People say, ‘Man, you had to get connected with this rice — it’s in your blood!’” Chalmers says

“People say, ‘Man, you had to get connected with this rice — it’s in your blood!’” Chalmers says. Twenty years ago, he met Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills; the company sells rare strains such as Carolina Gold while also making the seeds available for free. “He said, ‘Rollen, would you like to have some of these seeds?’” Chalmers recalls. “I just went and started planting.” Richard Schulze, a retired eye surgeon, owned a former plantation called Turnbridge. The planting began there, and Chalmers now oversees and attends to 47 acres. (These days, fewer than 2,000 acres in South Carolina are used for the cultivation of Carolina Gold and other heirloom varieties of rice; a roughly equivalent number of acres are devoted to it in Texas and Arkansas.)