Sunbelt - Sunbelt Expo Program 2019

SIDI LIMEHOUSE (PRONOUNCED “sigh dye”) is a man with deep Lowcountry roots. His early mercantile ancestors settled in Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1700s and spread out from there. When he came into the world on Johns Island in December of 1938, his father celebrated by purchasing Mullet Hall Plantation on Johns Island across from Kiawah Island. It was a child’s paradise, growing up in that fairly remote environment that even lacked electricity early on. An environment far from today’s nearby mix of luxury homes, golf resorts, and elegant vacation destinations in Seabrook and Kiawah.

Limehouse studied Agricultural
Engineering at Clemson University and
graduated in 1960. He started his career
growing corn and soybeans on the family
farm but eventually transitioned from row
crops to truck farming. From 1967 to 1968 and
1971 to 1972 he served in the South Carolina
state legislature but found that politics took
too much time away from farming. “I soon
realized,” he says, “that one could not be both
a good legislator and a good farmer. I believe
I chose the nobler profession.”
Today Limehouse operates Rosebank
Farms on sixty acres of leased land that
produces over 50 crops including fruits,
vegetables, flowers, and herbs. Most of
the crops are sold to GrowFood Carolina, a
local food distributor specializing in selling
directly to Charleston restaurants and local
grocery stores and suppliers. Limehouse
says, “Rosebank Farms is known throughout
our area and by chefs as a
unique farm that displays
consistency and quality.”
For the last thirty years
Rosebank Farms has also
operated its road-side
stand in various sequential
locations, open from April
through December; sales
represent 80 percent
of the enterprise’s total
revenue. Over the last
several decades they’ve
sold produce, flowers, and other products
at many farmers markets around the county
and currently sell at the Folly Beach Market
during the summer months.
Limehouse says, “We focus on local
and sell everything we grow: arugula,
basil, lettuce, English peas, snow peas,
sugar snaps, asparagus, seasonal greens,
potatoes, hot and sweet peppers, eggplant,
cucumbers, green beans, summer and
winter squash, sweet corn, beets, carrots,
broccoli and broccolini, okra, cantaloupes,
watermelons, heirloom pumpkins,
tomatoes, and seasonal cut flowers. Zinnias
are a summer mainstay and hydrangeas in
the late spring and early summer.”
Rosebank Farms’ yields are: four acres
of tomatoes: 1,500 cartons; four acres
of potatoes: 410 bags; six acres of sweet
corn: 20 cartons; three acres of beans:
200 bushels; three acres of peas — sugar,
snap, and English: 180 cartons; one acre of
Jerusalem artichokes: 10,000 lbs.; four acres
of watermelons: 400; three acres of peppers:
3,000 crates.
Limehouse was a pioneer in growing crops
that no one else in South Carolina wanted to
explore or invest in. He experimented and
had great success growing “California” crops
such as mesclun, arugula, and basil. He also
considers it a priority to support the entire
local agricultural community and often
depends on neighbor family farmers for
produce in the busiest seasons and helps
them sell theirs. Rosebank Farms sources
strawberries, blueberries, peaches, honey,
eggs, and even shrimp and fish caught
nearby.

Limehouse adds, “We have a local baker who makes banana nut bread that flies off the shelves. Homemade pimiento cheese, cocktail sauce, and tomato pies are regular favorites. At Christmas the staff at Rosebank Farms sells North Carolina Christmas trees and makes custom wreaths and garland from native materials. Limehouse adds, “We