Rice Cultivation, Consumption, and Intellectual Property

Rice Pudding, recipes below

Dating back to the 1500 B.C., Africans domesticated wet rice, known as Oryza glaberrima, in the middle of the Niger River Valley. Trade with the Far East exposed West Africans to a less common variety of rice known as Oryza sativa. West Africans made rice a staple within their mixed diet which included the consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes,  and animal products. In A History of a Voyage to the Coast of Africa and Travels into the Interior of that Country, published in 1796, the North American explorer Joseph Hawkins writes that in addition to a few other culinary delights and palm wine, if the Igbo “possess[ed] rice . . . a few goats or sheep, to afford them occasionally milk . . . they enjoy consummate happiness.” Before the end of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1860s, by force, Africans transferred key intellectual property on land preparation for rice cultivation and cooking rice to the Americas including the Carolinas.

Carolina Rice Pudding Recipe:
http://www.carolinagoldricefoundation.org/recipes/rice_pudding/rice_pudding.html

Rice and Beans and Peas and Rice Stories: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=rice+and+beans

Fred Opie's Book Hog and Hominy: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy