I have been a lover of rice since I was a young child. My Grandmother had a rice farm in Louisiana and my mother cooked rice twice a day. I never knew how much rice had been a part of my culture until I left home and was living outside of Acadiana. I thought everyone ate rice every day and when I moved to Houston thought that I could go into any restaurant and order it. I soon found that the only place to get rice and anything served over it was at Chinese restaurants. I ate many meals in those days at BoBo Lang's Chinese Restaurant on Westheimer Road.A few years ago I met Kurt Unkel a rice farmer from Kinder, LA and my love of rice changed from Toro brand white rice to Cajun Grain's brown jasmine rice, grown and milled by Kurt and Karen Unkel. The Unkle's grow about 70 acres of jasmine rice and freshly mill in small batches when ordered from them. He avoids pesticides which he said, "makes the rice healthier and taste better," and if you store the rice in the freezer the rice taste like it did the day if was milled. Kurt and Karen will gladly ship rice by mail, which is how I have been getting my supply for several years. Cajun Grain Brand rice has a rich nutty taste and is delicious cooked with salt and a little butter, which we served tonight with seafood gumbo.
Kurt also raises free range pigs in Kinder and yes you guessed it, feeds them jasmine brown rice.
