Since 1947, the Kirkham and Wilcox families have been farming rice in Anahuac, Texas. Since it’s a small farming and ranching town, it’s not uncommon for young boys to learn early on how to drive a tractor and operate a combine, coached by fathers who farmed their entire adult life. David Kirkham and Donald Wilcox were two of those boys who spent summers and afternoons after school out in the fields shoveling levees and disking fields. After graduating, they joined their fathers in the family business and continue the family farming tradition to this day.

Over the past few years, cousins David Kirkham and Donald Wilcox noticed that most common table rice had lost much of its flavor. They began looking for more flavorful varieties and higher quality rice to offer to consumers in their area. Their search led them to begin growing organic Carolina Gold and Charleston Gold rice. However, to take the rice from seed all the way to the table, they still needed a way to process it. Thus, Harvest Grain Mills was born.