Local produce drives the Greenville food scene: City Juice with John Malik
On a recent April day at the Swamp Rabbit Cafe’s spring sale, I caught up with Chris Sermons of BioWay Farm. Sermons has been a fixture at Greenville’s Saturday Market for the last 17 years and he is known for his smorgasbord of gorgeous produce — a rainbow of vegetables, everything from Japanese eggplant to Hakurei turnips.
When he started selling vegetables at our markets, he made his mark with asparagus.
“Way back when, before I was born, South Carolina grew a lot of asparagus, the Jersey variety, and it wasn’t heat tolerant, but it was delicious,” he said. “When my dad started the farm, that was his idea, to specialize in asparagus, and from 2004 until 2014 we planted and grew a lot of asparagus. We had 2 acres and, oh my, picking that much asparagus is backbreaking work. I’m surprised I can walk upright today.”
Today his hard work graces the plates of some of our finest restaurants including Scoundrel, Stella’s, The Anchorage, Mr. Crisp, Indaco, and more. His produce is a mainstay at the Swamp Rabbit Café & Grocery.
After being a driving force in our town’s food revitalization for 20 years, Sermons has learned a thing or two.
“We’re certainly more professional,” he said. “I also like to think I’ve gotten smarter about farming over the years. When we started, many farmers thought you needed 10 to 20 acres minimum to be productive. In the last few years, I’ve only expanded by maybe an acre, but our farming practices are so much better and our land is more productive. Our techniques — we do a lot of companion farming where we pair two or three vegetables close together and together, they help repel destructive pests.”
We’re on the cusp of the market season and Sermons and his team are gearing up for his busiest season. I asked him, after all these years, is he still in love with farming?
“Spring is a special time of the year,” he said. “The renewal of everything green, all the vegetables sprouting, working with the natural world, the soil, the plants, the microbes, the biology of the soil is just fascinating. I love that first day of the market, the weather, the people I work with. Our spring climate is so wonderful and the products we grow, they nourish our bodies, our minds, our spirit and that is incredibly satisfactory to me. I’m very lucky to love what I do, and I’d much rather grow 50 varieties of vegetables on 5 acres of land than one vegetable on 50 acres.”
What’s his favorite bite from the garden?
“That first summer tomato, thickly sliced with a good bit of Duke’s mayonnaise and a little salt,” Sermons said. “I can’t wait.”
“City Juice” is a colloquial term for a glass of tap water served at a diner.
