Wesley Rhoten: Rhoten's Country Sausage (Lexington, SC)

The Dutch Fork is a region of South Carolina including Lexington, Newberry, and Richland Counties between the Saluda River and the Broad River where they come together in a third waterway, the Congaree. Named after the German settlers of the area who first started arriving in the mid 1700s, Dutch is derived from the German word deutsch. And one of the cultural remnants that remain in this region from its immigrant past is the affinity for onion sausage, a pork sausage flavored with spices and fresh onions that still graces Christmas tables and grills around here. There are a few producers in the region, and one of the most beloved is Rhoten's Country Sausage, made in Rhoten's Country Store in Old Town Lexington. Proprietor Wesley Rhoten made it through the pandemic by selling the sausage out of a drive-thru window, and so I took a drive over so we could learn all sorts of South Carolina history hiding in this linked sausage.