![\"OLYMPUS](\"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/4-3-15a-006.jpg\")
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An osprey on the nest watching us as we pass.<\/p>\n
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\n Traveling through a landscape that has returned to unspoiled marsh.<\/p>\n \n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
We are passing through an area of abandoned rice paddies.\u00a0 The colonists worked very hard to cut down miles and miles of bald cypress swamp\u2014and that has to be a hard job (wonder if they had slaves to do it then)\u2014and now it has all returned to bald cypress swamp once again.\u00a0 Hard to tell man ever tamed this area.<\/p>\n
I have learned a little of why rice is no longer grown in South Carolina.\u00a0 It turns out that the process of growing rice the traditional way, which means flooding the fields at some point in the growing season, can only be done by hand.\u00a0 Because the fields are so marshy and at times underwater, everything from sowing seed to harvesting the rice has to be done manually.\u00a0 In other rice growing states (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and California) a hybrid type of rice is grown that requires irrigation, but is not grown in marsh conditions.\u00a0 Mechanized equipment can be used for the whole process so the cost of growing rice is much less.\u00a0 That pretty much put Carolina rice out of business.\u00a0 There are still a few farms, but they do not export the rice and it is only available in small boutique type shops.\u00a0 We bought some gold rice (not polished to white) from nearby Palmetto Plantation at the museum shop in Georgetown.\u00a0 I made it last night, and I do wonder if some of the dark particles I found were just pieces of chaff or if they were critters.\u00a0 I really to had to cull the rice before cooking it, just in case of the latter!\u00a0 It has sort of put me off to making it again\u2026.<\/p>\n
Since leaving Georgetown we have been traveling through the cypress marshes.\u00a0 It\u2019s always nice to be alone again\u2026.at least for a bit.\u00a0 I never like being alone on holidays, and we are rapidly approaching Easter (tomorrow, in fact).\u00a0 It would be nice to find an acquaintance we know when we arrive in Wrightsville later today.<\/p>\n
Here are some scenes from the marsh. An abandoned rice paddy where cypress are coming back.<\/p>\n
\n An osprey on the nest watching us as we pass.<\/p>\n \n \n Traveling through a landscape that has returned to unspoiled marsh.<\/p>\n \n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n