Marsh Hen Mill is a company on
Edisto Island, in the US state of
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
, best known for its traditionally manufactured heirloom
grits.
History
The company is owned by Betsy and Greg Johnsman, who in 2003 took over Betsy's family's farm on
Edisto Island, a farm they had owned for three generations, and began growing and selling tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables. In 2007, they bought a 1945
gristmill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...
, which had been sitting idle in a barn since the 1960s and which Greg brought back to working condition.
They kept the farm's old name "Geechie Boy", which was the nickname of a white farmer on the island, Raymond Tumbleston.
That name, however, caused some backlash and accusations of cultural appropriation, particularly after the
George Floyd protests
The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...
in 2020: in the
South Carolina Lowcountry, "Geechee" is another name for the
Gullah people, who are "descended from enslaved Africans who settled in tight-knit communities along the coast of the Carolinas and into Florida." By September 2020, "after many days of prayer and countless bowls of grits", the owners rebranded as "Marsh Hen Mill", named for the
Salt water marsh hen which inhabits the Southern US coast.
Products
Marsh Hen Mill sells grits milled from heirloom grains
[ (including a pink variety called "Unicorn" made from red corn) to restaurants in ]Charleston
Charleston most commonly refers to:
* Charleston, South Carolina
* Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital
* Charleston (dance)
Charleston may also refer to:
Places Australia
* Charleston, South Australia
Canada
* Charleston, Newfoundlan ...
[ and Atlanta, and ships across the country.][ Their products are used by many notable chefs,][ including those working in traditional ]soul food
Soul food is an ethnic cuisine traditionally prepared and eaten by African Americans, originating in the Southern United States.Soul Food originated with the foods that were given to enslaved Black people by their white owners on Souther ...
cuisine.
The company sells Carolina Gold
Carolina Gold rice is a variety of African rice first popularized in South Carolina, USA in the 1780s. It is named for the golden color of its unhulled grains.
History
Rice was grown in South Carolina (in the South Carolina Lowcountry) by enslave ...
, a Lowcountry variety of African rice
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown in West Africa around 3,000 years ago. In agriculture, it has largely been replaced by higher-yielding Asian ri ...
; at the time of the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
it made up 3.5 million of the 5 million bushels of rice produced in the US, but had not been commercially grown since 1927 until its revival in South Carolina in the 1980s.
See also
*List of name changes due to the George Floyd protests
After George Floyd, an unarmed African American man, was murdered by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020, many people protested against systemic racism, both in the United Sta ...
References
External links
*
{{coord, 32, 35, 42, N, 80, 20, 50, W, region:US_SC, display=title
Grinding mills in South Carolina