Quick Bites: Slice of Summer

The Taylors farmstead of Alton and Dodi Spurgeon —Spurgeon Farms—has been satisfying hungry locavores for the past seven years. The couple’s shared retirement from Michelin tires has afforded them the time to churn out dozens of varieties of produce, not to mention homemade salsa, Chow Chow, vegetable soup, and—the crowd favorite—Dodi’s delicious pies, from their Taylors home—satiating foodies all across the Upstate.

But their crops aren’t harvested from a sprawling farmstead: in fact, the bushels of produce they cultivate come from less than an acre. “We call it farming the land intensively. There’s a real scientific way of doing it, and it all depends on how you plant,” Alton says.

The key, he offers, is planting in stages, so when one row of crops is about ready to go out, a second row is ready to come in behind it. The research behind the science of reaping and sowing in such a small space began for the Spurgeons more than a decade ago. Married fourteen years, the husband-and-wife team worked for Michelin. His job sent them around the globe, from Nigeria and Germany to China and the UK, where they learned as much about the way other cultures farm as they did about what they eat.

The couple settled back in Taylors after his retirement in 2002, and they began laying the groundwork for their fledgling farm. “Seeing how the Chinese were able to produce in small plots of land was helpful,” Alton says. “We’re using some of those concepts right now. The Chinese use a lot of backyard gardens, with raised beds, so they would produce in the summer to keep them sustained during the winter.”

Those raised beds are exactly how Spurgeon Farms generates its own year-round bounty. This year’s summer garden is overflowing with several unusual varieties of what Alton calls “specialty squash,” in a variety of shapes and sizes, some of which are heirloom and some that are “just unusual.” All are organically grown and full
of flavor.

“You can always go to any farm and pick up crooked-neck squash and zucchini, but there are tens and tens of varieties, and they all taste different,” he says. “We try to bring things to the market that you can’t find anywhere else.”

And then there are Dodi’s delectable pies, which she learned to bake from her mother. The recipes she uses for sweet potato, pumpkin, pecan, and others are all old family formulas, and unlike store-bought pies with dozens of ingredients, Dodi’s are simple and sweet, homemade with all-fresh ingredients, including fruits and vegetables that she and Alton either grow themselves or purchase from other Upstate farmers. (They grow their own blueberries, peaches, sweet potatoes, and rhubarb.)

Her favorite is chocolate pecan. His favorite is rhubarb Dutch apple. “Hands down, it’s her best pie—with fresh apple, fresh rhubarb, raisins, and plenty of black walnuts.” And then there’s her four-cheese tomato pie, which is like a homegrown deep-dish pizza and calls for goat cheese, cheddar, bleu cheese, and Parmesan.

Although the Spurgeons are an example of small-scale farming at its finest, they don’t recommend sizing down their pie slices. Because savory or sweet, a big piece of Dodi’s pie makes a perfect ending to any day—on the farm or at home.

Find Spurgeon Farms’ products at Upstate Locally Grown’s online farmer’s market at upstatesc.locallygrown.net, or by calling (864) 244-6639.