Lloyd Mandel Woodturning, which began as a garage-based business four years ago in Charleston, South Carolina, primarily produces handmade lathe-turned, food-safe wooden bowls made from local trees salvaged and culled from the local “urban forest.” These are sold at a Charleston gallery and, since 2016, at the Charleston Farmers Market. In 2015, a customer placed an order of three spurtles for her children, which spawned the idea of developing a stirring tool more suited to our Southern culture. The Charleston Grits Stick® was developed as a tool specifically designed and weighted to stir grits and is adorned with a hand-carved pineapple finial, symbolic of Southern hospitality. The Charleston Grits Stick can also be used to stir rice, pasta, soup, or anything on the stovetop. It is made of hard maple and finished with multiple coats of walnut oil to bring out the natural beauty of the wood and to prevent food from adhering to the surface. Due to the popularity of the Charleston Grits Stick as a gift and souvenir item, we have expanded our “Charleston Stick Collection” to include “The Charleston Muddler” (very popular with Charleston’s bartenders) and “The Charleston Nostepinne” (used to make center-pull yarn balls for needle arts).
