Review of Newton Farms - Johns Island

When visiting the islands of Kiawah or Seabrook, don't overlook a trip to Newton Farms for your grocery shopping needs. The supermarket is conveniently located between the two islands and within the Freshfields Shopping Village. Newton Farms offers a large variety of delicious produce, meats, and baked goods. Upon entry to the store, you will be exposed to a very nice produce section that has all colorful, ripe vegetables. Some of these fruits and vegetables are locally grown which seems appropriate as this market currently sits on a former tomato farm. The produce section even offers up a five star salad bar where you can build up your own tasty salad to bring home. The adjacent bakery area displays some tasty bread, rolls, and an assortment of delicious desserts to offset your healthy lunch.

As you make your way around the store, there is a back room featuring an abundance of wines and cheeses. I was impressed by the degree and quantity of wines offered up by Newton Farms. It makes more sense to purchase your wine and beer from Newton Farms as opposed to those retailers on the islands which will charge you very inflated prices.

The remainder of the store pretty much carries the same items that you would find at any other store. Newton Farms is part of the Piggy Wiggly Carolina Company so you will find the same canned goods, soda, baking items, or even household cleaning products as those other Piggly Wiggly locations. The big difference is that Newton Farms also stocks high end meat and produce items that one would not usually find at the common grocery store. One of the great features of this store is the take and bake items that are prepared by Newton Farms. They make such tasty take home products as pizzas, stuffed peppers, chicken dishes, crab cakes, etc. I enjoy these prepared "heat and serve" meals on those busy vacation days of golf and beach time that do not allow the necessary clean up and travel time to get to restaurants off the island.

Newton Farms also boasts a "dine in" deli where you can order a tremendous variety of sandwiches and other tasty concoctions. The store not only allows seating inside, but there are several outdoor tables should you decide you want to enjoy the warm sub tropical weather. There is a benefit to eating at one of these tables in the summer. The outdoor seating is the ideal place to grab a sandwich, coffee, or ice cream when there is live entertainment across the way within the central courtyard of Freshfields.

The employees at Newton Farms are always cordial and offer up a quick smile when shopping. They maintain a southern charm and always seem eager to help you find what you are looking for.

Fort Sumter 2009

Kiawah 2009 – Fort Sumter

Well we finally embraced a trip to Fort Sumter last week. We overall received pretty decent weather for the week all except this rainy day spent visiting the fort. We managed to avoid rain all week except this Thursday of which we were drenched. The tour begins at the liberty square marina area which is adjacent to the Aquarium which we will have to visit upon another vacation. The tour begins in a museum adjacent to the ferry boat departure. The museum has all sorts of amazing artifacts and models from this commencement to the Civil War. Being a civil war history admirer, I was in heaven.
After spending about fifteen minutes at the museum we then proceeded to walk aboard the ferry boat destined for Fort Sumter. The boat ride lasted about ten minutes and I was disappointed to not see any dolphins as touted by some.
The trip was met by horizontal rain and we all got soaked getting from the boat to the fort. Fortunately a good portion of the tour on Fort sumter included a roof over our heads which kept us dry. The fort is truly amazing as there were original cannon pointed outward at different points of the perimeter. The brickwork of the fort is also hundred of years old which was pretty amazing.
We then proceeded into the museum on the fort which gives additional information about the battle of Sumter and the proceeding occupation of the fort by confederate forces. The heavy downpour disallowed our opportunity to go up top to get a clear view of Charleston and those surrounding islands that fired upon Sumter. I was really disappointed about this, though I will make this my excuse to come back another day and tour again. Maybe we will also have dolphins provide us an escort.