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
Perfect, Sir!