Summer Gardening

From homemade pizza, to felafel and feta salad, to Mexican tamales, the Rockbrook kitchen staff serves up top-notch culinary creations. While earlier days at Rockbrook didn’t offer the same international variety of foods, it could boast of a bountiful, sustainable, and local food source. A 1926 RBC brochure states that the vast majority of the food used at camp was produced at the Rockbrook Farm, located across the road from camp on Greenville Highway. The farm, which was personally managed by Henry Carrier, provided all of the fixings for a balanced, healthy meal: eggs, chicken, lamb, mutton, milk, cream, butter, and vegetables. Rockbrook even cured it’s own ham and bacon for the summer.

Rockbrook currently does not have any large-scale farming, however it does have a rich garden. Located on the lower sports field, the RBC garden was started in 2009 and has been growing steadily ever since. Campers enjoy maintaining a variety of plants, and are especially excited to pick ripened vegetables, such as squash, zucchini, edamame, bell peppers, tomatoes, and beans. Once picked and washed, these vegetables are featured in the dining hall’s salad bar. Below, you’ll find a few of our favorite shots from a garden workshop this summer, where campers delighted in making tussie mussies and building a scarecrow!

Rockbrook Road Trip 1930’s

We found some wonderful pictures of Nancy Carrier, Rockbrook’s founder, and her family on a road trip.  The photographs are dated from the 1930’s.  Nancy is pictured on the left in the first photograph and second from left in the middle photograph.   She is also pictured at right taking a photograph.  We can only imagine the adventures they had as they all piled into the car and hit the road.  Other pictures we found show the same group camping out on a mountain top with a gorgeous view, riding in the car, taking photographs and hiking.  It looks like quite an adventure!  Nancy Carrier’s adventurous spirit continues today at Rockbrook!

If you haven’t seen this video about the history of Rockbrook Camp, it’s a “must see!”

Nancy Carrier and friends prepare for a road trip
Nancy and friend camping
Nancy Carrier, at right, enjoys a road trip with friends

The Carrier House Tennis Court

We recently found another Rockbrook photograph during our search of the archives at The Transylvania County Library.  In their records they had this photo of the original tennis courts at The Carrier House.  The Carrier House or Rockbrook House as it is now known was the home of the owners and directors of Rockbrook, Henry and Nancy Carrier.  Here at their house many camp activities were offered including tennis and lawn dancing. Tennis was a popular activity from the beginning of camp and quickly outgrew this first court as the  number of campers increased.  In the late 1920’s two more courts were added and then ultimately three more courts were built.  This original court was removed from The Carrier House lawn and was turned into a beautiful side porch.  Note the small boxwood hedge in the background of the picture, those same boxwoods are now over 9 feet tall!  Here is a previous blog post that tells you more about our current tennis program.

Carrier House Tennis Court
The Carrier House and Tennis Court, circa 1920’s