Fall 2016 CGRF Meeting

On November 4, 2106, the CGRF gathered at the Culinary Institute of Charleston's Palmer Campus for an innovative bread tasting seminar led by sensory scientist Michael Kalanty. For this event, renowned bakers from across the United States were tapped to send their best baguettes and batards for sampling.  Among the bakers participating was Henry Jones from Charleston's acclaimed Butcher & Bee. After the tasting, Dr. Lindsay Triplett of the Department of Plant, Pathology and Ecology at the Connection Agricultural Experiment Station discussed the disease resistant gene she recently discovered in Carolina Gold Rice. 

2016 Annual CGRF Meeting

The CGRF met at the USDA Vegetable Lab in Charleston in May 2016 featuring keynote speaker Dr. Bernard Herman of UNC-Chapel Hill discussing the story of Virginia’s oysters, figs, Hayman sweet potatoes, and Hogs Island sheep. Special guest Dr. Richard Scheuerman, author of Harvest Heritage: Agricultural Origins and Heirloom Crops of the Pacific Northwest and professor at Seattle Pacific University, tackled the topic ”Our Daily Bread: Heritage Grains for Health, Culture, & Occasional Profit.” We also heard updates on the Sapelo Island Purple Ribbon Sugarcane project and the Purple Straw Wheat project and learned about the search for Seashore Rye.

For the meeting, Chris Wilkins of Root Baking Co. prepared three different Carolina Gold Rice middlins breads using wheats from Brian Ward’s plot at Clemson University. The first was a middlins levain, essentially a naturally leavened porridge bread using fermented middlins along with Red May Wheat, house-milled Red Fife, and house-milled Turkey Wheat with a benne seed soaker. The second bread was a 100 percent wheat using house-milled Turkey Wheat, English May, Rouge de Bordeaux, and fermented rice bran. A middlins baguette featured African Runner Peanuts and a house-milled Turkey Wheat.

To accompany the loaves, Forrest Parker, of Old Village Post House and an S.C. Chef Ambassador, created spreads using heritage and heirloom produce that reflected the topics and regions being discussed at the meeting. For the middlins porridge bread, he prepared Country Captain Brasicae with mashed cauliflower, sweet curry, okra caviar, and benne. For the Turkey Wheat bread, he topped it with a confit of smoked turkey, avocado mayonnaise, Wadmalaw tomato, and James Island speckled pea vinaigrette. And finally, for the African Runner Peanut Baguette, he created a spread he dubbed Velvet Elvis, with roasted banana curd, black pepper bacon, African Runner Peanut, and Candied Crystal Hot Sauce. 

Photos below are by Miguel Buencamino of Holy City Handcraft