Wk 3: Food Growing

Are there seeds from your life or memory that hold a special place for you? Maybe specific flavors from dishes or traditional foods that have a particular meaning for you and you wish you could grow some of the ingredients yourself? Check out seed exchanges in NYC and see if you can get your hands on some and bring some to share!

Thanks to the Underground Plant Trade (UPT) I should be getting the gift of seeds sometime this month. UPT is a network founded by DJ Freedem with the express purpose of having plants gifted to Black people by non-Black people. One of the users made the post below. I asked if he was willing to mail them. I am already getting Okra seeds from another source, which have a lot of cultural relevance in Black American cooking, although I did not grow up with it, so I told him I’m open to anything edible. Excited to see what I get!

I’ll share what seeds I end up getting here and how the plants do over the semester.

Also here is a picture of my Cuban Oregano, my first plant in NYC. It was a cutting gifted to me by a neighbor.

Update 03/19/2022: When I originally made this post I alluded to Okra seeds having cultural relevance for Black Americans, but didn’t speak on it any further. Honestly, that was a choice I made because of discomfort. As a member of a diasporic community that had much of its culture intentionally stripped away, engaging with my culture has had to be an intentional and laborious process of rediscovery and reconnection. My exploration of Black food culture and the significances of this is not something I want to share in a PWI classroom even if it is helping to facilitate that interaction. It requires me to be vulnerable in ways that I find excessive. Alternatively, I will share a show that had seriously re-energized this exploration and interest in culturally-centered gardening and food preparation.

High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America

Black food is American food. Chef and writer Stephen Satterfield traces the origins of Africa-American cuisine, moving through lines from Africa to Texas in this docuseries.