of growing their own food. Information here.
Learn to grow your own food
ome ancient Americans migrated to coastal South Carolina for the same reasons that many northerners still relocate here today. They preferred living near water and the seashore in a warm climate.
That’s an educated guess by Albert Goodyear, a University of South Carolina archaeologist who has drawn international headlines for excavating and interpreting artifacts at an archaeological site named Topper located along the Savannah River in Allendale County. In May 2005, the USC archaeology team will continue excavating at Topper, named for a local man who first showed Goodyear the site.
Goodyear’s findings at Topper have placed South Carolina in the middle of a fierce debate about the origins of the first Americans. Now South Carolina could become central to the changing story of Homo sapiens.
Thousands of years ago, when the area now known as South Carolina was colder and dryer than today but more pleasant than farther north, ancient Americans migrated to Topper, Goodyear says. “Topper may have drawn people from all over the hemisphere simply because they were looking to relocate in warmer climes.”
Early hunter-gatherers who used Topper were likely coast-dwellers, says Goodyear. Ancient people may have lived in settlements along the South Carolina shoreline most of the year, harvesting shellfish and fishing and perhaps hunting marine mammals.
In the spring, they likely traveled inland along the Savannah River, a major artery linking the Atlantic Ocean to the interior. They might have netted migratory fish swimming upstream to spawn. On a river bluff at the Topper site in Allendale County, early Americans broke open cream-colored rock called chert. Chert is a glassy, flint-like stone used to carve tools from antler, wood, and bone.