In Beaufort, sixth-generation farmers call it a day

Bluffton’s Farmers Market had a row of heartache running through it on Thursday.

It was the last day — ever — for one of its most enterprising vendors, Pinckney’s Produce of the small community of Seabrook, north of Beaufort.

Pinckney’s Produce will be at the farmers market Saturday in Port Royal. And then that’s it.

It’s sad because Pinckney’s Produce was a promising Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program when it began eight years ago in Holly Hill, before moving to Rest Park Farm in Seabrook in 2011.

CSA members purchased a “share” of vegetables produced each season by the farm. The goods were delivered weekly in green boxes to drop-off points throughout the county. It’s sad because it was at the forefront of the local-food movement.

It’s even sadder because it halts six generations of farming for father-and-son co-owners Urbie and Ashby West.

Their family — the McLeods — have been farming in Seabrook since 1884.

“It was no longer viable for us,” said Urbie West as he helped customers who braved the heat to get fresh tomatoes, okra, egg plant or peppers.

“We were no longer able to compete with the big boxes.”

Bad weather in recent years didn’t help things either.

Urbie West said he will be going to work for The Greenery in northern Beaufort County.

Ashby said he was going to try his hand at construction.

Some of their land may become a solar farm, Urbie West said.

Ashby said he may till a couple of acres in the future, simply because it’s in his blood.

This story was originally published July 13, 2017 at 3:51 PM with the headline "In Beaufort, sixth-generation farmers call it a day."