We’re really not entirely Irish on Hilton Head Island. We’re Southern more than anything, but that Southern nature flavors our celebrations and outdoor fun with any excuse. St. Patrick’s Day is one of our country’s favorite reasons to welcome spring with outdoor festivities when our visitors can enjoy the traditional neighborhood camaraderie of a small town.

Come out for our first major Irish celebration beginning Saturday, March 13. The Hilton Head Island Shamrock Run begins at 8 am on Pope Avenue in front of New York City Pizza.

Kids can enjoy a special Irish lunch Saturday, March 13, at The Salty Dog Cafe complete with entertainment and a Shamrock Hunt beginning at 10 am. Check out the fun with Jake the Salty Dog and prizes for the best little shamrock hunters up to the age of 12.

Next we’ll enjoy parading through the streets in recognition of a proud heritage. Our St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be Sunday, March 14, beginning at 3 pm, a bit ahead of the official St. Patrick’s Day. Everyone can participate, either with an original or commercial float or as a spectator cheering the marching bands, clowns and entertainers. The parade begins at the Beach Parking Lot on Pope Avenue, goes to Office Park Road and ends at Park Plaza. It’s the 27^th year of this great event with hundreds of our friends and neighbors in the parade and thousands of visitors cheering them along the route.

You know we might do our share of beer drinking during some festivals too, but be sure to note that alcohol is not part of the parade which is a true family event. The only alcohol consumption, green beer or otherwise, must be on the premises of properly licensed businesses and not on the parade route.

For an after-hours adult flavor of the Irish, think about tasting a pint at British Open Pub which is located in the Village at Wexford with another in Sun City. A fine tribute to the Irish is on the menu with a draught of Guinness Stout or Black Velvet. Sometimes there’s a special treat with corned beef and cabbage too. If you’re lucky enough to find this on the chef’s mind this year, count on it being as good as it gets!

No blarney involved here! Just a St. Patrick’s Day invitation for your visit to Hilton Head Island.

Who doesn’t love wings! Who doesn’t love a festival when we can enjoy an early spring day outdoors surrounded by food and music! Get ready to join the crowd at the Hargray Wing Fest 15 which will be March 20 at Shelter Cove Community Park.

Here’s one of the first big opportunities of the year for a casual fun Saturday with activities for kids as well as some of our favorite flavors of the season.

This is the fifteenth annual event which promises a huge exciting day in the park as well as hundreds…probably thousands… of wings.

Coke, Budweiser or wine are perfect pairings with the wings. OK, it’s possible that someone prefers other cuisine, so we’ll have pizza from Giuseppi’s or Street Meet hot dogs at separate cost. For dessert, we can enjoy some Kilwin’s ice cream.

A few of our favorite restaurants compete each year with their best wing recipes. We can all vote in the People’s Choice Award, and professional judging also names the official choice for best wings. You might want to visit a few of our great restaurants in advance to get a head start on selecting your wings. Check out last year’s participating restaurants and ask if they will be in the competition again. Wild Wing Café, Remy’s Bar & Grill, Street Meet, the Smoke House, Kenny B’s, The Westin, L’Wood’s Local Pub & Eatery, One Hot Mamas, Hilton Head Diner, Pinecrest, Capt’n Woody’s,  GW’s and the Hilton Head Brewing Company.

Mike Kavanaugh, Deas Guys and Sun Domingo will provide live entertainment.  Basketball’s March Madness will be on a big screen television, and kids’ activities will be offered.

The Island Recreation Association and Hargray present this festival each year which will begin at 11 am and continue until 6 pm, although voting ends at 4 pm. The $5 entrance fee supports the association’s scholarship fund providing public recreation programs for our island children.

What more could anyone ask!  Wings, beer, basketball and a few extras! Sounds like the perfect Saturday in the park on beautiful Hilton Head Island.

We celebrate our rich history and heritage on Hilton Head every day, and much of that is flavored by the food we enjoy. The month-long Hilton Head Island Gullah Celebration every February is one of our many recognized opportunities for large scale tasting events. Join us for A Taste of Gullah Saturday, February 20 at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. It’s from Noon until 4 pm with live entertainment opening the event.

A few of the items to anticipate include conch stew, spicy barbecue, stuffed crab, fried fish, shrimp and okra gumbo, hoppin’ john, traditional baked or fried chicken. What side dishes pair with any of these entrees?  Of course we’ll find baked beans, collard greens, red or white rice, slaw and cornbread. I’m hoping for dessert of bread pudding with peaches and raisins.

Local cooks will begin some of their stews or barbecue at 6 am and will be ready for 300 to 500 visitors to arrive for the afternoon of delectable cuisine.  Many of the cooks are the “Bin ya’s” meaning in Gullah language that they’ve been here, and they graciously showcase their specialties for guests and those of us who are “Come ya’s” or “Come Here” people.

You can sample several items or have a full meal with each dish priced separately at costs ranging from $1 to $10. I’ll see you at the conch stew table with my cornbread in one hand! The flavor reminds me of travel to another island many years ago and my first taste of succulent Caribbean conch in St. Croix. It’s even better now that we can find it at home on our own island with locally caught seafood.

The Taste of Gullah is presented by the Native Island Business and Community Affairs Association which has hosted the 14^th annual celebration of culture with education and entertainment as well as food. Call the Gullah Celebration hotline at 877-650-0676 or 843-689-9314 for more details about the Taste of Gullah, and additional programs continuing during the month. Contact us for assistance with planning your visit to Hilton Head Island.

Happy tasting and be sure to let us know your favorite flavors of Gullah!

Sallie Ann Robinson is distinguished by her catering, her cooking demonstrations during local appearances and by her two published cookbooks which preserve many original family recipes. Her first cookbook Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way was published in 2003. It includes sea island recipes and her stories of island life. Her Cooking the GullahWay Morning, Noon and Night was published in 2007.

Sallie Ann’s additional claim to fame is being a Daufuskie Island native who was a student of the now-famous author Pat Conroy. His year as a teacher for the local African American students in a two-room school on Daufuskie Island was the basis for his book The Water is Wide which was made into the 1974 film Conrack and the 2006 film The Water is Wide. The island was called Yamacraw in the  book and details his rich and life-changing experience teaching 17 disadvantaged children. 

Sallie Ann’s presentations are popular among locals and visitors alike. She will be part of the Cooks and Books Literacy program at the Mall at Shelter Cove on February 21 from 11:30 am until 4 pm. The entire event includes a tasting and a chefs’ competition and is a ticketed event at $15 advance or $20 at the door. For more information about the event and tickets contact Lowcountry Literacy. 

Sallie Ann also will present “Gullah Cooking and Living” February 24 at 3 pm the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn.  Reservations are required by calling 843.689.6767, ext. 223. The fee is $30 and includes the demonstration and tasting. Features will be the famed Fuskie Crab and a walnut apple salad.

Meet Sallie Ann and many more of our notable authors and chefs at our upcoming events. You can always count on your visit to Hilton Head to deliver a recipe for fun along with tasty cuisine.  See you soon!

Join us for the Ol’ Fashion Gullah Breakfast Saturday, February 6 at 9 a.m. at the historic St. James Baptist Church at 208 Dillon Road. The breakfast is $10. It’s far more than biscuits too. Think of shrimp and grits, oyster stew, fried fish and a big plateful of food. Traditional Gullah breakfast includes these flavorful dishes which are based on the seasonal fresh seafood.

The breakfast and accompanying events are the beginning of the month-long 14th Annual Hilton Head Gullah Celebration which continues with additional activities and more good eats. This breakfast will be homemade by our own Native Islanders.

It’s not all about breakfast, but the food will attract many of us to observe National Freedom Day. The day was proclaimed as such in 1948, by President Harry Truman in remembrance of February 1, 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the resolution leading to 13th amendment to the U. S. Constitution ending slavery.

If you are not a Southerner, you might not know about grits. Grits are milled corn and might be yellow or white. They’re not instant in a true southern kitchen. The “Grits Belt” where most are produced is the coastal area from Louisiana through the Carolinas.  Derived from dried corn, grits were among the first foods cooked by Indians and served to early settlers in the country’s first permanent settlement in Jamestown, Virginia. Grits are basically the same thing as polenta which is usually yellow in northern kitchens.  Cheese is sometimes used to enrich the flavor, and broth or milk may be used rather than water as the liquid.

While grits are an inexpensive staple in many lowcountry breakfast menus, the shrimp and grits dish is also now found in many fine restaurants as a starter, a side dish or an entrée. A few hints about ingredients that might be found flavoring the shrimp and grits: Creole seasoning, garlic, onion, black pepper, cayenne pepper, bacon. Sometimes, tomatoes are included. No promises made here about the specific recipe that might be followed, as many of our cooks use their own secrets.

Plan your visit now and join us on Hilton Head Island for our February events or enjoy our delicious flavors any time of year during additional festivals and in our restaurants. If you need any help finding some shrimp and grits, let us know.

We celebrate Black History Month in Hilton Head during February every year, as does much of America. It’s especially important here because of the significance of Black history in the shaping of our cultural landscape. Freed slaves established the village of Mitchelville on the north end of Hilton Head Island. The village had its own government and the first mandatory education system, even before President Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Many of the foods now associated with our unique section of the South Carolina Lowcountry are based on the customs brought to this country by the enslaved Africans. The climate and soil of the South Carolina coast were similar to that of the African coast, so the field laborers produced some of the same crops that they did in their native land. Rice, one of the crops produced along the African coast, is recognized as one source of our coastal area’s original wealth.

We don’t often think of the ethnicity of traditinal Lowcountry foods. A number of our favorite seafood and vegetable stews can be traced directly to the meals that were served on the dining tables of wealthy plantation owners as their cooks stirred up the conventional recipes with new combinations of spices. Out of necessity and convenience, the cooks’ skills translated into delicious new ideas for the families they served.

Black History has been recognized nationally in February since 1926 when “Negro History Week” was established by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. The child of former slaves, Woodson progressed to earning a Ph.D. from Harvard University and recognized the lack of historical documentation of Blacks. February was noted for the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas who were prominent in influencing the course of history. Numerous additional dates during February relate to noteworthy events and accomplishments in the timeline of African American history.

Black history flavors the country in many ways, and we are proud to lay claim to it daily in our southern kitchens.  Check back here soon for more discussion of the foods and spices plus details of culinary events scheduled for February during the 14^th Annual Hilton Head Island Gullah Celebration.  It’s the perfect time for your visit to Hilton Head, and we’ll be dishing up some fine foods.