The Soul of Food 2023 Session 1: Seeding An Afro-Indigenous Garden
Participants wrapping up transplanting collards, bunching onions, sorrel/roselle/hibiscus, and direct sowing field peas that will be trellised later.
We opened this year’s Soul of Food series with a community plant-out where we connected with several plants that have deep significance in African diasporic foodways and medicines, and discussed some of the ways that they’ve been stewarded by Black folks for centuries.
Maya began the session by getting into some of the origins of the plants we’d be working with that afternoon including rice, sorghum, sesame, collards, onions, sorrel (aka hibiscus and roselle), and field peas*. We also talked about the technologies and expertise of Black and African diasporic land stewards that have made it possible for these seeds to continue their lineage and sustain our communities.
After some transplanting and direct sowing demonstrations, participants got our seeds and seedlings into the ground, and we closed the session with some sorghum, cheddar scallion biscuits.
This session kicks off The Soul of Food series and there’s more to come this summer and fall, stay in the loop by signing up for our newsletter here. Big thanks to @greenthumbnyc for making series like these free to the public and capturing these photos, and to East New York Farms for hosting us.
*The majority of the seeds and seedlings (which Maya started in Feb/March) were sourced from Sistah Seeds, True Love Seeds, and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange as well as Maya’s own saved seeds.
Going over the flow for the afternoon and pointing out where another bed that we’d be working in was located.
A shot of some old (with a bit of webs) and new sorghum harvest.
Sesame seedlings!
Going over how the rice and sorghum will be transplanted and direct sown into the bed.
Folks direct sowing red and white sorghum, and transplanting sesame, Trinidad hill rice, and sorrel seedlings.
Participants transplanting Old Timey Blue and Green Glaze collards and white bunching onions.
A few of the participants from the workshop session!
