The directors and members of the CGRF are pleased to have been able to assemble a collaborative team of experts who are sharing the task of planning and coordinating next August’s meeting. We appreciate the time, talent, and enthusiasm they have contributed to this project!

Symposium Planning Committee
B. Merle Shepard, Ph.D., Director of Clemson University, Coastal Research and Education Center, Program Chair
Jane M. Aldrich, Carolina Lowcountry & Atlantic World Program, College of Charleston
Campbell Coxe, President, Carolina Plantation Rice
Charles H.P. Duell, President, Middleton Place Foundation
Nathalie Dupree, chef, author & television personality
Sydney Frazier, VP Horticulture, Middleton Place Foundation
Max L. Hill, III, The I’On Company
Robert Lukey, Dean of Arts & Sciences, Johnson & Wales University, Charleston
Clint Noren, Stableyards Interpretive Coordinator, Middleton Place Foundation
Annie Panno, Events Manager, Gibbes Museum of Art
Frankie Miller, Ph.D., Dean of Hospitality, Tourism, and Culinary Arts, Trident Technical College, Charleston
Malcolm Rhodes, M.D.
Glenn Roberts, President, Anson Mills
Richard R. Schulze, M.D., Schulze Eye Center, Savannah
Richard Schulze, Jr., M.D., Schulze Eye Center, Savannah
David S. Shields, Ph.D., McClintock Professor of Southern Letters, Departments of English and History, University of South Carolina
Marion Sullivan, food editor of Charleston Magazine
John Martin Taylor, food historian and author
Tracey Todd, VP Preservation and Interpretation, Middleton Place Foundation
Martha Zierden, Director of Archaeology, Charleston Museum

We would also like to acknowledge the assistance of those individuals who have offered their assistance as needed, particularly:

Sue Braund, Middleton Place Foundation
Dr. John Brumgardt, Director, Charleston Museum
Ginny DuBose, Clemson University, Coastal Research and Education Center and CGRF webmaster
Elizabeth Fleming, Gibbes Museum of Art
Hal Hanvey, Farm Manager, Clemson University, Coastal Research and Education Center

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 Division of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts at Trident Technical College (TTC) in Charleston, SC is hosting the rice bread cooking competition for the August symposium. In August of 2005, the College will open its new Culinary and Hospitality Training Center to accommodate up to 1200 students, expanding educational opportunities for our region and state in this growing industry.

This new facility for the two-year, associates degree level students will be an impressive addition to culinary interests and industry training. Modern technology, embedded in the training, will be used with one-on-one chef instructor to student attention—the traditional core educational mode for success in this field. Computer labs designated for culinary and hospitality will teach all versions of the most recent software for the industry market.

Students will cook in uniquely designed classroom-kitchen labs while participating in real time filming/broadcasting of their activities. Among the multiple teaching labs will be a broadcast amphitheater for guest chefs. All kitchens include computer stations for data storage of recipes and results.

The current two-year college program at TTC includes an interesting mix of students: those who have just completed high school and are eager to enter the culinary field, students who are searching for a new career field and those pursuing interests after retiring. TTC’s flexible scheduling and availability of classes allow students to take one course at a time or enroll in a full academic schedule. Credit lab classes are limited to 16 students and require that every student accomplish “hands-on” involvement with all culinary learning. In addition to the academic program, the Continuing Education Division offers courses in topics such as “Wine Around the World” and “Handmade Valentine Candies.”

The Culinary Arts curriculum is one of over 150 different program choices at Trident Technical College, a college of three campuses, over 11,700 students and 37,000+ registrations annually in continuing education.

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by Frankie Miller, Ph.D., is Dean of the Division of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts at Trident Tech.

by Merle Shepard and Hal Hanvey

Our studies at Clemson University’s Coastal Research and Education Center (CREC), Charleston, SC were started when we obtained seeds of ‘Carolina Gold’ rice from the USDA-ARS Germplasm Laboratory in Aberdeen, Idaho in 1998. The Carolina Gold was grown in the greenhouse for the first year. Then in 1999 we transplanted them to the field. We increased the seeds each year and in 2000 we sent the Carolina Gold seeds to Dr. Gurdev Khush, head of the Plant Breeding and Genetics Department at the International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Philippines, with the request to cross these with modern, high-yielding varieties but with instructions to keep the gold color (and hopefully, the taste) of Carolina Gold.

Dr. Khush made these crosses and in 2002 we planted 25 CGR-modern variety rice crosses at CREC. Our objective was to develop an improved strain of Carolina Gold with better yields, disease and insect resistance and one that would resist lodging (falling down in high winds and rain), an undesirable characteristic of Carolina Gold. Dr. Khush sent 25 accessions that resulted from crosses between Carolina Gold and high-yielding Japonica type varieties. We selected 12 of these and evaluated them in 2003.

Four of the most promising ones were planted in 2004 and we selected one that will be increased in 2005. One genotype stands out among the others and we hope to develop a new variety called ‘Charleston Gold’. Another 2 – 3 years field observations should allow us to decide if ‘Charleston Gold’ will really become a suitable variety.

Another aspect of our research is moving toward organic production of Carolina Gold. At the suggestion of Glenn Roberts, President of the CGRF and owner of Anson Mills, we used sustainable methods of production of Carolina Gold for the first time in 2003. We had very positive results and have decided to continue growing part of each year’s crop in this way.

Over the years we have donated seed to be grown for demonstration projects such as the Middleton Place rice field grown in 2002, 2003, 2004, and the crop to be grown there in 2005. In addition we have consulted with several other interested growers including Magnolia Plantation & Gardens, Mike Booth’s Low Country Foods, Dr. Jack Rhodes’ Prospect Hill Plantation fields, and Glenn Roberts’ field this year also at Prospect Hill.

Also, the WINGS program in the Charleston county schools benefited from our seed and growing expertise this year. They received 300 patio pools of growing rice plants donated to them by the Spoleto Festival after they were used in their presentation called “Water Table” at the Memminger Elementary School. These pools were first set up here at the CREC where the soil was placed into the pots, fertilizer and seed added, watered to germination and then flood was maintained until the plants were trucked to Memminger for the presentation.

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B. Merle Shepard, Ph.D., is a Professor of Entomology and the Director of Clemson University, Coastal Research and Education Center.

Hal Hanvey is Farm Manager of the facility.

by Kay Rentschler


Nearly a decade ago, author and hearth cooking expert William Rubel—invited to dinner at his friend Marco Floriani’s family home in Trentino—watched Lina Floriani stir a nubby, crimson-flecked porridge in a big pot. When the mass thickened to a slow smolder, she poured it onto a wooden board to cool, cut it into squares and served it wreathed with foraged wild mushrooms, bits of crisp sausage and bronzed roasted chicken. This poured porridge, called polenta integrale—aromatic, slightly sweet, and complex enough to take big flavors—was produced from red Trentino flint corn grown in the family garden. A culinary first for Mr. Rubel, red flint (Spin rosso della Valsugana ) had been grown and milled into polenta around Trentino for centuries. By the time he dined with the Floriani’s, however, both the corn and the dish were, for all practical purposes, extinct.

Though hard flint corn varieties from the Caribbean took hold in Italy in the 1500s—becoming the preferred mill corn for rural Italian cuisine—by the 1960s Italian growers abandoned open-pollinated heirlooms for high-yield modern hybrids. The fate of red trentino flint—and the cuisine that evolved around it—was left solidly in the hands families like the Florianis. Marco’s father continued to grow and mill red flint corn; his mother, Lina, continued to cook it.

William Rubel was romanced by the food and stirred by the traditions that sustained it. He left the Floriani dinner with debt of gratitude and a spray of seeds in his pocket.

As it happened, the red flint did not thrive in Mr. Rubel’s garden. But the photograph of a single crimson cob in his book The Magic of Fire (Tenspeed Press, 2002) caught Glenn Roberts’ eye. (Mr. Roberts is president and CEO of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation (CGRF), missioned to restore and repatriate heirloom grains.) What struck Mr. Roberts, in particular, was the Italian flint’s resemblance to pre-Columbian Mayan flint varieties, historically bred for flavor. Mr. Roberts phoned Mr. Rubel and together, with the help of the Floriani family, they arranged an internship for 400 seeds of trentino flint in the United States.

The seed thrived —and continues to thrive. Currently in production in more than 6 states under the stewardship of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, red trentino flint has blazed its way into some of the finest restaurants in the country as well.

On October 27 and 28, 2004, in Berkeley California, Oliveto Restaurant and chef Paul Bertolli, hosted a harvest dinner to celebrate both the repatriation of this venerable corn to the Americas and the Floriani family, who made its voyage possible. Over two evenings, some 500 guests—including William Rubel, Glenn Roberts and the entire Floriani family—made their way through course upon course of vivid flavors, stunning presentations—and polenta integrale in every guise.

It came crisp in crouton form, shaped into gnocchi, and stirred in a fine stream into a rich chicken soup. It came poured and firm, layered with gorgonzola or spicy pork ragout.

It played host to a full range of side dishes including braised lamb shanks sharpened with gremolata, artichokes stewed with garlic and tomatoes, charcoal grilled pigeon and giblets, and poached salt cod in bianco.

Finally it came sweet, in pastry chef Julie Cookenboo’s crisp cornmeal cookies, red wine pear tart with sweet cornmeal crust, and cornmeal and hazelnut torte.

The CGRF is pleased to be able to advance its mission to increase public awareness of heirloom grains such as this Trentino Flint corn through partnerships with food professionals like William Rubel, chef Paul Bertolli, and the staff at Oliveto.

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Kay Rentschler is a former chef and a journalist.

Image is courtesy van Ackere Productions in Boston, MA, For more information, visit www.danieljvanackere.com.

For more information on Oliveto Café and Restaurant or chef Paul Bertolli, visit www.Oliveto.com.

For additional information William Rubel and his new book The Magic of Fire, visit www.WilliamRubel.com.

Please join us on February 17th, 2005 as the officers of the CGRF and members of the Symposium Planning Committee offer a public Roundtable on Carolina Gold Rice at the College of Charleston. The Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program, an inter-disciplinary program at the College, will sponsor the event. The agenda will be a roundtable discussion of the past, present, and future of Carolina Gold Rice and will be free and open to the public.

We look forward to discussing the cultural, economic, and agricultural aspects of this significant heirloom grain with both students and scholars of numerous departments at the College as well as the general public. Our CGRF mission is to broaden the understanding of the grain’s place in shaping our past as well as the awareness of the re-introduction and current production of Carolina Gold Rice in the Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry.

This event will be held at 7pm in the auditorium of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture at 125 Bull Street (between Ashley and Gadsden Streets).

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.

by David S. Shields

In preparation for the rice bread contest that will highlight the Carolina Gold Rice Symposium in August it might be worthwhile to look back to its origins and the original method of its making. Chapter 7 of Karen Hess’s celebrated The Carolina Rice Kitchen is devoted to Rice Breads of various sorts. There are three brief recipes from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but sparse instructions on the method of preparation and baking from original sources. Recently I unexpectedly came across a heretofore unknown and thorough description of the method dating 1803, translated from a French source, and derived from “the natives of America.” The account confirms a number of Hess’s canny suppositions about the character of the first leavened pure rice breads. Here for you hearth and brick oven cooks, is a complete and exact method for “Bread of Rice”

Bread of rice might occasionally be of great use in many countries during a scarcity of wheat; but the method of making it is not generally known. It is indeed impossible to make bread from the flour of rice, which is harsh and dry like sand or ashes, by treating it in the manner in which wheat flour is generally treated; and therefore it has been proposed to mix it with an equal quantity of the flour of rye. But this method of using the flour of rice is a very uncertain remedy in time of want; since we can have no rice bread if we have not rye. We are taught, however, in the Journal des Sciences, des Lettres, and des Arts, how to make excellent bread from rice alone, by a method which the author of the memoir says he learned from the natives of America.

According to this method of making the wished-for bread, the first thing to be done to the rice is, to reduce it to flour by grinding it in a mill, or, if we have not a mill it may be done in the following manner: Let a certain quantity of water be heated in a saucepan or cauldron; when the water is near boiling, let the rice we mean to reduce to flour be thrown into it; the vessel is then to be taken off the fire, and the rice left to soak till the next morning. It will then be found at the bottom of the water, which is to be poured off, and the rice put to drain on a table in an inclined position. When it is dry, it must be beat to a powder, and passed through the finest sieve that can be procured.

When we have brought the rice into flour, we must take as much of it as may be thought necessary, and put it in the kneading-trough in which bread is generally made. At the same time we must heat some water in a saucepan or other vessel, and, having thrown into it some handfuls of rice, we must let them boil together for some time; the quantity of rice must be such as to render the water very thick and glutinous. When the glutinous matter is little cooled, it must be poured upon the rice-flour, and the whole must be well kneaded together, adding thereto a little salt, and a proper quantity of leaven. We are then to cover the dough with warm cloths, and to let it stand that it may rise. During the fermentation, this paste (which, when kneaded, must have such a proportion of flour as to render it pretty firm) becomes so soft and liquid that it seems impossible that it should be formed into bread. It is now to be treated as follows:

When the dough is rising, the oven must be heated; and, when it is of a proper degree of heat, we must take a stewpan of tin, or copper tinned, to which is fixed a handle of sufficient length to reach the end of the oven. A little water must be put into this stewpan, which must then be filled with the fermented paste, and covered with cabbage or any other large leaves, or with a sheet of paper. When this is done, the stewpan is to be put into the oven and pushed forward to the part where it is intended the bread will be heated; it must then be quickly turned upside down. The heat of the oven acts upon the paste in such a way as to prevent its spreading, and keeps it in the form the stewpan has given it.

In this manner pure rice bread may be made; it comes out of the over of a fine yellow color, like pastry which has yolk of eggs over it. It is as agreeable to the taste as to the sight; and may be made use of, like what-bread, to be put into broth, &c. It must, however, be observed, that it loses its goodness very much as it becomes stale.

It may be here remarked, that the manner in which Indian corn is used in some countries, for making bread, can only produce (and does in fact produce) very bad dough, and of course very bad bread. To employ it advantageously, it should be treated like rice; and it may then be used, not only for making bread, but also for pastry.

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Supplement to the Enclyclopaedia or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1803). Vol. 1: 146-147.

David S. Shields, Ph.D., is Professor of English and History and the McClintock Professor of Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina.

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. Over the next several newsletters we will highlight many of the prominent speakers who will participate in the Symposium, beginning with:

Dr. Thomas Hargrove will lecture on “The Odyssey of Carolina Gold Rice from Indonesia to Africa and Carolina and on to the Confederados Amazon.” Raised on a cotton farm in West Texas, Hargrove characterizes the focus of his profession life as the Green Revolution—the development and spread of new seeds and agricultural technology to increase food production in developing nations. Along the way he and has lived all over the rice-growing world as a communication specialist with organizations like the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (called CIAT for its Spanish acronym). In 1988, Hargrove received the ACE Professional Award, the highest award for a single agricultural journalist by Agricultural Communicators in Education. He has authored numerous feature articles, scripts, research papers, and three books, including A Dragon Lives Forever, Long March to Freedom, and War and Rice in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

Dr. Gurdev Khush and Dr. Anna McClung will speak on “Genetics and Improvement of Carolina Gold Rice.” Khush, retired after a successful career with the International Rice Research Institute, is one of the world's authorities on crop breeding and a major force behind the development of productive rice varieties and the Green Revolution in plant breeding. Among the honors received by Dr. Khush are the Japan Prize (1987), World Food Prize (1996) and the World Prize for Agriculture (2000). Currently, he lives in California where he continues his work on developing more productive food resources.

McClung is a Research Leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture—Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Rice Research Unit located in Beaumont, Texas at a Texas A&M Research and Extension Center. The USDA-ARS Unit includes scientists in genetics, cereal chemistry, and molecular genetics. She has been responsible for the development of 12 rice cultivars for conventional and specialty markets since joining the Rice Research Unit 13 years ago. More recently the rice

Dr. Judith Carney will speak on “Slave Culture and Heritage—West Africa to Carolina Rice Plantations.” Carney is a Professor of Geography at the University of California in Los Angeles with research interests in the agriculture and ecology of West Africa. She is the author of Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas (Harvard University Press, 2001) for which she received the Melville J. Herskovits Book Award from the African Studies Association in 2002 and the inaugural James M. Blaut Book Award from the Association of American Geographers in 2003.

Dr. Bernard Herman, Director of the Center for Material Culture Studies a the University of Delaware, will lecture on “The Architecture of the Carolina Rice Plantation.” Herman, the Edward F. & Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Art History, teaches courses on traditional architecture, folk and outsider arts, theories of material and visual culture, and historic preservation. He is also a co-founder and senior research fellow in the Center for Historic Architecture and Design at the University of Delaware and a member of the faculty of the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. Author of several books, his current book project is Town House, a study of architecture and material life in the early American city written with the support of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and to be published by Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press.

Dr. Peter H. Adler, Dr. B. Merle Shepard, and Bill Wills will collaborate on, “The Great Duo of Colonial South Carolina: Carolina Gold Rice and Malaria.” Adler, who holds a teaching and research appointment in the Department of Entomology Soils and Plant Sciences at Clemson University, researches the behavior, ecology, cytogenetics, and systematics of agriculturally and medically important arthropods. His research of black flies, published as The Black Flies of North America, has improved our ability to manage pest populations of these blood-sucking insects and has been applied in control programs from South Carolina to Europe. Adler recently received the Godley-Snell Award for Excellence in Agricultural Research at Clemson University and has published nearly 150 scientific papers, collaborated on research projects with more than 50 colleagues in 15 countries, and conducted field and laboratory research in 11 countries.

Wills has served as an instructor of Environmental Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, in the Department of Entomology (Soil and Plant Science) at Clemson University, and in the Department of Epidemiology (School of Public Health) at the University of South Carolina. He has written numerous scientific articles and directed public health research projects around the world.

Along with serving as the chairman of the board for the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, Shepard is a professor of Entomology for Clemson University and serves as Director of the Clemson University Coastal Research and Education Center in Charleston. His areas of expertise include integrated pest management and biological control of insects.

Karen Hess and John Martin Taylor will team up to present “The Carolina Rice Kitchen—Past & Present.” Hess, a well-known culinary historian, stirred up the American culinary elite in the 1970s with The Taste of America (co-authored with her husband John, a food critic) by skewering some celebrity chefs and calling for a return to fresh foods cooked well. Once hailed by Newsweek as “the best American cook in Paris,” she has edited several historical cookbooks and is the author of The Carolina Rice Kitchen: The African Connection.

Taylor, known as Hoppin’ John to Lowcountry residents, is well known for his southern culinary expertise. He has authored four cookbooks, including Hoppin’ Johns Lowcountry Cooking, and continues to advocate for traditional, local southern foods prepared in traditional manner. His practical cooking skills, knowledge of culinary history, and personal enthusiasm for his subject have made Taylor a favorite among food chroniclers. He has appeared on a Lowcountry episode of Bobby Flay’s Food Nation, been featured for his she-crab soup on the Food Network’s Food Finds, and filmed with Al Roker at Middleburg Plantation for a Food Network special on African American foodways.

Dr. Richard Porcher will present “Market Preparation of Carolina Gold Rice: Harvesting, Threshing, and Milling.” Porcher, a well-known Lowcountry native, is Professor Emeritus of Biology at the Citadel where he served as Director of the Herbarium. He is an authority on the flora of South Carolina, author of Wildflowers of The Carolina Lowcountry and Lower PeeDee, and a co-author of Lowcountry: The Natural Landscape.

Dr. David S. Shields will present “Witnessing the Creation of Carolina Rice Culture, circa 1776.” Shields is the McClintock Professor of Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina where he holds dual appointment to the departments of English and History. He is editor of Early American Literature and author or editor of a number of works, including Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America. Active in many scholarly organizations, Shields has published numerous articles and keeps a busy lecture schedule. His topics often center on the study of Early American Literature, the History of the Book, Southern Studies, the Intellectual History of the Early Modern Atlantic World, or Cultural History and Material Culture Studies. Shields is also an aficionado of food—good food. While serving as Executive Director of the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program at the College of Charleston he organized Charleston’s first serious conference on food mixing scholars with practitioners, “Carolina Lowcountry and Caribbean Cuisines” (March 2003).

Watch for additional information on prominent speakers who will take part in the Symposium in the spring issue of The Rice Paper.

The Charleston Museum presents an original exhibition entitled the Bountiful Coast: Foodways of the South Carolina Lowcountry. The exhibit opens November 12, 2004 and runs through September 12, 2005. Bountiful Coast explores the foodways and dining customs of the 18th and 19th century Lowcountry and encompasses many facets of the Museum’s collection, including archaeology, decorative arts, natural history, and textiles. Dietary habits to be examined include the procurement of food (hunting, fishing, husbandry, gardening, and marketing), food preparation (cooking and storing), and serving (utensils and appointments, fashion and social customs). The foodways of all social classes are discussed to portray a broad interpretation of the Lowcountry environment during this period.

“The cuisine that developed in the Lowcountry was a blend of European, African, and Native American traditions with foods found in North America” states Museum Archaeologist and Bountiful Coast curator Martha Zierden. “Much of our knowledge on Charleston diet and foodways derives from zooarchaeological research – the study of animal bone recovered from archaeological sites.” Two decades of collaborative research with Elizabeth Reitz, University of Georgia, have revealed new facets of animal husbandry practices and wild resource utilization, by people from varied backgrounds.

For the wealthy, meals were a major form of entertaining. Expensive and elaborate furniture and appointments, as well as carefully prescribed customs, were part of the dining habits of the Lowcountry. Exhibit highlights include place settings and furniture from Lowcountry dining rooms, as well as menus and images from these events. The exhibit also shows utensils and equipment from the kitchens that provided the foods displayed at these formal meals. Artifacts and data from the recent excavations at Charleston’s Beef Market (beneath City Hall) are shown for the first time.

Bountiful Coast is sponsored by Whole Foods Market, South Carolina Seafood Alliance, and the Bank of South Carolina.

The Charleston Museum, founded in 1773, is America’s first museum. For more information on the Charleston Museum or its two National Historic Landmark house museums, the Heyward-Washington House (1772) and Joseph Manigault House (1803), visit them on the web at www.CharlestonMuseum.org