We Don't Save Old Farms: (They Save Us)

In this week’s Stable Roots, Kim Carter traces the layered history of Lavender Hill — the 200-year-old farm in Simpsonville, SC now home to Bramblewood Stables — through old letters, photographs, buried spring stones, and an antique hand plow that may have originated from the land itself.

What begins as research into the farm’s past slowly becomes something more intimate: a meditation on stewardship, memory, and the feeling of stepping into a conversation already underway long before your arrival.

This episode explores:

- The transformation of Holly Springs Acres into Lavender Hill

- Charles and Alona Lavender’s restoration of the farm after the Korean War

- The excavation of the original spring house

- Forgotten infrastructure and old ways of living with the land

- And what it means to enter a relationship with a place instead of simply owning it

Read the full essay and explore Stable Roots: Stable Roots on Substack

Learn more about Bramblewood Stables at Lavender Hill: Bramblewood Stables

South Carolina Department of Agriculture listing for Lavender Hill Farm: Lavender Hill Farm and Bramblewood Stables

Last week’s companion piece on disappearing farmland in Upstate South Carolina continues the larger conversation around land stewardship, development pressure, and preservation.

Follow along with the ongoing restoration and history work at Lavender Hill on Facebook and Instagram.

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