If you’ve ever had a bad bowl of grits or a bland side of rice, Glenn Roberts knows your pain. In fact, lackluster food inspired him to create Anson Mills and later, the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation. He and his team are leaders in locating, growing, and preserving heirloom cereals.
Roberts’ mother was Geechee, a sea island heritage which spans from North Carolina to Florida. Roberts says that growing up in that environment, although he was raised in California, was “rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, and rice for dinner.” He says that neither he or his mother actually liked the grits or rice they were raised on so he decided to grow them himself. He says, “I figured I could do it just as well as anyone else.”
After decades in the business, Roberts has more than 3,000 acres on more than 100 farms all over the United States and across the globe. Roberts personally farms about 160 acres a year which span over three farms. The crops are spread out to ensure biosecurity. That is, should an environmental disaster wipe out a farm or two, the crop itself is not at risk because it has been successfully planted elsewhere.
From conception to production, Anson Mills is dedicated to saving, sharing, and preserving old world crops. The company grows and sells corn, rice, wheat, rye, oats, buckwheat, farro, peas, and benne. The crops are milled to order and shipped once a week. Home cooks can purchase Anson Mills ingredients at retail price and chefs have the option to purchase large quantities wholesale. Chef Sean Brock serves Anson Mills' products at his restaurant Husk and talks with Roberts about Carolina Gold in the "Rice" episode of The Mind of a Chef.
Roberts says that many factors play a part in the loss of crop species. Political, racial, and technological movements can all mold our history and subsequently, change the way we eat. Roberts says that he and his team often find crops that are nearing extinction or, he says, “We find stuff that we thought was totally lost which is even more weird.”
For instance, Roberts has a vile of Merikin Hill Rice from Trinidad which came from the Georgia sea islands back in 1816. “Four or five years ago, nobody was talking about their rice or Georgia rice of that type and now, we’ve discovered not just Merikin rice…We’ve discovered a whole canon of southern foods that’s been suppressed through social reasons amongst others.” This species of rice, unlike other rice types, requires dryland, not flood land, to flourish. Roberts says it is prolific, too, and is ripe within 67 days. Thomas Jefferson even grew it at Monticello. For the past five years, Roberts and his team have searched the United States for the crop but he has yet to find anyone growing it. He finally had to travel to Trinidad where he found a grower but the Merikin rice community is collapsing there, too.
“It’s an entire canon. It’s not just the rice, it’s all the plants that go with it…All these pre-industrial crops had a suit of plants that grew with them” Roberts says. When one crop is at risk, a dimension of others are, too, causing a damaging rippling effect in entire cultures.
Conventional, or what Roberts refers to as “new” rice crops, are grown to be able to produce extraordinary amounts of product. For example, Roberts says that new rice can be produced at a whopping 4-5 tons an acre. “Old” or heirloom rice, like Carolina Gold, yields about a half a ton per acre. Heirloom rice crops have larger root systems which do not allow them to be planted as closely as newer rice species. If they are planted too close together, they tend to cut their own yield and grow too tall and fall over, Roberts says.
One issue, Roberts says, is that for so long, cereal farmers cared more about yield than about nutrition. He says, cereals are largely homogenized which suppresses flavor. He says, “One of the things that was bred out of modern crops was the fact that the flavor elements in landrace, or preindustrial cereals, equals nutrition and nutrition in general is lacking in cereal culture across the board.” Roberts adds that though geneticists have modified food so that more of it can be grown to reduce hunger, proper nourishment is still a concern.
Roberts spoke candidly at the Williamsburg Farmers Market Forum back in March. In response to the question, “Can we feed the world?” Roberts responded, “The answer is, ‘can we feed ourselves first?’” He went on to say, “We’re already feeding the world in lots of ways it’s just what we’re feeding the world and ourselves that’s under the gun. Right now we need to be talking about that…”
To learn more about Glenn Roberts and Anson Mills, visit their website. You may also try their version of avgolemono, a chicken and rice soup. They graciously shared their delicious recipe with us here.