by Rebekkah & David Arrant
Farm Fresh Rice
I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast eating rice with seafood gumbo, crawfish etouffee, and jambalaya, but rice was always the side dish. It was non-descript and tasteless without the main course. My husband grew up five hours northwest in the Mississippi Delta where rice had an entirely different role at the dinner table. Instead of meat and potatoes, Arant men grew up rice-fed. Forget the gumbo and jambalaya; my husband liked plain rice with butter. It was when we married in 2006 that my education on rice began.
I’ll never forget my first taste of Arant rice; it was rich and savory and, amazingly, had flavor apart from the salt and pepper. I now understood my husband’s love of rice and began to wonder why the rice I had been eating for the first 24 years of my life was so different. For the first six years of our marriage, David and I lived in our state’s capital where he worked as a civil engineer. While there we began to support the local foods movement. Farmer’s markets were abundant and farm-to-table restaurants were beginning to grow. It was this part of city life that we really enjoyed, but this life was not for us.
David grew up on a wide-open farm in the Mississippi Delta and began working for the family operation when he was nine years old. Although we loved our life in the city, David had different dreams. He longed to be in the fields rather than behind a desk. His desire was to return to the Delta and continue the legacy of the family farm—one that has been operating continuously for more than 90 years.
It was when we moved to the farm that we began to seriously contemplate becoming part of the farm-to-table movement that we enjoyed so much in Jackson. The Arants had been milling rice for friends and family for years, and people loved it. It was this encouragement that inspired Delta Blues Rice. We wanted to share our rice with others so that they could enjoy what I had been missing out on for 24 years. Our family wanted to give the consumer artisan milled rice that was full of flavor.
We are involved in every step of the rice operation. We plant our rice in the spring, tend it in the growing season, harvest it in the fall, and mill and package it year round. We are invested in bringing the best product to our customers. Delta Blues Rice only uses the highest quality rice for both planting and milling. While many rice companies mix multiple varieties, we only use one, and that is one of the reasons that our rice has a distinct flavor.
I never would have imagined that I would be the wife of a farmer and part of a family rice business, but it is truly a wonderful opportunity. We get to help feed the people of our state and nation, and it is a job that has to be done well. I am proud to say that we are raising two boys who love plain rice with butter. It is our hope that they will one day take part in the family farm and will join us in the legacy of sharing quality food with our communities.
David & Rebekkah Arant live in the Mississippi Delta and are a part of Delta Blues Rice. Please visit their website at www.deltabluesrice.com for recipes and to learn more about their products.