Dr. David S. Shields, McClintock Professor of Southern Letters in the English and History Departments of the University of South Carolina, was elected Chairman of the Board of the South Carolina Gold Rice Foundation at the February Meeting of the SCGRF.

An internationally known scholar of early American literature and culture, Shields has made a specialty of studying traditional southern foodways and the history of agriculture. His interest in Carolina rice culture was stimulated in 1985 by the discovery in Aberdeen Scotland of the most elaborate literary description of the creation of a rice plantation to have survived from the colonial period: George Ogilvie’s Carolina; or, The Planter, 1776. The journal Southern Literature devoted a special issue to its republication in 1986.

While best known as an author, having published several standard works of early American cultural history, including Oracles of Empire (1990) and Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America (1997), Shields began studying agricultural history and food in 2000. He hosted the landmark Charleston Conference, “Cuisines of the Lowcountry and the Caribbean in 2003” and spoke at the 2006 Charleston symposium on Carolina Gold Rice. He is editing the proceedings volume of that meeting for the SCGRF. His edition of the writings of early America’s greatest wine maker, Nicholas Herbemont, will be released by the University of Georgia Press in February 2009. His archive of antebellum southern recipes will be put on line by the Southern Foodways Alliance later this year.

CGRF President Glenn Roberts walks a field of Carolina Gold rice straw at Prospect Hill January 2008.

A Message from the President

“Proteins are sexier than cereals,” …a recent provocative statement by an artisan friend in the rare breeds pork charcuterie business. “Pork is just walking corn,” I quickly reply, “but you’re right, few people consider what their proteins eat even with the exploding interest in local foods.” The subtext of this exchange is we’re all grass farmers, and the quality of the grasses we farm is the basis of quality for all other husbandry. This fundamental concept brings cutting-edge new interest to sustainable Carolina Gold Rice horticulture in 2007 and promises to expand interest and acreage in the Carolinas and Georgia in the near future. Here is the new paradigm: if pork is walking corn, what is crawfish? For the Weathersby and Cooper families, crawfish is walking Carolina Gold Rice. The verdict of success or failure in the symbiotic aquaculture of crawfish using CGR is still out for the Weathersby family because their 14 acres of organic Carolina Gold Rice is still maturing in their crawfish ponds near Sumter. But in this issue of the Rice Paper, Edwin Cooper, of White House Plantation at Wacamaw Neck, gives a succinct account of events affecting his 30 acres of unintentional crawfish farming using Carolina Gold Rice.

On a similar track, Dr. Merle Shepard met with a large catfish producer in August to discuss the potential of organic CGR production in catfish ponds near Florence in 2008. Dr. Shepard reports the meeting ended with excitement at the prospect of a lucrative companion crop in organic aquaculture. Cooper’s experience proves there is no doubt that crawfish will thrive on CGR. Crawfish farmers and other aquaculturists in the Carolinas and Georgia have taken note of the potential of CGR to produce authentic local crawfish and other aquaculture products while improving their bottom line.
Other developments in regional CGR horticulture spring from fusing historic interpretation of antebellum plantation CGR husbandry with on-farm green market production. The Stoney family at Kensington Plantation on the Cooper River near Monks Corner planted a 2 acre trial plot of organic CGR this season to augment their boutique vegetable farming for Crew Carolina restaurants. This plot is the first in Kensington’s rice fields in nearly a century. Orton Plantation at Wilmington, NC, famous for the quality of their seed and production Carolina Rice during the 19th century, is planting CGR in 2008. Theodore Hopkins of Old Field Plantation in Hopkins will begin sustainable upland CGR trials next year.

The 2007 Carolina Gold Rice growing season is entwined with three fortunate coincidences: many of the plantations engaged in CGR production increased acreage this year; if Mother Nature cooperates, we will witness a record Carolina Gold Rice harvest this fall; and there is an emerging broad public interest in the long term success of rice horticulture in the Carolinas and Georgia…Emile de Felice, of Caw Caw Creek Pastured Pork in Columibia, SC, nominated Carolina and Georgia grown Carolina Gold Rice for induction into the Slow Food International Ark.

We wish Emile and his team success.

Plant biologist Richard Porcher (Professor emeritus, Department of Biology, The Citadel) and cultural historian David S. Shields (McClintock Professor of Southern Letters, University of South Carolina) were elected to the Board of Directors of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation at the October 2006 meeting in Charleston. Each has developed distinctive areas of expertise about the history of rice cultivation and kitchen use in the South.

Dr. Richard Porcher, widely known for his lavishly illustrated A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina, had devoted much of the past decade to documenting the ecology of traditional rice fields in South Carolina. He has collected historic seed stock at numbers of historic mills and processing sites in the state, a valuable resource in determining the genetic profile of Carolina Gold over the past century and a half. His current work includes a systematic investigation of the evolution of rice milling—its technology, economics, and labor culture.

Dr. David Shields, an extensively published historian of early southern history, literature, and culture, directed the landmark 2004 conference, Cuisines of the Lowcountry and the Caribbean, co-sponsored by Johnson & Wales University and the College of Charleston’s Program in the Carolina Lowcountry & the Atlantic World. He has collected every recipe employing rice published in antebellum American periodicals and has amassed an extensive archive of printed articles and pamphlets dealing with 18th-and early 19th-century rice agriculture.

Porcher and Shields will bring different strengths to the CGRF. Porcher has agreed to superintend a graduate student survey of historic rice processing structures for surviving seed samples. Shields will take over the editing of “The Rice Paper.”

by Glenn Roberts, Carolina Gold Rice Foundation

Carolina Gold Rice matures in the field as a lovely four to five foot tall golden hulled heirloom. Many historians note that CGR’s famous color is associated with the origins of its name and the fortunes its export brought to Carolina and Georgia Planter aristocracy. But Carolina Gold Rice is also known by its late 18th century common field name: “The Two Sisters”. The name describes CGR’s genetic instability, its unique duality and the continual struggle to isolate and replicate “true” Carolina Gold Rice during our colonial era. A few food historians believe Carolina Gold Rice was never “one” kind of rice. Period literature and plantation records document at least two distinct export rices labeled and marketed as Carolina Gold Rice: the Carolina Gold Rice exported before 1810 and “Fat” or “Northern” Carolina Gold Rice exported between that time and the Civil War. It is at least conceivable there were other distinct varieties of rice exported under the name Carolina Gold, though shipping manifests and marketing ads of the period designate only Carolina Rice, Carolina Gold Rice and Northern Carolina Gold Rice. A key to understanding multiple variety CGR may lie in the facts behind the colonial Carolina name “Two Sisters”.

The Carolina Gold Rice in today’s world seed banks (USDA-GRIN and IRRI, to name just two) hold Carolina Gold Rice selected and increased according to a formal characteristic description handed down by Carolina planters in the twentieth century to the USDA seed banking system. Rice geneticists around the world occasionally bring rigorously selected Carolina Gold Rice genetics from these banks into modern breeding programs. Tiripana 7 of CIAT origin and an on-going experimental CGR japonica dwarf aromatic breeding program here in the USA are two recent standouts. Although these efforts have far reaching positive impacts on rice horticulture and, in the case of Tiripana 7, employ self-determination to address third world hunger, it is important to step outside these scientific achievements based on accepted CGR genetics and identify the earliest definition of Carolina Gold Rice through the lense of the 18th and 19th Century rice planter and examine the question: what determines “pure” Carolina Gold Rice?

Rigorously selected Carolina Gold Rice from modern scientifically managed seed sources grows and matures into two distinct rice varieties, not one: Carolina Gold and Carolina White….the famous “Two Sisters” mentioned above. DNA marker analysis of both rices show identical patterns, except those indicating hull color. Carolina White is slightly earlier, slightly more aggressive and has a slightly improved standability over Carolina Gold. These facts, derived from modern field trials, invite open speculation about why Antebellum Carolina planters selected Gold over White. Following this line of thought, one factor within this speculation based on field realities would be the present day near exclusive subsistence farming of Carolina White (Carolina Blanco) over Carolina Gold in South America. This fact seems to argue against Carolina Gold as the “better” rice and also raises the specter of other CGR varieties.

Antebellum Carolina planters charged with seed rice breeding, selection and production (as opposed to planters dedicated only to export production) spent extensive time and capital resources breeding and selecting Carolina Rices to develop and maintain pure Carolina Gold. The high integrity of this breeding and selection rigor resulted in the astonishing rise of Carolina and Georgia rice export production that impacted elite global markets as far away as Asia by our revolution. One thing is certain: the broad effort to breed CGR eliminates the possibility that Carolina Gold Rice was simply a marketing term.

Beginning in 2001, in an attempt to better understand why Carolina Gold became the dominant American export rice before 1860, a group of growers and scientists associated with the CGRF established a Pure Carolina Gold Rice breeding and production program. To date, the effort required to isolate pure Carolina Gold Rice has become a discovery of what early Carolina rice seedsman must have endured to succeed. Stated in a more historically accurate manner, the scientists and growers associated with the pure CGR effort have experienced every positive and negative act of nature that brought hope and plague to early Carolina rice planters. The research team selected Carolina Gold away from Carolina White in a 36 month subtropical and tropical year round program to increase and select it to pure head row seed. They increased this seed to breeder, then to foundation seed, then passed it to experienced CGR growers to move the pure CGR into first year production only to discover a red out-cross in the subsequent pure Carolina Gold production rice harvest. The red out-cross proved to be a harbinger of Hurricane Rita, which nearly blew the research facility away. These obstacles match the litany of woes penned by Carolina planters three centuries ago.

Earlier this year we returned to headrow and breeder seed rice evaluation and established that the breeder was free from outcross. Our geneticist, Dr. Anna McClung, sent the remaining pure headrow Carolina Gold to Dr. Merle Shepard at CREC for safe keeping and increase trials in South Carolina, while the growers at her research station replanted and selected new breeder and foundation seed for 2007 production. We hope for a great growing season leading to the first pure CGR production trial rice harvest in late 2007.

After six years of tightly focused research activity we have developed a new respect for the risk and rewards associated with breeding heirloom rice. And one surprising fact stands out: breeding, selecting and increasing CGR to production, even with the best technology available, is very daunting in the 21st century … it must have been unfathomably difficult in the late 18th century. Early Carolina planters assuming the mantle of rice breeding must have cared deeply for rice quality and had a vision of that quality precisely focused on the world rice market. On closer consideration, they must have been remarkably faithful in their dedication to and pursuit of their ideal to risk the time and resources required to create the first uniquely American rice. Time will tell if their effort will succeed again three centuries later and help in our understanding of which Carolina Gold Rice is most authentic.

The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. With over two centuries of associated manifests, journals and logs, researchers consider the Constitution’s archives the mother lode of American maritime history. Despite the integrity of its records, USS Constitution history seems an unlikely source for the documentation of American foodways of the early 19th century. Yet it is. Carolina Gold rice was a staple aboard the USS Constitution from the time of its maiden voyage in 1798 until 1900.

On July 4, 2005, just seven weeks before the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium, the USS Constitution shipped Carolina Gold rice aboard for the first time in more than a century. This shipment, courtesy of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, validates the educational role of Carolina Gold rice today, and confirms its historic and pervasive role in American—not just in Southern—foodways.

This latest is one of a number of events that confirms the growing popularity and interest in the authenticity of Carolina Gold rice and its cuisine, the Carolina Rice Kitchen. Last summer, Thomas Keller, owner of The French Laundry and Per Se restaurants—and regarded as one of the world’s top chefs—served Carolina Gold Rice at the “Revolution in Food” event in London. This spring, PBS launched a pilot for its new series “Restoration Stories” with a segment featuring the restoration of Carolina Gold Rice. (The segment will air in 75 US cities in the next three months.) In May of this year, the Oxford American featured an article by John Martin Taylor on Dr. Richard Schulze’s repatriation of Carolina Gold rice in South Carolina.

And the Symposium has yet to take place!

At this moment dozens of Charleston’s best chefs and scholars the world over are putting the final touches on Symposium recipes and presentations. Sixty acres of Carolina Gold Rice (the first plantings of this magnitude in 80 years) ripen in fields along the South Carolina coast. Rare breeds squab and pork fatten on Carolina Gold Rice feed for the first time since the Depression. Artisan brewers are sourcing recipes for authentic ginger beer and rice wine. A local Sea Island grower tends olives in anticipation of the production of his estate oil for the Rice Bread Exhibition. The staffs of the CGRF, the Culinary Institute of Charleston, the Charleston Museum, the Gibbes Museum of Art and Middleton Place are all engaged in preparations for your arrival.

Glenn Roberts
President & CEO

More than 4 million people visit Charleston every year, but only a fraction of them travel less than half an hour north of the city to the legendary plantations along the Ashley River. Of the three surviving plantations, Middleton Place, a National Historic Landmark, offers the most complete picture of 18th- and 19th-century plantation life: the rice culture, its dependence upon slave labor, and the opulence to which the Carolina planter families grew accustomed…

Middleton Place was featured in the June 25th edition of US News & World Reports in an article entitled “Ins & Outs: Charleston’s Ashley River Plantations.”

William Rubel and Glenn Roberts have been busy documenting and creating a recipe for a traditional beverage to be served at the traditional plantation lunch on Friday during the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium. Both an authentic, low-alcohol Ginger Beer—based on recipes in The Carolina Housewife—and a Huguenot recipe for a cold rice drink are under consideration. The latter is a non-alcoholic punch that is related to the Central American/Mexican “Horchata”.

Jimmy Hagood (of Tidewater Foods & Catering, LLC, Specialty Foods South, LLC, and the BlackJack Barbecue Cooking Team) has joined the planning committee for the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium and will play a vital role in preparing both the Friday plantation lunch at the Charleston Museum and the Rare Breeds lunch at Middleton Place. Hagood, a Charleston native, is well-known for his penchant for good food and his interest in preserving and re-invigorating regional foodways.

This past spring, Hagood cemented his stature in the barbecue world with his team’s performance in the Memphis in May World Barbecue Cooking Championship. The Symposium Planners knew without a doubt that the Ossabaw Island Pigs from Caw Caw Pastured Pork would be in the right hands when they received this email from Jimmy:

This past weekend 250 teams competed in the Memphis in May World Barbecue Cooking Championship. The BlackJack Barbecue Cooking Team placed 5th in the very competitive Pork Shoulder category. After a first place finish in the North Carolina State Championship last summer, we knew we were closing in on a top five finish in Memphis and our hard work has paid off.

The Super Bowl of Swine in Memphis is the grand daddy of all cooking contests in the world and we knew we had to be on top of our game to compete. We had an 8th Place finish in 2001, our first year, but this year we topped most of the competition. It’s very gratifying to know that we worked together as a team, each person doing his or her part, and the sum of all this work is much greater than I envisioned. We even had an opportunity to be filmed by the Food Channel as we were preparing our product for cooking and then again as we were preparing our site for judging.

All in all the past week was exhilarating and we are looking forward to participating in future contests. I want to thank my fellow team mates Andrew Hagood, JB McCarty, Dever McCarty, Doug Jones and my wife Anne Marie. I also want to thank our sponsors for their contributions to our success.

Congratulations to Jimmy & the Blackjack Barbecue Team!

Tidewater Catering’s and BlackJack Barbecue Cooking Team’s Big Red Rig – The Ultimate Barbecue Experience. This newest addition is 27’ long and has 2 state-of-the-art wood burning cookers.

by Emile DeFelice

I knew I was getting in deep when I started feeding our heritage pigs heritage food scraps! But then again, the community aspect of food production and consumption is not new at all, so a small time rare pig grower and an artisinal miller are a fairly predictable pair, but like their products, a little rare these days.

That’s one of the small ways Caw Caw Creek Pastured Pork effects big changes, and allowed us to cut costs, capture value in waste, conserve rare breeds, improve the environment, all the while providing better meat.

Our pigs enjoy an enormous space with pasture, crops to glean, and forest to mast. When I first started raising pigs for home use, I carted away two van loads of organic refuse from the local health food supermarket a week, and made some delicious pork. As the numbers of pigs grew, I knew that being smart about procuring food would lower costs and make pigs happy—and tasty. Our main supplemental food gift comes from my old friend Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills.

Glenn has been a major supporter of our farm since I began as one of his purveyors in his former career as an executive with a group of fine dining establishments, during my former career as a produce grower. We both developed specialties arising from that time, and now work together in a new context of historical and slow food production, and waste disposal service!

From the mill, we receive weekly truckloads of corn tailings, wheat middlings, rice hulls, and rice bran. We mix this with one day expired certified organic dairy, egg, and tofu products, for a meal that pigs literally stack themselves three high to get at. Pigs just love the crazy mixture of chocolate milk, yogurts, eggs, half and half, and the mill by-products serve to congeal the mix and provide extra energy with small bits of grain throughout. Transforming waste into a core ingredient of our feed program benefits both giver and receiver, and most of all the pigs. We also receive periodic organic whole corn, wheat, and rice from Anson Mills, making our pork not only delicious, but inimitable.

And—it is positively the best job ever for farm children, opening and dumping containers and making a solid mess of themselves!

In addition, Glenn and I have planted different crops on certified organic fields such as heritage corn, wheat, peas, and rice, in a minimum impact setting and in the case of the peas and rice, hoping to naturalize these plants for different environmental and forage benefits.

This summer, we thought it would be fun to serve you heritage meat raised on heritage grains. Carolina Gold Rice Foundation will serve some of the rarest pigs in the world, the Ossabaw Island Pig, that will be finished on Carolina Gold Rice. The dark and well marbled Ossabaw meat is prized in New York City and by the greatest chefs in the United States—but, for the most part, they can’t get it. You will though, and we hope you enjoy it.

Emile DeFelice of Caw Caw Creek Pastured Pork in St. Matthews is the current president of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association.

In 1995 four acres of rice were grown for commercial production in the state of South Carolina . This spring South Carolina will plant nearly 400 acres of rice for commercial production—sixty of them will be Carolina Gold. When the fields ripen to golden brilliance this August, they will provide a stunning backdrop for the 2005 Carolina Gold Rice Symposium.

Registration for the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium—scheduled for August 18th, 19th and 20th in Charleston —begins May 1—just 18 months after our first CGRF meeting. The Planning Committee anticipates keen interest in the event—both in the US and beyond—and recommends early registration for those interested in attending. Here are a few reasons you’ll want to register immediately:

Carolina Gold Rice takes center stage in original presentations and discussions led by internationally respected culinary scholars, historians, scientists and heirloom agriculture experts. Framing these events, 35 of America ’s finest chefs and culinary historians will collaborate to serve fine foods and beverages inspired by Carolina Rice Kitchen cuisine, past and present. The event will host a Carolina Rice Bread Exposition; a colonial-era rice field lunch; tastings from the antebellum rice planter’s table; and a Lowcountry rare breeds rice pig BBQ—with all the fixin’s. For more information, please visit our website.

Planning for the Symposium is nearly complete. We wish to thank every member of the Planning Committee for his or her commitment of time and talent. We are confident the Symposium will be a smashing success.

Funding for the event, however, is still below our projected goal. Please call Dr. Merle Shepard or me at (843) 709-7399, or e-mail: officers@CarolinaGoldRiceFoundation.org to discuss support for the Symposium.

It is time for our foundation to look beyond the Symposium to future activities. Toward that end we have identified three important programs for future funding consideration: 1) the creation and continuing support of an electronic resource center and archive comprising a virtual collection of historic literature and reference works, public records and editorial content on historic heirloom grain foodways, agriculture and culture in our region; 2) funding, venue and professional support for the Southern Foodways Alliance Summer 2008 Rice Field Trip to Charleston, South Carolina; and 3) the creation of a memorial to Dr. HenryWoodward, legendary physician, planter and scholar credited with the introduction of a rice variety for breeding that became the world famous Carolina Gold. The CGRF Board of Directors and I ask you to reflect upon the importance of these programs and contribute generously to their development.

Glenn Roberts, President & CEO

As featured in our last newsletter, an exciting group of dynamic and well-known rice authorities will be on hand and making presentations at the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium in August 2005. Care has been taken to supply a range of academic, culinary, and agricultural comment on the subject. The invited scholars include persons from the fields of genetics, history, ecology, art history, cultural history, medicine, literature, and botany. Several persons currently involved in the cultivation of rice will comment on the pragmatics and economics of rice culture. While attention is paid to the role of rice in its southern area of cultivation, the African heritage of such cultivation, and the subsequent trade and dissemination of Carolina Rice varieties along the Atlantic shipping routes to the Gulf coast, islands, and South America will receive attention. In addition to those speakers featured in the last installment of The Rice Paper, the following experts will also take part in the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium:

Manny Berk will give an “Introduction to Madeira ” prior to a sampling of a rare Madeira at the Symposium Opening Reception at the Charleston Museum . Berk, who f ounded The Rare Wine Co. of Sonoma, CA in 1989, is one of America 's most respected wine merchants. He is known for sourcing impeccably cellared examples of the world's greatest and most sought-after wines.

Martha Zierden will speak briefly on the “Accoutrement of the Carolina Rice Culture” and offer an introduction to the ‘Foodways of the Lowcountry,’ an exhibit on display at the Charleston Museum that she curated with Elizabeth Reitz of the University of Georgia . Zierden is the Curator of Archaeology for the Charleston Museum and has written extensively on her research throughout the Lowcountry.

Dr. Daniel C. Littlefield will present “Carolina Rice & African Know-how.” Dr. Littlefield is a Carolina Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and wrote the well-respected Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina and Revolutionary Citizens: African Americans, 1776–1804 . He is also the editor of a new edition of The South Carolina Rice Plantation as Revealed in the Papers of Robert F. W. Allston .

William Rubel, who will prepare lunch for the Friday session of the Symposium from an open hearth, is a cook and author specializing in traditional cooking methods and a collector of antique and modern culinary utensils. His widely respected 2003 book, The Magic of Fire , was nominated for a James Beard Award and received the Gourmand World Cookbook Award of France.

Dr. Joe Kelley will speak about “ Plant Succession in South Carolina Tidal Former Rice Fields: Ecological and Human Use Indications.” Kelley is a Professor of Biology at the Citadel in Charleston. His research interests center on the analysis of vegetation patterns and modeling of succession in tidal impoundments. Some of the methods and tools he employs include GPS, the analysis of aerial photography using image analysis software, GIS, and various types of modeling. His long range goal is to provide a scientific foundation for succession related tidal impoundment management policy.

Charles H. P. Duell, Tracey Todd, and Clint Noren, of Middleton Place will team up to introduce Symposium participants to the landscape of Middleton Place Plantation, including the demonstration crop of Carolina Gold Rice and their efforts to interpret colonial plantation rice production for the visiting public. Duell is president of the Middleton Place Foundation; a 50l(c)(3) educational trust that owns the Gardens, House Museum and Plantation Stableyards at Middleton Place , a National Historic Landmark. Duell serves as a Trustee for the American Classical Homes Preservation Trust and is a Trustee Emeritus of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Todd is the Vice President of Museums at Middleton Place and has played an important role in developing a broader understanding of the family lives and the work environment of the enslaved Africans on the plantation—as well as finding ways to share that information with the public.

Noren is the Stableyard Interpretation Coordinator at Middleton Place and has been “hands-on” with their demonstration crop of Carolina Gold Rice, gaining some practical experience in traditional planting techniques.

Campbell Coxe will discuss “Contemporary Rice Production in South Carolina.” Coxe is owner of Carolina Plantation Rice and is a self-described “farmer.” He began growing Della variety, an aromatic rice, on his plantation near Darlington , SC on the Pee Dee River in 1997, reintroducing the idea of commercially producing rice on a colonial plantation. He mills his own rice and is currently exploring options to utilize all of the by-products of the milling process. Carolina Plantation Rice is the only colonial plantation to still offer rice commercially in the Carolinas .

Glenn Roberts will discuss “ Sustainable Restoration of Historic Ricelands—an 18th Century Solution for 21st Century Carolina Gold Rice.” Roberts is a food concept historian specializing in matching period architecture in adaptive reuse preservation projects to upscale menus inspired by historic cuisine and ingredients, including the use of regional organic small farm heirloom ingredients in menu development. He founded ANSON MILLS in 1998 where he is everything from international accounts representative, miller, and seedsman to farmer in order to ensure high quality and authenticity for clients desiring sustainably grown, authentically produced, certified organic heirloom wheat, corn and rice products. Roberts has lectured on historic southern foodways at a number of institutions and worked as a media consultant on that subject for a variety of news and entertainment organizations.

Dr. Richard Schulze will offer his personal journey in “ Introduction of Carolina Gold Rice 1685, Reintroduction of Carolina Gold Rice at Turnbridge Plantation, Bluffton, South Carolina, 1985.” Schulze, an eye surgeon at Schulze Eye & Surgery Center in Savannah , has been growing Carolina Gold Rice at his Turnbridge Plantation since 1986 and has become an avid historian of the Lowcountry region and Carolina Gold Rice production.

On Friday, 4 March 2005 , the history of Carolina Gold Rice in the Lowcountry and the mission and activities of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation (CGRF) were featured in a conversation for “Walter Edgar's Journal” on ETV Radio. Dr. Edgar is the Director of the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina and hosts this weekly radio program that explores the history of South Carolina and its reflection in our contemporary world.

Dr. David S. Shields, McClintock Chair of Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina, and Glenn Roberts, President of CGRF and the proprietor of Anson Mills Worldwide Direct, joined Dr. Edgar for this in-studio discussion. Both Shields and Roberts are well versed in the history of the grain and the society that developed around the wealth driven by its production.

Chef Mike Lata of FIG Restaurant in Charleston joined the conversation via phone to discuss his uses of Carolina Gold Rice and other heirloom grains in a commercial setting.

To listen to the March 4 edition of the program, to purchase a copy of the conversation, or for more information on “Walter Edgar’s Journal,” please visit the SCETV website at: www.myetv.org/radio/programs/walter_edgars_journal

The CGRF has been given the following seed lots to be used for Symposium funding:
Lot 1: 200 pounds of Virginia Crop Improvement Association Certified Foundation Pure Heirloom Red May Wheat (circa 1830).
Lot 2: 30 pounds of Certified Organic Heirloom Hand Select Trentino Spin Rosso della Valsugana Flint Corn Seed (open pollinated).
To bid, call (803) 467-4122 and state your name, phone number, lot number(s) and contribution amount(s).
Deadline: 20 April 2005

Emile DeFelice of Caw Caw Creek Pastured Pork in St. Matthews , SC , was featured on the cover of the food section of the Charleston Post & Courier on 19 January 2005 . Entitled “Hog Heaven: Midlands farmer goes against the grain by raising old-breed pigs in a free-range way,” the article focused on the benefits and trials of small-scale farming and “sustainable” agriculture. DeFelice is the state director of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association.

The article, written by food editor Teresa Taylor, was accompanied by pictures of some of the rare breed pigs raised at Caw Caw Creek Pastured Pork, including a group of Ossabaw Island Iberian hogs. Five of these hogs are sponsored by the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation and are being fed the traditional Lowcountry diet of rice bran—a by-product of the milling process. Thanks to the generosity of Anson Mills, several of these specially produced hogs are on the menu for the Lowcountry BBQ of rare breeds of rice-fed poultry and pork at Middleton Place Plantation during the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium.

Plan your Charleston Visit for the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium Now!
Be sure to plan your visit to Charleston and reserve your spot at the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium as space will be limited and interest is high.

Several pre-conference tours and activities will be available to conference attendees, including:
Connoisseur Tour of a Rice Planter’s Home with Wine & Cheese Reception at the Edmonston-Alston House
Culinary Walking Tour with Amanda Dew Manning of Carolina Food Pros
Signature Series Tour on the Life Style of A Wealthy Rice Planter at the Charleston Museum ’s Joseph Manigault House
Culinary Focus Signature Series Tour of the Charleston Museum ’s Heyward-Washington House
Coach Tour focusing on Charleston ’s African Connections with Alphonso Brown, owner/operator of Gullah Tours
Separate fees apply to these pre-conference tours and registration is limited. Please consult website for full activity description and register for them with your regular symposium registration.

Registration
Registration for the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium will open, via post, on 1 May 2005 . The fee for the three (3) days of lectures, panels, and special food events is $350 per person. A special press rate of $275 will be offered for members of the legitimate press. The registration form is at the end of this newsletter and will be available on-line at the CGRF website: www.CarolinaGoldRiceFoundation.org

CGRF will also sponsor a limited number of symposium scholarships for students, public historians, and young professionals. Interested individuals should send letter of interest stating how attending the symposium will benefit their pursuits, a completed registration form, plus a resume or c.v. to:

Symposium Scholarship Committee
Carolina Gold Rice Foundation
2971 Doncaster Drive
Charleston , SC 29414

Deadline for scholarship application is 1 May 2005 . Scholarships do not apply to pre-conference tours.

Lodging and Local Accommodations
While most Symposium venues in the downtown area are within an easy walking distance for most people, bus transportation will be provided as necessary and for those who desire it. Transportation will also be provided to Symposium venues outside of downtown Charleston ( Middleton Place Plantation and Trident Technical College Main Campus). Please see map of venues and hotels on page 10 of this newsletter.

The following hotels have graciously offered a special rate for those attending the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium. Please mention that you will be attending when placing your reservation. More details are available on the Symposium website.

The Middleton Inn
4290 Ashley River Road , Hwy 61 @ Middleton Place
Nightly Room Rate: $159, $189, $300 (based on view) +tax; breakfast included
Phone: 843-556-0500 or 800-543-4774
Charleston Place
205 Meeting Street @ Market Street , downtown
Nightly Room Rate: $199+tax, preferred rate
Phone: 843-722-4900 or 800-611-5545
The DoubleTree Guest Suites
181 Church Street @ Market Street , downtown
Nightly Room Rates: $129+tax
Phone: 843-577-2644 or 877-408-8733
The Embassy Suites Historic Charleston
337 Meeting Street @ Marion Square , downtown
Nightly Room Rate: $149+tax; breakfast included
Phone: 843-723-6900 or 800-EMBASSY
The Hampton Inn Historic District
345 Meeting Street @ John Street , downtown
Nightly Room Rate: $129+tax; breakfast included
Phone: 843-723-4000 or 800-HAMPTON
The Planters Inn
112 N. Market Street @ Meeting Street , downtown
Nightly Room Rate: $195+tax, preferred rate
Phone: 843-722-2345 or 800-845-7082
See Symposium Program on page 6.

If you need assistance to plan your Charleston visit, the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau has information about local tours and attractions on-line at:www.CharlestonCVB.com.

Watch the CGRF website for dining recommendations.

The Carolina Gold Rice Foundation is adding a Rice Bread Exposition to the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium on 18-20 August 2005 in Charleston , SC. The conference organizers invite papers on any aspect of the history or production of rice bread. Papers presented will be considered for publication of the symposium proceedings.

The deadline for proposals is 20 April 2005 . To submit a proposal, please send a 250-300 word abstract of your proposal and a short curriculum vitae or bio via email to Jane Aldrich at AldrichJane@aol.com (please note “Call for Papers” in subject line) or via post to:

Call for Papers
Carolina Gold Rice Foundation
2971 Doncaster Drive
Charleston , SC 29414

The program committee for the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium scheduled for this August (18-20) in Charleston has announced a change to the program. While the official opening session of the Symposium will still take place on Thursday afternoon at the Charleston Museum , followed by a reception featuring some of Charleston ’s finest chefs, an additional Rice Bread Exposition will be held Thursday from noon until 3pm at the main campus of Trident Technical College in North Charleston . The Exposition will replace the previously announced Rice Bread Competition and will allow all symposium attendees to visit Charleston ’s newest culinary facility and experience a variety of rice breads.

The Rice Bread Exposition will take place in the new culinary facility of the Hospitality and Culinary Division of Trident Tech and feature a tour of the new facility as well as a brunch of special rice dishes prepared by an illustrious group of invited local chefs. In addition, in each of the four kitchens at the facility, attendees will be able to taste a sample of rice bread and hear an explanation of its origin. A group of four renowned culinarians from our area have been invited to make rice bread from selected recipes in The Carolina Rice Kitchen and The Carolina Housewife.

The CGRF moved forward dramatically in the last three months toward our goal to fully fund the 2005 Carolina Gold Rice Symposium by December 31, 2004, but challenges remain. This issue of The Rice Paper thanks our major contributors (see page 7, column 2) and details how contributions can be made. We ask all our supporters to ask their friends and associates to join us in this important work and contribute generously to the CGRF. Here are a few reasons why:

The Carolina Gold Rice Foundation’s impact upon the public awareness of the importance of preservation of heirloom grains, their culture and historic foodways is truly astonishing as detailed in this Winter Issue of The Rice Paper. The content of this issue is sweeping in scope: an overview of the research involved in the development of a new rice variety whose breeding is based upon Carolina Gold Rice; a unique and heretofore unpublished account of the quality of and recipes for Carolina Rice Bread from early 19th century France; an account of one Northern Italian family’s long journey to rescue and repatriate the heritage grain of their region; news of the first ever availability of Texas Rice Improvement Association Certified Pure Carolina Gold Rice Foundation Seed; the announcement of our first public outreach event sponsored by the Carolina Lowcountry & Atlantic World Program (CLAW) at the College of Charleston; and much more.

Since the last issue of The Rice Paper, the CGRF garnered endorsements from the Southern Foodways Alliance and Slow Food USA. We are thrilled that Dr. Walter Edgar, internationally respected historian and Director, Center For Southern Studies, USC has offered to advocate for our Symposium. The CGRF welcomed with great excitement the generous support of our new partners: the Carolina Lowcountry & Atlantic World Program at the College of Charleston and the Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts at Trident Technical College who provide, respectively, venues for CGRF pre-Symposium public presentations and the 2005 Carolina Gold Rice Bread Competition. Nathalie Dupree, respected author, journalist and Southern Food personality is a welcome addition to the Symposium Planning Committee as our media relations contact and liaison to the Symposium’s public relations firm, Rawle Murdy Associates.

I want to thank the members of the Symposium Planning Committee for their diligence and continued enthusiasm in our quest for a world-class event in August 2005. I also wish the best of the holidays and the New Year to all our readers.

Glenn Roberts
President & CEO

The directors and members of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation and the members of the Planning Committee for the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium, scheduled for 18-20 August 2005 in Charleston, SC, are pleased to partner with the following organizations to sponsor that event:

The Agricultural Society of South Carolina
Anson Mills, Charleston & Columbia, SC
The Carolina Lowcountry & Atlantic World Program, College of Charleston
Carolina Plantation Rice, Darlington, SC
The Charleston Museum, Charleston
The Clemson University Coastal Research & Education Center, Charleston
The Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts at Trident Technical College, Charleston
The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston
Historic Ricefields Association
Johnson & Wales University, Charleston
Middleton Place Foundation, Charleston
The Schulze Eye and Surgery Center, Savannah, GA
The Watson-Brown Foundation, Thomson, GA

The CGRF has been given the following seed lots to be used for Symposium funding:
Lot 1: 200 pounds of Texas Rice Improvement Association Certified Foundation Pure Heirloom Carolina Gold Rice Seed.
Lot 2: 200 pounds of Virginia Crop Improvement Association Certified Foundation Pure Heirloom Red May Wheat (circa 1830).
Lot 3: 30 pounds of Certified Organic Heirloom Hand Select Trentino Spin Rosso della Valsugana Flint Corn Seed (open pollinated).

The Foundation will accept contribution bids from qualified growers interested in increasing this seed. Minimum bids for Lots 1 & 2: $800 each. Minimum bid for Lot 3: $500. The seed lots will go to the highest bidders.

To bid, call (843) 709-7399 and state your name, phone number, lot number(s) and contribution amount(s). Deadline: January 30, 2005.

Winners will be announced on February 17th at the CLAW event.

Dr. Richard Schulze and Dr. Richard Schulze, Jr., Savannah eye surgeons who both sit on the CGRF Board of Directors, were featured in a November newspaper article written by Michael R. Shea of The Beaufort Gazette. Running both in Beaufort paper and in the Charleston Post and Courier, the article chronicled this father and son’s journey to learn about, grow, and harvest the historically significant Carolina Gold Rice

Middleton Place Foundation was featured in a November article in the Charleston Post and Courier. Written by Deneshia Graham, the article described the themes of the special events that would take place during the annual “Plantation Days” at Middleton Place Plantation. Themes mentioned by Middleton Place representative Clint Noren included Lowcountry foodways, African American traditional arts, and the plantation’s natural environment.

The article included the comments of 2 tourists from Wisconsin who were surprised to learn that rice was grown in this country. During their tour they learned details of how rice, a labor-intensive crop, was planted and harvested in Charleston by enslaved Africans.

The Carolina Gold Rice Foundation (CGRF) is pleased to share with you our first issue of The Rice Paper, a quarterly newsletter dedicated to historic heirloom grain horticulture, related foodways and culture.

The CGRF (founded in March 2004 as a 501 (C) (3) not for profit corporation) was a natural outgrowth of the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium Planning Committee Dr. Merle Shepard organized last fall, bringing together rice planters, agriculturalists, cultural historians, culinary professionals and scholars. In the short time since its inception, the CGRF has embarked upon a number of wide ranging projects.

So far we have:

• created the Symposium program and raised 50% of the funding required for its presentation;
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• formed strategic partnerships with Clemson University, Middleton Place Foundation, the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program at the College of Charleston, the Charleston and Gibbes Museums, and others;
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• begun a 5-acre study of Carolina Gold Rice (CGR) production near Edisto Island using non-invasive, sustainable agricultural management;
• presented our first regional heirloom grain management seminar in Savannah;
• established a worldwide Heirloom Grain Research and Education Network linking entities such as the Asia Rice Foundation with the CGRF.;

The flow of creative ideas and the CGRF’s ability to transform these ideas to reality continues unabated.

I would like to thank everyone involved with the CGRF for their creative and financial support and to invite those new to our endeavor to support the CGRF, and experience the thrill of cultural discovery.

Glenn Roberts
President & CEO

After 170 years Carolina Gold has returned to Middleton Place and is being grown in a quarter acre demonstration field on the Ashley River. Middleton Place is the only public site in which visitors can see rice growing in an authentic setting. Using seeds from last year’s crop, the field was planted by a crew of staff and volunteers on April 30. Fresh water from the Rice Mill Pond is used to flood the rice field because the river water is too high in salinity. We believe this is the same method of flooding practiced on the Middleton Place fields during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The field and its growing crop expands the Foundation’s ability to interpret rice cultivation and plantation slave culture, and lends an extra dimension of meaning to self-guided tours of the Gardens and to the structured African American Focus Tour. Two illustrated panels adjacent to the field describe the labor-intensive growing process, and an observation platform provides a near ground level perspective for visitors to experience being surrounded by rice.

Re-establishing the Rice Field’s viability as part of the historical agricultural operation of Middleton Place has enhanced the plantation experience for everyone. With some help from Mother Nature and careful attention by Foundation staff, enough rice will be saved from hungry birds to provide seed for next year’s crop.

The first-ever aerial planting of Carolina Gold Rice took place on May 21, 2004, when a specially outfitted turbo-prop Air Tractor monoplane dropped 800 pounds of pipped, or pre-germinated, CGR seed onto 2 flooded antebellum rice fields at Prospect Hill near Edisto Island, SC.

The CGRF launched this field trial to explore the feasibility of state of the art non-invasive sustainable management of CGR under a grant from Anson Mills. The fields were made available to the foundation by the McLeod Corporation, Mr. Campbell Coxe of Darlington, SC, and the Rhodes Family of Charleston.

This study is being coordinated by Hal Hanvey, farm manager of Clemson University Coastal Research and Education Center, and Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills under the supervision of Dr. Jack Rhodes and Dr. Merle Shepard. Hanvey was responsible for pre-germinating the rice, arguably the most difficult part of the study. “This is state of the art seed preparation used frequently in America’s best rice farms,” Hanvey said. “Pipping rice and broadcasting it into a flooded field results in dramatic sustainable weed suppression and a commensurate reduction in foreign variety at harvest.”

Mr. Hanvey’s travails began 3 days prior to planting. Following USDA National Organic Program guidelines he submerged 800 pounds of CGR seed in OMRI approved chelated zinc solution. He calculated the pipping time based upon ambient conditions, and previous experience with pipping rice for Clemson's sustainable field earlier this year and had to remove the rice from the solution at 1:30 am to make the planting deadline. “I had to be ready to put all 800 pounds of seed into the cooler if necessary to retard germination if the process was going too fast,” he said. “If the pipps (shoots) get too long, they tangle and won’t come out of the aircraft drop gate.”

On Friday May 21, at 7 am, Hanvey and Roberts hauled the pipped CGR to Charleston Executive Airport and assisted the crew of Steed Flying Service in loading the seed into the aircraft. The aircraft departed for Prospect Hill, broadcast the CGR seed into both fields and returned to the airport in less than 45 minutes. Don Steed, an experienced Louisiana rice crop pilot and owner of Steed Flying Service, said his aircraft can plant as many as 50 acres of rice in the same amount of time.

Hanvey and Roberts note that sustainable rice management using pipped rice and aerial planting addresses many ecological, quality and yield issues raised by continuous conventional rice management. Dr. Jack Rhodes states that both fields under study –while not officially certified organic—are managed according to USDA National Organic Program guidelines. Dr. Merle Shepard said this study focuses attention upon issues that challenge the future of conventional rice production in the Carolinas and Georgia: increasing chemical costs associated with conventional rice management, as well as depleting water resource allocation. “All of us associated with the CGRF are excited to be able to move forward and begin to answer questions arising from the intersection of Carolina Rice production, wildlife habitat and our coastal environment,” Dr. Shepard said.