Rice was exported from Charleston and surrounding areas to markets throughout Europe and Asia. After the Civil War, Lowcountry rice cultivation declined significantly due to labor costs, hurricanes, increased competition and economics. In the mid s, some of the Carolina Gold Rice seed stock was located and later planted. Heirloom Carolina Gold Rice has now reemerged and is now grown in limited quantities in South Carolina. It is highly valued by chefs and consumers alike for this high quality heirloom rice.
So I have very strong associations with domestic harmony and tranquility and a bowl of rice porridge. When I tasted Carolina Gold, I had that same sense of satisfaction. While few people know about true Carolina Gold, it was once the most popular rice grown in America, and the first commercial rice the country ever produced.
Thousands upon thousands of pounds of it were exported as far away as France, England, and Asia. In , approximately , acres of it was growing throughout the South. The rice forged the plantation culture of the tidewater areas of South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina, fueling both their cuisine and their economies.
The ugly side, of course, is that the great wealth it produced for its growers—and the city of Charleston itself—was built on the tortured backs of slavery. The success of Carolina Gold only made things worse, increasing demand for slaves from western Africa, the continent's so-called Rice Coast, who knew better than anyone else how to plant and harvest it.
And, while other rices were grown in the region, by the mid—18th century, Carolina Gold was king. It is said that Carolina Gold—or what was once known as "golden seed" rice—first arrived at the port of Charleston in , when the captain of a merchant ship paid for some repairs with rice seed from Madagascar. Soon after, a man by the name of Dr. Henry Woodward planted some in his marshland, and was impressed not just by the flavor but by the tall golden stalks it produced.
A New York Times article describes them as "an elegantly shaped grass standing about five feet tall, each stem with some golden grains clustered at the tip. In fact, despite Carolina Gold's past fame and glory, we know surprisingly little about how and why it arrived in South Carolina in the first place.
In his book, Shields writes that, while genetic analysis reveals that the rice's ultimate source was South Asia, whether it came directly from Indonesia, or indirectly from Madagascar, West Africa, or even Europe, remains a mystery. What we do know, says Shields, is that it thrived as America's primary rice crop up until the Civil War, when the end of slavery, and a series of hurricanes, destroyed many of South Carolina's rice crops.
According to the same New York Times story mentioned above: "The final undoing of rice growing in South Carolina was the introduction of other strains of rice into states where harvesting machinery too heavy for Carolina's muddy fields bested the low country's hand labor. Still, the rice lived on in many a Lowcountry family's memories and many community cookbooks for decades after. Richard Schulze, a Savannah, Georgia, optometrist, was one of those southerners who read all that rhapsodizing over rice-fed ducks.
So, in the mids, the avid hunter of waterfowl decided to plant some rice in ponds located on his South Carolina vacation property. As an astute researcher, the doctor grew curious about the Carolina Gold he'd read so much about. After Schulze made an inquiry with the USDA, an agronomist named Richard Bollock, who shared his curiosity regarding the plant, propagated the seed for him, sending him 14 pounds of the stuff, and he planted it.
The following spring, the doctor harvested 64 pounds; by , it was 10, pounds. Instead of selling the rice commercially, Schulze donated it to the Savannah Association for the Blind, which sold it to support operations.
Years later, impressed by Schulze's progress and wanting to make Carolina Gold available on a larger scale, Glenn Roberts began work with Merle Shepard of Clemson University and some food scientists to create a stronger, more disease-resistant variety of the rice. They began growing it in and now have organic rice fields in South and North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas.
The efforts of all Carolina Gold growers are supported by the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, a nonprofit that works to improve the breeding and quality of Carolina Gold, formed by Roberts, Shields, and others in In recent years, the foundation has developed an aromatic variety of Carolina Gold called Charleston Gold, which is sold by both Anson Mills and Carolina Plantation. On the Anson Mills website, it's described as the "love child" of Carolina Gold rice and a long-grain rice.
It's stored with wild red bay laurel leaves for three years, giving it "characteristics and lovely aromatics similar to the famous aged basmati rices of India. After listening to so many people sing the praises of Carolina Gold, I decided to order some for myself from Carolina Plantation Rice. It arrived in a yellow cloth bag, impervious to the light damage Roberts says is detrimental to rice's flavor. At first, I tried it plain and simple, preparing it in my rice cooker on a weekday afternoon.
As I sat at my kitchen table waiting for it to finish, I could already tell it was different based on the smell alone. Unlike grocery store rice, which just smells starchy, the Carolina Gold filled the room with a nutty, earthy aroma that had me craving white rice more than I've ever craved it before.
Biting into my first spoonful, I could feel the firm texture of each and every grain in my mouth. It had the satisfying bite Shields told me about, the nuttiness, even a floral quality I hadn't quite expected.
Yes, it was exactly what I wanted rice to taste like. Later that night, I cooked more of the rice into a simple purloo of shrimp, bacon, and crushed tomatoes. And, while the shrimp was fresh, the tomatoes juicy, the bacon bacon-y, it was the rice that stole the show. Eating the purloo at my dining room table, I remembered something Sarah Simmons had told me when I talked to her about Carolina Gold.
A part of me dies every time I see my parents use the grocery store stuff. I'm as spoiled as spoiled can be. And, as far as rice is concerned, I've found my new gold standard.
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