I first heard of what Blanca Isabel long-grain purple rice is all about while visiting with south Louisiana rice producer Fred Zaunbrecher last fall. This variety was developed by LSU AgCenter’s Dr. Milton Rush in 1998, while he was looking for a rice variety with a natural resistance to sheath blight. While drafting an article about Blanca Isabel for the January issue of Rice Farming (https://ricefarming.webpublisherpro.com/departments/feature/blanca-isabel/), I spoke with the late Dr. Rush’s daughter, Claudia. She and her family operate Rush Rice Products, LLC, in Baton Rouge, La., where they market and sell Blanca Isabel. Go to www.purpleblackrice.com to check it out. Claudia graciously sent me a bag of Blanca Isabel to sample for myself. Last night, I cooked up a pot and used it in a chicken casserole dish. You cook it the same way you do regular rice (2 cups water, 1 cup rice, etc.). The water turns a deep purple color, and in about 18 minutes the rice is ready. I have to say it is delicious.

This time of year, there is a Rice Outlook Conference involving the six states that produce rice. And for most of the California attendees, the top activity for the three days was to watch the weather back home. We had left for the conference after some welcome rain the week previous, and now there was promise of more. A lot more. More than we received in all of 2013. And while the storm wasn’t as “epic” as it was hyped to be, it was a welcome change. The five inches of rain filled rain gauges, helped the decomposition of the remaining rice straw in the fields and filled bypasses and flood plains along the river.

In 1998, Dr. Milton C. Rush, a plant pathologist with LSU AgCenter, was looking for a rice variety with a natural resistance to sheath blight. In doing so, according to LSU rice breeder Dr. Steve Linscombe, Rush introduced a purple grain line into his program that he thought might have higher levels of sheath blight resistance. What ultimately occurred was something else entirely. As noted on purpleblackrice.com, when Rush crossbred a common Louisiana long-grain variety (Cypress) and a purple/black kernel variety from Sri Lanka (Hitan Kitan), he developed a new, high-yielding, early long-grain purple rice variety that he named Blanca Isabel. It is unique in that it has the cooking qualities, texture and taste of long-grain white rice and the health benefits of purple rice.

This market situation deserves attention for supply potential and ability to set prices. By Tiago Barata Owner/Publisher of Agrotendencias Ltda – a rice market analysis publication focused on the Mercosur market Sao Gabriel, RG, Brazil Advisory Group, USRPA A yearly contributor...

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At certain times of the year, gusty winds howl across California’s Sacramento Valley, known for its rich adobe clay soil and home to the Sutter Buttes, described by many as the smallest mountain range in the world. For generations, farmers have grown rice in this area of the state, and producer Frank Rehermann is no exception. In 1972, fresh from the Navy, Rehermann began his journey as a California rice farmer with the assistance of his father-in-law, Ron Harrington. One piece of property that they farmed was owned by the Righero brothers, who originally began the process of wrestling the unleveled ground with sloughs running through it into good, farmable rice fields. Later, using an old D-7, Rehermann continued straightening the levees throughout the property to achieve greater efficiency. Today, he knows those fields well and has used that knowledge to help shape his rice production strategies. Rehermann has to be mobile because his operation is spread out, encompassing property at Live Oak, the Riceton area and the White Ranch – located on the other side of Richvale – that he began leasing from Minnie May White in 1973. In all, Rehermann farms 900 acres of rice, planting 50 percent to M-206 and the remainder to M-205.

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MS Farm Bureau Internship Opportunity Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation (MFBF) is offering a summer intern program for students who carry at least 12 credit hours and have a minimum junior classification in an agricultural field of study for the 2015...