ISSUE 31, RICE, Part 5: Carolina Gold Rice Foundation

A Chronology of Activities

Chronology of the Activities of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation

1986

Rice:    Dr. Richard Schulze restores Carolina Gold Rice to lowcountry fields, sowing 14 lbs of rice at Turnbridge plantation.

1998

Rice:  Dr. Mike Bonman (and the seeds curator, Harold Bockleman) at the Small Grains Germplasm collection at the USDA/ARS facility in Aberdeen, ID, send seeds of Carolina Gold to Merle Shepard.  Who started planting these out at the CREC in Charleston and then stared supplying Campbell Coxe, Jimmy Haygood and others with the seeds. 

2001

Rice:    Glenn Roberts plants first field of commercial Carolina Gold Rice in Lowcountry since the 1920s. 

2003

Rice: Campbell Coxe organizes Carolina Plantation Rice Co.

Initiative: At the conference Cuisines of the Lowcountry and the Caribbean in Charleston, Glenn Roberts begins talking to attendees about organizing a foundation on behalf of Carolina Gold Rice.

2004   

Rice:  Dr. Merle Shepard grows a field of Carolina Gold Rice rice at CREC in Charleston

Initiatives: Dr. Merle Shepard, Glenn Roberts, and Ted Hopkins charter the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation.

2005   

Carolina Gold Rice Symposium, Charleston

Publication: Dr. Richard Schulze, Carolina Gold Rice; the Ebb and Flow of History

Media: Susan Slack, “Carolina Gold Rice Bread Recipes,” A Taste of Carolina (August 20, 2005).

2006   

Rice:    First fields of Carolina Gold planted at Middleton Place

Media: “African Roots, Carolina Gold,” Coastal Heritage Magazine (Summer 2006).

2007

Rice:  Anna McClung does the first comparative genetic analysis of Carolina Gold Rice with other world rices.

Media:  Erik Stockstad, “American Rice, Out of Africa,” Science Magazine (Nov 16, 2007).

2008

Rice:  Zingerman’s revives the Lowcountry Carolina Gold Rice waffle

Restoration: Sea Island Red Peas

Rice birds appear above Charleston fields for the first time since 1952

Media: Erica Jackson, “Gold Standard, Charleston Chefs create Culinary Gold with heirloom rice,” Charleston City Paper (February 20, 2008)

2009   

Rice:  Dr. Anna McClung stabilizes seed for Carolina Gold select. CGR Foundation undertakes search for extinct “Long Gold” and collects historical records of its characteristics and qualities. 

Richard Porcher finds historic map of Hezekiah Mayham’s Pineville plantation, first site of known cultivation of Carolina Gold, and visits site. 

Restoration: Strains of landrace benne grown at CREC

Media:  T. Edward Nickens, “Strands of Gold,” Garden & Gun (April/May, 2009).

2010   

Publication: 

The Golden Seed, Writings on the History and Culture of Carolina Gold Rice

Restoration: Sea Island White Flint Corn rematriated to the Lowcountry.

2011

Rice: Charleston Gold Rice, bred by Merle Shepard and Gurdev Kush,  launched on Feb. 11.

Carolina Gold Rice boarded on Slow Food’s global Ark of Taste

Media:  Burkhard Bilger, “True Grits,” The New Yorker (October 31, 2011).

2012   

Initiative: Consultation with Orton Plantation about Rice Growing on the Cape Fear River

Restoration: Bradford Watermelon rediscovered. Rice Birds return to Charleston rice fields for the first time since the 1950s.

2013

Initiatives: First pressing of benne oil under Foundation auspices.              Cook it Raw, Charleston.

Restoration: Dr. Brian Ward grows the first restoration crop of Carolina African Runner Peanuts.

Media: Mike Grudowski, “Meet the Flavor Savers,” Garden & Gun (Aug/Sept 2013).. 

2014   

Rice:  Brian Ward conducts comparative rice growth of varieties using SRI cultivation

Initiatives: Assisting Donna Hardy in the revival of indigo. Enabling revival of lamb ham.

Grains: Planting of Jimmy Red Corn. 

Publication: Richard Porcher, The Market Preparations of Carolina Rice.

Restoration: After much trial, successful harvests of rice peas in the Lowcountry

Media: “Digging Up the Past,” National Geographic , May 2014.

2015   

Initiative: Nat Fuller Feast, Charleston SC, Comparative Field Pea Tasting.

Grains: Dr. Richard Scheuerman conveys White May Wheat to Foundation for planting

Publication: David S Shields, Southern Provisions. Lamb Ham

Restoration: Purple Ribbon Sugar Cane on Sapelo Island, Dr. Steve Kresovich

Media: Kim Severson, “Field Peas, a Southern Good Luck Charm,” New York Times Dec 29, 2015.

Cara Parks, “The Original Southern Peanut was Thought to be Extinct,” Modern Farmer, jan 12, 2015

2016

Rice:  Red Bearded Upland Rice/Moruga Hill Rice encountered in Trinidad

Initiative: Comparative rice bread tasting with Michael Kalanty. Native pollinator research by Dr. Merle Shepard.

Grains: Identification of Greg Johnsman’s landrace Seashore Black Seed Rye. First harvest of landrace Purple Straw Wheat by Brian Ward.

Recovery:  Dyehouse Cherry rediscovered in Somerset KY.  Hicks Mulberry revived March. 

Sea Island White Flint Corn boarded on Slow Food’s global Ark of Taste

2017   

Rice:  Dr. Jim Tuten’s Research on Inland and Garden Rice published in Foundation news.   

Initiative: Rematriation of African Diaspora crops to Gullah-Geechee people.

Grains: Cocke’s Prolific Corn rediscovered in Landrum and seed distributed nationally.

2018

Rice: Rice bread finally revived as a regular commercial offering in the South. Hagood Coxe brews Carolina Gold Rice sake

Initiative: With Dr. J Holland conveyed Lail Flint Corn to the Catawba People, their ancestral flour corn.

Grains:  Dr. Rick Boyles plants Timilia Durum Wheat, Six Row Winter Barley, Virginia Winter Turf Oats, Potato Oats—elements of the original southern grain system. 

2019

Rice:    Upland “gopher rice” a 1870s West Indian importation into the South restored in SC

2020-21

Rice:  Santee Gold Rice released by Dr. Anna McClung

Iniatives: Rematriation of Lovette and Sea Island White Flint corns to the Lumbee. Coharie and Waccamaw Siouan Peoples