Dr. David Shields, “Taste the State: South Carolina’s Signature Foods, Recipes, and Their Stories”

Description

Clemson University’s Historic Properties is bringing back its “Brick by Brick: Constructing America’s Identities” speaker series for the second year, featuring authors who will present different perspectives on the history of America’s built environment. In partnership with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Clemson Annual Giving, the series will feature five events from June 17 to July 29.

The fourth lecture will be delivered by Dr. David Shields.

Dr. David Shields is known as “the flavor saver.” He tracks down lost food crops and assists in restoring them to fields and tables: Carolina Gold Rice, Cocke’s Prolific Corn, Rice Peas, Purple Straw Wheat, the Dyehouse Cherry, Benne, Carolina African Runner Peanut, Purple Ribbon Sugar Cane, Hick’s Mulberry, Seashore Black Seed Rye, and Bradford Watermelon. Among his 15 published books, he has written award winning agricultural and culinary histories — “Southern Provisions” (2015), “Taste the State: South Carolina” (2021), “The Ark of Taste” (2023) — and most recently, “Taste the State: Georgia.”

His research links horticulture to the table, agriculture to home and professional cookery. He chairs the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, Heads the Ark of Taste Committee for the South and became the Carolina Distinguished Professorship Emeritus at the University of South Carolina in 2024. He is the Southern Foodways Alliance’s “Keeper of the Flame,” twice a James Beard finalist in food history and Slow Food’s Snailblazer for Biodiversity. He won the Brown Award from the American Culture Association for the Best Single Book about American Popular Culture in 2013. He and long-time collaborator Kevin Mitchell will be hosting and writing a PBS television show, The Savers of Flavor, in 2026. It is about the people who have preserved the most endangered traditional southern fruits, grains and vegetables.