White Gold

Event Details

Carolina Gold is the perfect name for the strain of rice that has been grown in Charleston for over 200 years. When harvested and dried, the grain turns a natural gold color. But more importantly, Carolina Gold brought riches to Charleston's planter elite, providing a basis for wealth, as well as financial support for the American Revolution. Over the centuries, rice became much more than just a cash crop to the people of the Low Country, it became a way of life for planters and slaves.

On Thursday, Sept. 13, Middleton Place will host a special event with a concentration on this still-grown commodity. The day will feature tours, rice harvesting in the Demonstration Rice Field, a lecture by Anson Mills owner Glenn Roberts, and lunch from the Middleton Place Restaurant with rice as the foundation for the meal.

Glenn Roberts took a very unusual path to becoming a farmer and miller of heirloom grains. He actually used to be a long-haul trucker, a yacht hand, and a musician. Eventually he found himself working in cuisine, with a particular interest in heirloom and almost-extinct varieties of grains and vegetables. A chance meeting with a weevil-laced bag of Carolina Gold rice led him to begin experiments to try to bring the grain back on a wide scale.
Roberts’s efforts were successful, and as he preached the gospel of historic foodways, chefs from Charleston to New York City began re-thinking their menus, with a special affection for antique grains. Roberts was ready, willing, and eventually able to provide them, delving into various Antebellum-era strains of Carolina Gourdseed White corn (and Gourdseed grits), Red May wheat, Japanese buckwheat, French oats and Mediterranean wheat, and Italian faro. Anson Mills, a medium-scale grower and miller of heirloom grains was born.

The Day of Concentration on Carolina Gold Rice coincides with the maturing of Middleton Place’s own annual rice crop. Planted in May, the demonstration rice field will play a central role in the day’s events, and some rice will be harvested on the day of the luncheon, weather and mother nature permitting. All of these events lead up to Middleton Place’s annual Rice Harvest, scheduled for Sept. 15.

Admission to the Luncheon and presentation with Glenn Roberts is free for members, plus $25 for lunch. Regular visitors can also participate by paying the gate admission and the cost of lunch.

For more information, call 843-556-6020.