LOCAL AND FRESH

Area restaurants depend on a small army of farmers and producers to keep their dishes delicious and their patrons fed. Come meet a few of the folks behind the ingredients.

BY BARRY KAUFMAN • PHOTOS BY ROB KAUFMAN

Think of the best meal you ever had on Hilton Head Island. Whether it was a sizzling steak or a delicately prepared filet of locally caught fish, each ingredient in every memorable bite has a story to tell. It may be the chef who brought them all together, serving as the conductor to this symphony of flavor, but every player in the orchestra played a part in your enjoyment.

As “eat local” has evolved from a tenet of niche restaurants to a vital part of the dining experience, the number of local purveyors has grown exponentially. Especially around here. The Lowcountry is a region rich with resources. Its waters teem with seafood of every stripe, and in its soil you’ll find some of the finest farming on earth.

Join us on a journey around your plate, to meet the folks behind the ingredients that come together to make one amazing meal. Penny Acre Microgreens

To think – some of the tastiest dishes in the Lowcountry just wouldn’t be the same if Rita Godfrey had decided to build a she-shed.

“It’s not just a living, it’s my therapy,” she said, of the lush microgreens she grows in the outbuilding on her Ridgeland farm that was almost a she-shed. “We grow quite a few microgreens in here. It used to be sunflower and pea shoots, but some of the chefs that are more into different things like beets and wasabi and nasturtium.”

Godfrey began Penny Acre, her microgreens farm which supplies restaurants and farmers markets around the Lowcountry, after seeing a lack of the nutritious little sprouts around town. “One day I thought, ‘I love to garden, and I have tons of flowers. Why can’t I grow microgreens?’ So I did an online course,” she said, “We threw away quite a bit of microgreens at first. They’re very meticulous little plants. They like the heat, humidity, and temperature exactly right… You can’t just put them in a tray and expect them to grow.”

Having perfected the art, you can find Penny Acre microgreens across the Lowcountry and at pennyacremicrogreens.com.

Sprout Momma Breads

Odds are good that even if, somehow, you haven’t heard of Sprout Momma Breads, you’ve tasted it. What began as a tiny inhouse venture started by Kim Tavino and her son Ryan Fennessey has since morphed into the de facto bakery for most of the restaurants on the island.

“It was a long process,” said Tavino. “I started making breads as gifts for clients, and then went to farmers markets where I was honestly shocked to see people buying my bread. It was so cool to see them with a loaf under their arm.”

The popularity of Sprout Momma’s offerings stems partially from what truly sets them apart – sprouted wheat flour, which not only lends each item a delightful fluffiness, it’s also better for you. In typical wheat flour, the protective outer coating around the wheat berry gets crushed into the flour, which can be harder to digest. “When you sprout, you soak wheat berries for 3-4 days until they sprout a root,” said Tavino. “It makes it easier for your body to assimilate the proteins and minerals, and it’s easier to digest.”

And it’s a far sight tastier, too, as anyone who has tried Sprout Momma Breads will attest. If you want to try it for yourself, just head to your favorite restaurant. Odds are good it’s already on the menu.

“They do an excellent job,” said Leslie Stewart of Sunrise Café “We have a bread they created and it’s the bread for our avocado toast. We feel like it’s a healthier option for our avocado toast.” Stewart is also a customer at their bakery. “They have by far the best sandwiches in the world.”

Sea Eagle Market

Craig Reaves was just a kid when he got his start in the seafood business. His dad and uncle had founded Reaves Bros. seafood in Holden Beach, N.C. in the 1970s and the younger Reaves was eager to join them as soon as possible.

“When I was a teenager, my dad helped me get my first boat,” said Reaves. “It was called the Boy Shrimper. Pretty fitting name for 16-year-old.”

He made his way down the coast to Beaufort in 1992 and immediately began building Sea Eagle Market, a purveyor and wholesaler of local fish and seafood from up and down the east coast. It didn’t happen overnight, but over time as his operation grew to encompass fresh shrimp, fish, oysters and clams, Reaves built a legacy whose delicious seafood can be found in 65 restaurants around the Lowcountry. That may seem like a lot, but for Reaves it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality.

“We’re still family owned and operated, so the chefs that we deal with really want to know the fisherman. They want to know their source,” he said. “It’s from our boats to your table. We’re not trying to hit every restaurant on every corner.”

“Craig has a big heart and runs a very good business,” said Margaret Pearman, owner of Charlie’s L’etoile Verte. “We always have shrimp from him. If we ever do oysters on the half shell, we get them from him. And the bulk of our local fish, clams, flounder... He’s got it all.” River Root Farms

The relationship between chef and supplier is built on mutual respect and admiration for each others’ respective arts. Few people can see both sides of that relationship like Matt Valentino, who started growing microgreens while he was a chef at The Pearl.

“I decided I’d grow my own for the restaurant and it became kind of a hobby,” he said. One chef friend reaching out for microgreens was all it took to launch this hobby into a business. “I got him some samples, he liked them, and then I just rolled and started dropping off samples with other chefs in the area.”

What Valentino brings to the table is a unique perspective on the way microgreens can transform a dish. “I do custom mixes – that’s something really creative where chefs can pick and choose,” he said. “Think of a fall seasonal dish – I’ll mix root vegetables, parsnip, celery and carrots. I’ll do a custom mix that is attributable to that dish or a mirepoix for soups and sauces.”

He’s also enhancing the art of craft cocktails with edible flowers. “It used to be put you’d put a floating lemon slice and that was fancy. Now we do a floating cucumber flower.”

And the results are delicious. “We use a radish sprout on our avocado toast because it gives it a little bit of a horseradish, peppery taste,” said Sunrise Café owner Leslie Stewart. “They’re always super fresh and it’s a great way to support a local business.”

Delisheeyo

While some producers grow for a multitude of restaurants, some restaurants grow a multitude of produce for themselves. All around the modest footprint of Delisheeyo, you’ll find a smorgasbord of edible plant life carefully cultivated by Brent Wearren for use in his son Blake’s south end eatery.

“On average, we have 70 different varieties of edible plants – the lemon and lime out front, that’s where the garden started,” said Blake. “We have a guava tree, papaya, olive tree, avocado, tangerine, loquat, goji berries… You can pretty much grow anything here with the right amount of care. The papaya tree grew out of the compost pile. Those aren’t supposed to grow here.”

There must be something in the soil, because the foliage surrounding this vegan- and vegetarian-friendly restaurant is downright abundant. “The kale is pretty prolific – probably half of our kale in the winter comes from the garden. Same with salad greens,” said Blake.