The Soul of Food 2023 Session 4: Afro-Indigenous Traditions of Harvesting

Folks processing the field peas and sorghum. Photo by Maya Marie S.

We had a few little twists and turns due to the weather, but in the end rescheduling to the Sunday following our original date gave us a beautiful fall afternoon to spend time with our grain and legume plant friends at East New York Farms for the 4th session of The Soul of Food.

We began by talking about the journeys of sorghum, rice, field peas/beans, and hibiscus; and then participants spent some time connecting with these plants as they’ve been growing in the Deep Routes beds (earlier participants planted them at this same farm in June of this year).

Although the Trinidad Hill rice wasn’t quite ready for harvest or processing and the White African Sorghum was too freshly harvested to thresh, we moved to some demonstrations on threshing the dried Red Sugar Drip sorghum heads as well as picking and sorting the Sea Island Red and Purple Hull peas. The Benne sesame and sorrel/hibiscus also needed more time to ripen before harvest.

While some folks were processing grains and legumes, others were preparing our lunch of Zesty Sweet Potato Scallion Salad and Generations Hoppin’ John (all of which are apart of the Deep Routes Core Curriculum recipe collection). And once everyone wrapped up on their tasks we came together to cook up the meal, eat, discuss the plants and learnings from the day further, and then packed up sorghum and field pea seeds for everyone to take home.

Big thanks to @greenthumbnyc for making series like these free to the public and also capturing portions of the event, and HUGE thanks to Alexx Caceres at East New York Farms for hosting us on such short notice.

Our beginning set-up for the afternoon. Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

Dried peas ready to go! Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

White African Sorghum and Red Sugar Drip Sorghum hanging out at the demo table. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Greg giving some Greenthumb background for participants. Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

Getting some farm background from ENYC/UCC Youth Farm Manager Alexx Caceres. Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

Checking out the sorghum plants. Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

Folks taking time to spend with the sorghum, rice, sorrel/hibiscus, and sesame bed. Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

Maya demonstrating the harvest techniques. Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

Participants threshing red sugar drip sorghum. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Sea island field peas post-threshing by participants. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Purple hull peas post-threshing by participants. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Participants chopping up collard greens from the garden bed and sweet potatoes from the market. Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

All of our ingredients prepared by participants for cooking! Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

Maya bringing the rice, sea island red peas, and greens together. Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.

Participants getting ready for the meal post harvest processing. Photo by Maya Marie S.

A plate of generations hoppin’ john and zesty sweet potato scallion salad. Photo by Sarah/Greenthumb NYC.