Oyster shells from Atlanta restaurants are helping save the Georgia coast

  Since it began,  Shell to Shore has partnered with Save Our Legacy Ourself helping to think about ongoing flooding issues on Sapelo Island and […]

America’s Test Kitchen Podcast: The Lost Crops of Sapelo

“The Gullah Geechee community on Sapelo Island, Georgia, is in a battle against time. Every year, storms, salt water, and construction threaten the land. But […]

Maurice Bailey photo

How to hold back the ocean

Making Contact’s reporter Claire Reynolds interviews coastal residents, activists, and scientists about responding to sea level rise on Sapelo Island and beyond. As climate change […]

New York Times Article about Sapelo Sugarcane Project

Reviving a Crop and an African-American Culture, Stalk by Stalk On the Georgia coast, Maurice Bailey is making sugar cane syrup as a way to […]

Story in The Bitter Southerner that covers Sapelo Island Sugarcane Project

Story by SHANE MITCHELL | Photographs by RINNE ALLEN (excerpt from bottom of story) The next morning, before leaving on the ferry, Maurice Bailey handed […]

Article in Georgia Farmers and Consumer Market Bulletin about Sapelo Sugarcane Project

Sugarcane is the foundation of efforts to preserve, revitalize Geechee culture on Sapelo Island By Amy Carter amy.carter@agr.georgia.gov Sapelo Island was the epicenter of early […]

Scalawag article by Maurice Bailey and Nik Heynen: Sweet (and sticky) redemption

Gullah/Geechee of Sapelo Island reclaim sugarcane to fight cultural erasure There is no U.S. agricultural history without the expertise and labor of African people who […]

Success in the Sugarcane Fields: A Look into This Year’s Harvest

Last week, volunteers associated with the Cornelia Walker Bailey Program participated in the harvesting of sugarcane in conjunction with the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization […]

Indigo Planted in May is Harvested

In December of 2018, the Cornelia Walker Bailey Program entered a partnership with the International Center for Indigo Culture (ICIC) and the State Botanical Garden […]

Expansion of Land on SICARS Farm Lot

In October, the land on the left perimeter of SICARS largest farm plot (Lot 1) was cleared through the use of controlled fire. Volunteers gathered […]

UGA Students Assist SICARS and Cornelia Walker Bailey Program

This fall semester, students enrolled in the Athens Urban Food Collective course, taught by Cornelia Walker Bailey Program co-director Nik Heynen, have been engaging in […]

Sapelo Island Geechee Red Peas Reach the Plates of Athens, Georgia

Athens, Georgia restaurant LRG Provisions has entered a relationship with the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society (SICARS) to bring Sapelo Island Geechee Red Peas […]

UGA Maymester Students Assist Cornelia Walker Bailey Program and SICARS

This May, five UGA students spent two weeks on Sapelo Island as part of Nik Heynen’s Geography of the Georgia Coast domestic field-study course associated […]

New Partnership to Reintroduce Indigo on Sapelo Island

The Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land and Agriculture has entered into a partnership with the International Center for Indigo Culture (ICIC) and the State […]

Heynen and Bailey Awarded Grant from UGA’s Willson Center for Humanities and Arts

Co-Directors Nik Heynen and Maurice Bailey were notified that they have been awarded a research grant titled “Remembering Yesterday, Fighting for Tomorrow: The Cornelia Walker […]

New Phase of SICARS Sugarcane Project Begins

Phase 3 of SICARS Sugarcane Project Begins

A new crop of purple ribbon sugarcane was planted on Sapelo Island this week. As part of a long-term project being led by the Sapelo […]

Cornelia Walker Bailey Program Assists with Sugarcane Harvest at SICARS

Cornelia Walker Bailey Program Assists with Sugarcane Harvest at SICARS

This week, a group of volunteers connected to the Cornelia Walker Bailey Program spent several days on Sapelo Island to assist with the harvesting of […]

Cornelia Walker Bailey Program Partners with Davidson College

Students from Davidson College were able to visit Sapelo Island and provide assistance with the Cornelia Walker Bailey Program. Two of the students—Jennifer Thompson and […]

Heynen and Hardy Awarded NSF Grant

Nik Heynen and Dean Hardy have been awarded a NSF Research Grant titled “A Socio-Ecological Investigation of the Long-Term Impacts of Uneven Exurban Development, Sea-Level […]

Second Phase of SICARS Sugarcane Project Underway

After the floodwaters brought on by Hurricane Irma subsided it seemed our efforts to revive sugarcane on Sapelo Island might be over as the first […]

Hurricane Irma Floods New SICARS Sugarcane Project

Hurricane Irma created a great deal of damage on Sapelo Island.  Flood waters from the storm surge was especially damaging for many residents in the […]

Red Peas Are the Backbone of an Island Community off the Georgia Coast

Red Peas Are the Backbone of an Island Community off the Georgia Coast

Sapelo, a barrier island in Georgia south of Savannah, is home to a population of people who self-identify as Geechees — descendants of slaves and […]

How One Georgia Island is Fighting to Keep a Small Red Pea Alive

How One Georgia Island is Fighting to Keep a Small Red Pea Alive

Sapelo Island is a 16,500-acre swath of land that sits about 60 miles down from Savannah. Reachable only by boat, the barrier island, Georgia’s fourth […]

UGAMI Partners with SICARS to Plant Red Peas

The new partnership between UGAMI and SICARS took a positive step today when Professor Nik Heynen and students taking his Geography of the Georgia Coast […]

SICARS Board Formally Partners with UGAMI on Peas and Cane

At a SICARS board meeting this week to discuss the future of SICARS’ efforts to reestablish sugarcane, continue to plant red peas and explore growing […]

An island's future tied to farming crops from the past

An island’s future tied to farming crops from the past

Off the coast of Georgia lies a quiet island, accessible only by boat and home to about 50 year-round residents — all descendants of slaves… […]

New Start for SICARS Sugarcane Effort

In 2015 a team of people, including Cornelia Walker Bailey,William “Doc Bill” Thomas, Clemson University Professor Stephen Kresovich, Jerome Dixon, Maurice Bailey, Stanley Walker and others worked […]

The Return of Purple Ribbon Sugarcane

The Return of Purple Ribbon Sugarcane

Purple ribbon sugar cane tastes a little different from its tropical relative. For a while, it thrived on Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia. […]

Southern Sugarcane Revival

Southern Sugarcane Revival

Sugarcane on Sapelo Island was once tended by slaves. Now it might sustain their descendants and help keep Geechee culture alive… Read the full story […]

The Heart of Sapelo

The Heart of Sapelo

Cornelia Bailey, the matriarch of the last pocket of Gullah Geechee culture on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, is on a mission to give this unique community […]

Clemson joins effort to reintroduce sugarcane to Sapelo Island

Clemson joins effort to reintroduce sugarcane to Sapelo Island

SAPELO ISLAND, Georgia — Clemson University is playing a lead role in a months-long effort to reintroduce an ancient breed of sugarcane to Sapelo Island, […]

Sapelo Island Sugarcane

Sapelo Island Sugarcane

Clemson University is playing a lead role in a months-long effort to reintroduce an ancient breed of sugarcane to Sapelo Island, where the towering grass […]

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