Photo by Matthew Franklin Carter
Rollen Chalmers
HOMETOWN: Lifelong resident of Hardeeville.
CLAIM TO FAME: South Carolina’s leading expert on the cultivation of Carolina Gold rice; owner with wife Frances of Rollen’s RAW Grains.
HIDDEN REWARDS: “People come up to me every day and say, ‘We really appreciate what you’re doing.’”
WORDS TO LIVE BY: “Carolina Gold is some of the best rice that money can buy. If you eat that rice one time compared to the rice you eat from a grocery store, you’ll never want anything else.”
HOME BASE: “Being here and being in these woods is relaxing. You’re really part of the land.”
CO-OP AFFILIATION: Member of Palmetto Electric Cooperative.
Today, in partnership with property owners Anson Mills and the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, he’s recognized as the state’s expert on the traditional, organic cultivation of this distinctive heirloom crop.
When the owners of Turnbridge Plantation decided to bring Charleston Gold rice back to their Lowcountry fields for the first time since the Great Depression, their harvesting equipment became hopelessly mired in the thick mud of the formerly submerged ground. But they knew the right man to call to solve the problem.
Landscape contractor Marion Rollen (pronounced ROH-lun) Chalmers grew up farming, hunting and working his family’s land in and around Hardeeville, and his practical know-how saved both the equipment and the harvest. Not only did he understand the world of heavy machinery, but he also knew a thing or two about cultivating rice—knowledge handed down through generations of his relatives who grew a few acres now and again to help feed the family.
Named for the golden husk that surrounds the grain, Carolina Gold rice seed came to South Carolina with enslaved Africans before the American Revolution. The flavorful, aromatic rice became the Palmetto State’s first cash crop around 1690 and fed generations of plantation owners, slaves and everyone in between. By the Civil War, the state was producing 3.5 to 5 million bushels a year, according to the Foundation, but as agriculture changed and tastes shifted, the rice fell out of favor with growers around the time of the Great Depression.
Reintroduced to South Carolina in the 1990s, Carolina Gold (and a hybrid Charleston Gold variety) has become a prized commodity among high-end chefs around the world, foodies and home cooks who treasure its buttery, nutty flavor and its historical provenance—and who are willing to pay top dollar to put it on their tables.
In addition to growing Carolina Gold for other landowners and Columbia’s Anson Mills, Chalmers operates Rollen’s RAW Grains, selling his products online and from a brick-and-mortar storefront at 3333 South Okatie Highway in Hardeeville, where he keeps a small rice plot in the parking lot so customers can learn more about the rice and how it’s cultivated.