August 9,  2019

Ridge Spring News

Harriet Householder

 I am on vacation.  I appreciate the help with the article this week from all who contributed to it early.

The first Clinic event of the Community Cat Clean-Up with Fido Fixers of the Columbia Humane Society in Ridge Spring on August 5th was a huge success!!!  28 cats were spayed or neutered and all were given a rabies vaccine.  16 of the surgeries were spays and 12 were neuters with that kind of result eliminating the need for upwards of 100 homes for 100 kittens that won't be conceived in the coming year. And our work continues!  The Clinic was so popular some left their contact information about their cats until it was far too late.  We were already overbooked over the goal of 25 cats!  There will be another Clinic date next month and the date will be announced soon.  It is important that we finish obtaining our needed equipment before that date though.  We had a slight bump in the road the Clinic.  We were going to rely on inexpensive cardboard cat carriers to house the cats in after their surgeries.  These boxes were not acceptable to the Clinic.  They hardly contained some of the more rambunctious tomcats and we had to send out a quick SOS on social media for hard plastic carriers as loaners.  We promised Fido Fixers we would have hard plastic carriers for all our patients on our next Clinic date.  Here's a list of things we need donated:  New or used cat carriers ( or donations to purchase them, please send check to Town Hall with Animal Cat Carriers written on the check's memo line) AND raggedy towels or throws.  These are needed to cover the cats in their traps.  It was amazing to see how a simple throw calmed them while they waited on their turn with the Vet.  All in all it was a very productive day spent with good neighbors and teamwork!  Together we are going to do wonders for our local feline friends.  

Watson Reunion:  Aunt Elizabeth, 100 year old birthday lady, was a little late getting down, but she smiled and sang along to "You Are My Sunshine." Her ex son-in-law and her grandsons had made up verses about her life and sang with guitars and  banjos. She obviously recognized Daddy and told me the party was "wonderful."  Aunt Elizabeth is Joe Cal Watson's older sister.

In December, Mary Watson Edmonds and her son Michael are planning to take 96-year-old Joe Watson back to Belgium where he fought 75 years ago in the Battle of the Bulge. They have contacted museums in Belgium and he has been invited to participate in several events honoring the service of American soldiers. They have also arranged a tour of battle sites and villages that he helped to liberate from the Nazis. Michael has set up a “Go Fund Me,” site to help make this trip a gift to his grandfather.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/send-joe-cal-back-to-belgium?pc=em_dn_contacts_r&rcid=r01-156476947254-6546d72f95974f00&member=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2Binvitesupporters

The Nut House and Country Market in Ridge Spring is also accepting donations. If you have any questions, you can email Mary Edmonds at marywedmonds@gmail.com.

RIDGE SPRING UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: The Big Red Box took the summer off but the members of Ridge Spring United Methodist Church did not.  

 In keeping with the legacy mission work in Haiti set forth by Mr. Joe Watson and his brother decades ago the members of RSUMC spent the summer months helping with the upcoming mission trip set to leave in October. 200 tarps were purchased and 60 personal hygiene bags were made. These were delivered to the Volunteers in Mission warehouse located in Batesburg. Also two significant monetary donations, one to help with the cost of shipping the container and one for the school lunch program, were made. Items collected by RSUMC and other churches will be delivered to the community of Jeremy. This community is located in a rural area away from large cities. This has been a ongoing Methodist mission and many personal and loving relationships have been developed. We are proud to be part of this and glad to be able to carry on Mr. Joe’s work.

Art Association of Ridge Spring

RESIN PLAY (16 & up):  Joanne Crouch, Instructor; no previous experience is required.
The class will be Saturday, August 17th 10:00-4:00 with 1 hour lunch break from 12-1.
Cost will be $75 Must pre-register!  In this class, students will explore and play within the world of resin.  Exercises will include mixing dry pigments, acrylics, and glitter in resin. Student provides:  apron, gloves, paper towels, 2-12x 12 canvases or 2-12 x 12 wooden supports or combination of both. Student will also create a resin jewelry piece and an ornament. Cost includes two-part epoxy (retail $30-will do multiple pieces), tutorial from artist, dry pigments, acrylics, glitter and assortment of items to embed in resin.

 Contact Joanne at joanne.crouch26@gmail.com to secure your spot.  Class is limited to 6 students.  If class fills, another class will be scheduled.  Pre-registration can also be paid at the Art Center of Ridge Spring on Fridays and Sat from 10-2.  

Barbara Yon won a merit ribbon and donation from the Anderson Guild  Members  Show.

Clemson Extension endowment continues legacy of ‘Queen of the Market’

RIDGE SPRING — Jeannette Carr passed away April 1, 2019, after a battle with cancer, but more than three months later as the Ridge Spring Farmer’s Market bustled with its regular Saturday crowd, her community spirit and passion for produce were still plenty palpable.

“I kind of feel her presence a little bit,” said Katie Pfeiffer, Carr’s granddaughter who has worked the market alongside her on summer visits since her teenage years. “It's just feels so much like her, like something she would enjoy doing, so it makes me happy to be here.”

And thanks to the Emma Jeannate Carr Memorial Endowment being established by her husband, Brig. General Chalmers “Hap” Carr (’60), the family is making certain that the legacy of the woman who has been called “The Veggie Lady” and “Queen of the Market” continues.

“It feels good to remember her and support her legacy, and customers will come up and ask about what happened and it makes them happy that we’re continuing to (sell produce at the market) too,” Pfeiffer said, “and they care about the endowment, as well, and what that's going to support.”

The endowment is to be used to advance vegetable gardening education and outreach through the Clemson Cooperative Extension Service, and all proceeds from the sale of produce from the flat-bed trailer overflowing with fruits and vegetables grown at nearby Titan Farms are to be donated to the endowment honoring her love of gardening.

“Jeannette was well known to those who knew her for her love of gardening fresh vegetables and fruits, and the Carr Family has been and continues to be tremendous supporters of Clemson Extension,” said Extension Director Tom Dobbins. “We’re excited and honored to partner with Jeannette’s family in working to continue her legacy and advance vegetable gardening across the state of South Carolina.”

 “That was back in the days where they grew everything in the summertime and would can everything that they eat for the wintertime; that was the way things were running back in small farms in the sand hills in North Carolina — and that's where she grew up,” Hap Carr said.

Jeannette met Hap in 1960 after graduating from nursing school, and with her husband joining the Air Force after they were married, she worked as a nurse in a succession of stops throughout his career — and, of course, tended to various gardens.

“Generally speaking, almost every place we were, we would find a way to have some kind of garden,” Hap said. “She used to be called ‘The Veggie Lady’ because she would go to her garden on the military base, and she'd take her vegetables and drop them off on people’s doorsteps every morning.”

Hap retired from the Air Force and the couple moved to Charlotte, N.C., where Hap worked for private industry, around the turn of the century. Soon thereafter, son Chalmers began running a farm in Ridge Spring and asked his father to help with the packhouse. While Titan Farms eventually grew into the largest peach grower on the East Coast — with over 6,200 acres of peaches in production, along with 600 acres of bell peppers and 1,000 acres of broccoli — Jeannette continued her own smaller-scale operation.

“Chalmer would build her a garden plot, and she and I kind of worked as a team, but then when it came to harvesting, she would harvest the stuff every morning,” Hap Carr said. “But her passion was growing Blue Lake bush beans and, even in her later years with a walker, she would go out there early in the morning, and it was her and God and her bush beans, picking her beans.”

That was in the early days of the Ridge Spring Farmer’s Market, conceived by the group Friends of Ridge Spring (FORS) in the late 1990s soon after the town had lost its grocery store as a way to not only allow locals to sell the produce from their gardens, but also to help draw visitors to the downtown stores, shops and restaurants.

But even once the market was started, Harriet Householder, one of the founders of the market and the owner of Harriet’s Garden, admitted it “really struggled” to get off the ground.

“It was small and we did not have a lot of variety, and somehow Jeannette found out we just didn't have enough produce,” Householder said. “So, next thing I knew, she was getting that wagon up here and it was loaded with produce. We even had fun figuring out which pepper it was and how to cook it — because she had such unique varieties.”

Jeannette and Harriet quickly built a connection — Harriet shared her boiled peanuts with Jeannette; Jeannette shared her white peaches with Harriet — and as their friendship grew, so too did the farmer’s market. But even now, after about two decades at the market and three months after the passing of her friend, Householder said Carr’s influence on the market is still plain to see.

Jerrold Watson has been part of those efforts since the inception, and the Ridge Spring resident is still an active part of the market — selling Titan Farms products out of the bed of a truck just a few feet from where Katie Pfeiffer manned the flat-bed trailer.

“I was here when (Jeannette) was in good health and was jumping around and crawling up on the trailer and picking up watermelons and throwing them out to people,” Watson said. “And then the next couple of years were kind of rough, and the cancer was very aggressive. So, they’re trying to keep her legacy going — and it’s worthwhile because she was a major part of this. She was a major player here, and we all thought the world of her.”

After Jeannette passed in April, there was some initial doubt about whether her produce — and in turn, her presence — would still be felt at the Ridge Spring Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. Hap said he quickly realized it was important to continue her legacy for at least another year, but also decided on one major caveat: that all the proceeds go toward her endowment.

“The first few weeks there was always somebody come by and say, ‘Where's Miss Jeannette?’” Hap said. “And we'd go through that and explain that. I think it's been nice to see that we're trying to do something in her memory, and this endowment will give us a legacy to create.”

For her granddaughter, Katie, the chance to continue working at the market during the summer was also a way to continue Jeannette’s legacy. But perhaps more importantly, it was also a chance to spend one more summer alongside her grandmother — even if only in spirit.

“I've been coming here for as long as I can remember and seeing all the familiar faces; they always come back around each summer and remember Grandma, and a lot of times it was just me and her working, and she always just loved it,” Katie said. “When I think about Grandma, I think about her gardening and harvesting and even her jarred items. She really did love it.”

Harriet's Garden Tips: Mulching materials do vary.  The box stores have quite a variety and in various colors.  Nothing is wrong with the natural stuff we rake up though.  Here is a list of mulching materials from the Clemson Extensions Service booklet: sawdust, wood chips, wood shavings, pine needles, peanut hulls (raw), cotton screenings, tree leaves, grass clippings, pecan hulls, gravel, newspaper, pine bark, shredded paper and compost.  Each has its pluses and minuses but mulching is needed with our HOT climate. 

REMINDERS

June 8 - Labor Day in September: Ridge Spring Farmers' Market

August 31: Town Wide Sidewalk Sale

August 31 Fall Gathering

Jeannette Carr Memorial: 864.656.5896, www.clemson.edu/isupportcu, Jeannette        Carr Memorial, Annual Giving Office, 110 Daniel Drive, Clemson, SC 29631

Ridge Spring Library Hours: Mon. Tues. 9:00 - 12:00; Wed. Thurs. Closed;

            Fri. 10:00 - 4:00; Sat. 10:00 - 1:00.

Ridge Spring Post Office hours:  Mon-Fri. 7:30 am – 11:30 am; Sat 9 – 10 am

Recycling Center Hours: Mon/Wed/Fri 1-7; Sat 7-7; Sun 3-7; Tues/Thurs closed

Fridays & Saturdays:  AARS hours 10:00-2:00 or by appt, free admission

Every first Thursday of the Month:  AARS meets at 6:30, 685-5783

Third Thursday: FORS at Town Hall at 5:30 PM

Every 1^st Thursday:  Audibel Hearing Center in the back room of Bank

Security Bank Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday 9-12  1-5, Wed. 9-12

Ridge Spring Town Hall: Monday - Friday 8:30am - 5:00pm, Sat. 8:30am - 11:30pm