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Field Notes: Do black snakes really kill rattlesnakes and copperheads?

The short answer is: yes and no.

Among the three black snakes that we have in our area, two of them do kill and consume both venomous snakes, but the largest and most commonly encountered, the black rat snake, does not.

Never smash a yellow jacket: Field Notes with Dennis Chastain

Sometimes the lessons of nature come from quiet observation and contemplation. Sometimes they come in a wild, painful frenzy. It’s the painful ones that you never forget.

3 Greenville area restaurants earn James Beard semifinalist nominations

The James Beard Foundation announced its 2024 semifinalist nominees for the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards categories on Jan. 24, and three Upstate restaurants made the list.

New Greenville elementary school under construction, to be named in May

Construction is underway for the new elementary school at 61 Isbell Lane in Greenville.

Set to open for the 2025-26 school year, the new school will have an academic focus on environmental science and serve pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade students. The facility was designed to accommodate up to 750 students with room for future expansion.

Six Greenville County high schools among top 25 in U.S. News SC rankings

U.S. News & World Report ranked six Greenville County high schools among the top 25 in its 2024-2025 Best Public High Schools in South Carolina list.

Skyrocketing insurance costs are closing bars, businesses. Will SC act in 2024?

Time is running out this session for the General Assembly to tackle a range of matters.

Perhaps none is more pressing than the need to remedy skyrocketing liquor liability insurance costs for the state’s restaurants and bars.

Greenville County may get new state park after Naturaland Trust conservation effort

An effort to protect a 365-acre piece of property in northern Greenville County from development may yield a new state park if all the pieces fall into place.

The parcel is near the intersection of Dill Road and state Highway 11, and Naturaland Trust has been working for months to secure funding for a fee-simple purchase of the property, which the trust has dubbed the Glassy Mountain Foothills project.

Greenville swimmer to compete in U.S. Olympic Trials

Lilla Bognar thinks of herself as a regular kid.

She is a rising senior at Eastside High School and a member of the Team Greenville swim team. She has already committed to the University of Florida after graduation in 2025, and looks forward to attending medical school to become a pediatrician.

Breeze Airways spins up new GSP destinations, targets underserved cities

Connecting people and communities is something of a passion for David Neeleman, founder and CEO of Breeze Airways, which started nonstop service to five destinations from Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in early May.

Prior to launching Breeze in 2018, he founded Utah-based Morris Air in 1984, followed by Canada’s WestJet in 1994, JetBlue in 1998, and Brazil’s Azul in 2008.

How you can help: Ways to donate, volunteer after Hurricane Helene

Many organizations in the Upstate are supported the local community following the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene.

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The nonprofit Travelers Rest Farmers Market is currently working with eight Upstate farmers impacted by the storm through its Travelers Rest Farmers Market Farmer Fund.

The fund was already active before the storm and began raising capital in October 2023 for two grants: the Crisis Grant and Capacity Building Grant. Since the storm, the fund restructured to focus its fundraising on one grant – the Rebuilding Capacity Grant.

“We interviewed all of our farmers after Hurricane Helene,” said Jessica Mullen, the market’s director of marketing and development. “We interviewed something like 16 of them, and eight of them said they’d be willing to take funds.”

Tropical storms can cause both short- and long-term damage. While direct damage may look like fallen trees, crop destruction or broken tools, lasting damage can include physically unharmed crops that are still considered unsafe due to flooding.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, crops even partially submerged in floodwater can pose a public health risk due to exposure to heavy metals or raw sewage. The resulting exposure requires testing or disposal of crops. Either way, the damage can set back the farmer.

The resulting strain may prove to be complex depending on the size of the farm and the experience of the farmer.

The nonprofit’s cohort of 41 farms range from roughly one-quarter acre to as much as 400 acres. Some have generations of farming knowledge while others are considered “beginner farmers” with 10 years of experience or less. Mullen said some of the less-experienced farmers are learning as they go.

The fund focuses on aiding farmers in the face of crisis but also by giving the newer farmers support as they learn.

“When we’re talking about starting a new ecosystem of community and food, that means that these farmers have to have safety to try new things or fail,” Mullen said. “When you’re learning a new thing and you can’t make any mistakes, it’s almost impossible to succeed. And so the Farmer Fund exists to help them try new things and also to help them in case of disaster.”

Impact on a local farm

Estrada Farms, near Pumpkintown in Pickens County, was one of the farms willing to accept aid. The farm is situated close to a nearby creek that flooded, with a total of 17 acres affected including roughly two acres of tomatoes, two acres of cucumbers and about 10 acres of peppers under floodwater. Of those 17, only about two were salvageable, meaning floodwater didn’t touch them.

To make matters worse, the farm lost 10 diesel water pumps. Ironically, some of the pumps had been moved farther out in anticipation of the storm, but not far enough.

With many of its fall crops being harvested in late September and October, the storm’s timing was catastrophic.

“It wasn’t so much the wind, it was more of the flooding because all of our fields are located near rivers and streams, and it was a lot of rain,” said Ignacio Estrada. “It got wiped out. I couldn’t even harvest it if I wanted to.”

The farm took a hit of more than $60,000, including crops and the cost of rebuilding the water pumps.

Estrada is a third-generation farmer, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, but he said the trade probably dates back further to the family’s roots in Mexico. He got involved with the Travelers Rest Farmers Market in an effort to sell his products locally and in a retail capacity. He believes in the greater quality of buying local produce and encourages the public to buy local crops year-round.

According to Mullen, humility has been a theme with all the farmers. Despite financial and property damages, they have immense sympathy for those who lost more than business during the hurricane.

“Some people lost greenhouses, some people lost their whole crops, like me, but from what I heard, I don’t think anybody actually got hurt or anyone lost their lives,” Estrada said.

How you can help

To donate to the farmer’s market fund, visit travelersrestfarmersmarket.com/donate-to-trfm. To date, losses suffered by farmers within the cohort totals roughly $205,710. The donation portal will stay open until the end of 2024 with 100% of donations going toward the farmers after processing fees.

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Ellis and Bradley Turkey Fry for Miracle Hill Ministries

Volunteers participated in the 18th annual Ellis and Bradley Turkey Fry for Miracle Hill Ministries Nov. 26. During the event, 712 turkeys were fried and roasted by around 100 volunteers. The turkeys were served at Thanksgiving meals throughout the week in all of Miracle Hill’s rescue missions, foster families and addiction recovery programs.

TreesUpstate Turkey Day Run

Photos by Caleb Estell Photography and TreesUpstate. $150,000 was raised for critical funding to help TreesUpstate work to plant, maintain, promote and protect trees in the Upstate.

Taylors Turkey Day Run

Eastside High School hosted the Taylors Turkey Day Run to benefit Greer Community Ministries. The event is the oldest turkey day run in the Upstate. It raised $1,200 and collected an estimated 1,400 canned food items to serve those in need. Greer Community Ministries feeds 160 families per month. Photos by John Olson

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The guest list includes Disney characters Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.

The Greenville Journal was invited to a behind-the-scenes look Wednesday afternoon.

The schedule is below

Nov. 27 at 7 p.m.
Nov. 29 at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Nov. 30 at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Dec. 1 at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

For more information visit https://www.bonsecoursarena.com/events/detail/disney-on-ice-2025.

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