The farmer had harvested the field more than a month earlier, but he did not uproot the plants. So after re-flooding and fertilizing, a second crop, known as the ratoon, had started to emerge. The farmer grows organic rice, among other crops, at Turnbridge Plantation, where Richard Schulze Sr. More than a sower of seeds, Chalmers works as a fixer, research grower, hydrologist, woodsman, field and fence builder, and ancestral knowledge keeper.
In spring , Chalmers added another title to his multi-hyphenate CV: rice seller. Rice made South Carolina planters rich. By , the coastal region exported some 66 million pounds annually of the grain, all sowed and harvested by enslaved workers in treacherous fields infested with water moccasins and mosquitoes. Plantation owners sought out West Africans, in particular, for their skill in growing and processing rice. Frances Chalmers suspects that when folks got factory and pulp mill jobs, they no longer had time to farm on the side.
(mh=XZcIHF9WRDYChQNH)16.jpg "Anal Girl Palm Coast")
They could also afford store-bought rice, a show of rising family fortunes. Those associations to slavery and poverty, to subsistence rather than abundance, helped bury the history of Lowcountry rice farming β even for modern acolytes like Rollen Chalmers.
Over the centuries, the land on which Palmetto Bluff sits has hosted Native American settlements, antebellum plantations, Northern industrialist retreats and a hunting club. Guests cross over a former rice dike when they drive into the main entrance. Socci invited Chalmers to Palmetto Bluff, ostensibly to talk to the farmer about installing a rice field, but also to confirm a hunch. Over lunch, Socci asked about his family history in the area, and after the meal, she told Chalmers she had something else to show him.
(mh=FbsvttJ7aDBWu_9S)14.jpg "Sluts in Palm Coast")
They drove a short distance to a cemetery, and she ushered Chalmers through the small gate. But Bluffton, S. Cole and Esther Caroline Corley Cole kept a family Bible in which the names of children born into slavery were inscribed. Socci also found in the Agricultural Census that William Sr. She has also brought her team from the Grey to Hardeeville to connect with Chalmers and learn about Lowcountry rice culture.
