Marshmallows

This week I visited an unusual farm. It was so unique and so incredible that I just had to share my experience with you. You see I went to a marshmallow farm.

I bet you thought, as I used to, that marshmallows were processed and made of sugars and corn syrups and stuff like that. But really, they are grown here in Grovetown in our famous marshes. That’s why they’re called marshmallows, of course. I never knew that.

The marshes in Grovetown are perfect for growing the marshmallow plant. They used to be mangrove swamps, hence the name “Grovetown.” When the mangrove trees died in a blight, the swamps were drained and the marshes remained with lots of nutrients and nitrogen, a great combination for growing the marshmallow plants.

What does a marshmallow plant look like? Well, you might think they would look like cotton plants, with little marshmallows on stalks that you harvest like tomatoes or, well, like cotton. But, oh no, they grow like pumpkins and squash. They grow real big, so big that you can only harvest one at a time.

The raw marshmallows have to be divided up into their smaller ones that you buy in the store. But that isn’t as difficult as it would seem. The big ones can be pulled apart into individual cells and dried out form those perfect little spheres you toast on a stick by the campfire. If left a while longer, the marshmallows shrink into the tiny ones we call mini-marshmallows, the ones you put into hot chocolate.

I didn’t get to see the harvest, because they aren’t quite ready, but that will take place in a few weeks, and then there will be the annual Marshmallow Festival, a whole weekend of celebrating and eating the sweet little things.

Now, about this time, you’re probably as skeptical as I was about the existence of these “marshmallow farms.” Well, I can understand that. Therefore, I took a picture of the marshmallows still growing in the field to prove they are genuine.



Do you believe now???