Hey y'all! Happy New Year everyone. You are the best part about living in and loving the South. Seeing or hearing from any one of you is as restorative as watching the sun rise over the great Atlantic in all its crimson and golden splendor. Thank you for coming to my website.

Through the years, I've been a joyful food historian and teller of tales, enthusiastic about preserving our vanishing traditions and our seafood industry and honoring those unsung heroes who labor each day to bring us the bounty from the sea.

New thoughts are churning for 2025 - thoughts of taking you down Southern roads to delicious destinations and undiscovered places. By now I've made a list of people and places that stir my imagination and create excitement. By the time the daffodils sprout from the ground in early February, I'll be ready. I've been embracing these bleak, stormy days of January to plan the new journey, making lists of the people I intend to introduce you to and new places I want you to see in the weeks and months ahead. The list is long, and the excitement of new beginnings and new places stirs my imagination. I've written seven books on the wonders of living along these salt-misted shores, and celebrating life in my corner of the world. Around every corner there is something to be told.

This new year awakens a fresh new world and an awareness that we have only these moments in time that melt away like snowflakes. None of us are living in eternity. I've learned not to live far beyond the moment but to embrace it. I hope you will join me in searching for delicious destinations and undiscovered treasures.

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A  Journalism graduate from the University of Georgia, Pat served as Women's Editor for WSB Radio, Atlanta, where she became the woman's voice for the South through her daily radio programs. Later she became the Assistant to media mogul Ted Turner. In those days CNN was only a sparkle in his eye but it grew during their days at his TV station on West Peachtree.

Once married, she accompanied her husband to Beaufort, SC, where he purchased a golf course community on Lady's Island. Well, decades ago we called them plantations. Many of my stories are from those early days in Beaufort and the memorable meals I shared with friends who entertained in the antebellum dining rooms along Beaufort’s waterfront and across the sea islands.  Everywhere folks gathered, whether it was an oyster roast, a dove hunt, a golf tournament, or a celebration during the annual water festival, there was plenty of Southern hospitality and finely prepared food and drink. I took notes, never thinking they might someday be published.

These traditions of community and foodways have survived and evolved for centuries.

Pat Branning, the author of 7 best-selling books on the South Carolina Lowcountry, now presents The Anniversary Edition of Shrimp, Collards and Grits.

Pat is a prolific writer of books, periodicals, and magazine stories including

the original Islander Magazine of Hilton Head, The Local Palate, Deep South Magazine, Charleston Style and Design, and local newspapers and publications.

She became editor of her own magazine, Shrimp, Collards, and Grits, which depicted the South. This well-loved publication was found in Whole Foods, Wegmans, upscale grocery stores, and bookstores across the South. The pandemic forced a closure to that, but we can meet each other right here on Substack. I love this platform because we can chat and get to know each other better than ever before. Subscribe now and not miss a single publication.

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