2021 Programs/Events | North Carolina Rice Festival

The North Carolina Rice Festival is in the planning stages.

As we get things booked, confirmed, and ready for you to know we will link them here and spread the word.

THE NORTH CAROLINA

RICE FESTIVAL'S VIDEO

DOCUMENTARIES

The NCRFI has produced two new educational and historical videos on topics to be explored at the inaugural Festival in 2022 and beyond. Produced in partnership with the Brunswick Arts Council, the videos highlight the significant role that rice production played in the development of southeastern North Carolina.

Click on the links below to view the videos:

"Gullah Geechee History and Rice Growing in Brunswick County"

Journey deep into the North Carolina low country, where rice was gold, landscapes

were reconfigured, and waterways were harnessed to bring this prized and profitable crop to

market, due largely to the horticultural knowledge and agricultural skills of the enslaved Africans who were brought to this region by force to sow, tend, and harvest a bounty, though indigenous to their homelands, that they would themselves would never reap.

"Gullah Geechee Foodways in Southeastern North Carolina"

Join award-winning Wilmington chef and Festival Culinarian Keith Rhodes for field and kitchen demonstrations of mouth-watering Gullah Geechee cuisine as it was prepared by the enslaved peoples who brought rice cultivation to this area and as modern chefs prepare and present it, fusion-style, for contemporary palates.

The Making of
the NCRF's
Foodways Video:

A Mouth-Watering, Hands-On Experience

The cameras rolled over two amazing days (April 30 and May 1) as Chef Keith Rhodes, Rice Festival Culinarian and owner of Wilmington’s Catch Restaurant, NCRFI board members, and several guests participated in the filming of an exciting documentary focusing on North Carolina’s Gullah Geechee food and foodways.

Day 1-2--Cameraman shooting Chef Rhodes.

Keith Rhodes, a James Beard nominee for Best Chef Southeast and a celebrated participant on the Bravo TV Series “Top Chef,” is the owner of Catch, a popular modern seafood restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina. He prides himself on his upscale low-country cuisine, which he generously infuses with worldly influences, and his unique plating presentations. His eclectic dishes superbly “catch” his passion for North Carolina seafood and for highlighting seasonal vegetables, fresh herbs, and heirloom recipes.

Day One: Chef Rhodes Interview

Click picture below to view

Chef Rhodes Interview

Day 1 took place outdoors at the Beatty Family Farm in rural Navassa, NC, near Leland. There, Chef Rhodes shared his insights on the cuisine he so artfully infuses into his restaurant’s eclectic menus. By circumstance, Rhodes explained, the Gullah Geechee in the rice-growing regions of coastal North Carolina (part of the South’s so-called Low Country) prepared most of their dishes outdoors in cast-iron pots and pans over wood-burning firepits. They slow-cooked whatever they could forage from the land and sea to tenderize the meats and meld the flavors of their limited but home-grown onions, tomatoes, herbs, and spices.

Chef Rhodes with ingredients

Bringing these traditions back to life, Chef Rhodes prepared a sumptuous meal “out in the yard,” using many ingredients Gullah Geechee cooks used back then.