Sweetgrass Baskets

There are more than 60 Sweetgrass Basket stands along Highway 17. We stopped at one and had a discussion with Barbara, a fourth generation basketweaver. She makes her baskets from palmetto, long leaf pine needles and of course sweetgrass. She said the supply of sweetgrass is getting more difficult as there is more and more coastal development and great losses due to hurricane Hugo in 1989. They have to go as far as Hilton Head to get the sweetgrass that was once available in the Mt. Pleasant area.

The art of sweetgrass basketmaking has been displayed at the Smithsonian.

The pictures below show Barbara's stand and her using the Square credit card reader on her iPhone to document our purchase. I received a receipt on my iPhone within seconds.