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Marsh Hen Mill is a company on
Edisto Island Edisto Island is one of South Carolina's Sea Islands, the larger part of which lies in Charleston County, with its southern tip in Colleton County. Edisto Beach is in Colleton County, and the Charleston County part of the island is unincorpor ...
, in the US state of
South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
, best known for its traditionally manufactured heirloom
grits Grits (stylized as GRITS) is an American Christian hip hop group from Nashville, Tennessee. Their name is an acronym, which stands for "Grammatical Revolution In the Spirit". GRITS is made up of Stacey "Coffee" Jones and Teron "Bonafide" Carter ...
.


History

The company is owned by Betsy and Greg Johnsman, who in 2003 took over Betsy's family's farm on
Edisto Island Edisto Island is one of South Carolina's Sea Islands, the larger part of which lies in Charleston County, with its southern tip in Colleton County. Edisto Beach is in Colleton County, and the Charleston County part of the island is unincorpor ...
, 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 grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...
, 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, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...
in 2020: in the
South Carolina Lowcountry The Lowcountry (sometimes Low Country or just low country) is a geographic and cultural region along South Carolina's coast, including the Sea Islands. The region includes significant salt marshes and other coastal waterways, making it an impor ...
, "Geechee" is another name for the
Gullah The Gullah () are a subgroup of the African Americans, African American ethnic group, who predominantly live in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within ...
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 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 the ethnic cuisine of African Americans. Originating in the Southern United States, American South from the cuisines of Slavery in the United States, enslaved Africans transported from Africa through the Atlantic slave trade, sou ...
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 enslav ...
, 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 ric ...
; at the time of the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
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. They also sell heirloom vegetables including cauliflower and sweet onions, besides other locally made products.


See also

*
List of name changes due to the George Floyd protests After George Floyd, an unarmed Black 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 State ...


References


External links

* {{coord, 32, 35, 42, N, 80, 20, 50, W, region:US_SC, display=title Grinding mills in South Carolina