*Our closing Solstice to Solstice (SOS) session up at Rocksteady Farm October 15th, 2022.*

December 4th marks the second year of Deep Routes, which launched in 2020 as an educational project to create culinary and agricultural curricula and spaces that center the foodways and stories of Black and indigenous peoples.

This year has been incredible as we offered our first full year of programming for community members across New York City and State, began to dabble in short form videos on tik tok, and continued to work on building out the curriculum.

We’re closing out the year with deep gratitude for everyone who’s joined and supported the project, and lots of excitement for our next year as we continue creating for, connecting with, and learning from BIPOC learners and educators.

Check out a recap on 2022 Below (as well a sneak peek announcement of what we’re working on next year):

Workshops & Events
Curriculum Materials
Announcement!

Workshops & Events

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Workshops & Events 🌿

*Particpants preparing cassava, callaloo, and other fruits and vegetables for our communal meal during the Soul of Food session 1 with Pat Marrett at Walt L. Shamel Community Garden.*

It was such a full year of joyful learning with community members across Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Upstate NY. Click the tabs below for a recap of this year’s programming and check out our blog for more details & photos:

We had the pleasure of kicking off the year with The Bronx’s DreamYard to offer 2 workshops on sorghum; entered the summer with Rocksteady Farm to offer 3 workshops on BIPOC food preservation methods; continued collaborating with Greenthumb NYC and local community gardens to offer 4 workshops celebrating the soul of Black and brown foodways; and closed out the year at East New York Farms! to offer a workshop on the BIPOC traditions of cover cropping.
Kicked off the year talking about the origins of culinary schools in the United States at Cornell University for their Future Food Summit; opened the summer and closed out the fall up at The Bronx River Alliance for their community gatherings; uplifted the BIPOC origins of vanilla while making extract with participants at Dave’s Lesbian Bar’s Queer Cafeteria Food Festival; and talked about the simple yet sustainable act of making your own broth at the Liberated Lands festival.
Project founder Maya was invited to speak with folks at Edelman about Black agricultural traditions of sustainability for Earth Day; and on food justice frameworks for Riseboro Community Partnership’s 2022 Coop Academy Cohort.
We gathered, cooked, discussed, and got our hands in the dirt with over 350 folks during our workshops, event gatherings, and presentations this year.

Thanks to Our Community Partners!

Thanks to the following organizations for collaborating and supporting our work this year and big shout out to all the program coordinators and organizers who make these events happen!

Here's to many more collabs that uplift BIPOC food stories and center BIPOC communities:

Curriculum Materials

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Curriculum Materials 📖

Here at Deep Routes we define curriculum broadly as learning materials (e.g. profiles, articles, poems, recipes booklets, etc.), lesson plans, syllabi, teaching templates, and media. We’re slowly but steadily building out the curriculum in each of those areas every year in collaboration with BIPOC farmers, cooks/chefs, artists, writers, and community members.

This year, following the release of last year’s 1st Edition Core Curriculum, we’ve been working on getting that edition out to institutions and community organizations to begin implementing it into their programs and curriculums. While also using the curriculum in our own programming and offerings.

While that’s been happening, we’ve also been working on region and cuisine specific learning materials that are set to release in a few years. So this year has seen mostly small additions to the curriculum in the form of mini booklets that were offered to participants of events and workshops. We also offered our first Reading & Viewing Syllabus: Marronage & Maroon Foodways on our patreon. Check it all out below:

Pickling 101

Jams & Jellie 101

Afro-Indigenous Legacies of Vanilla

Sweet Potato Pie Legacies

Marronage & Maroon Foodways of the Americas

In progress: Core Curriculum 2nd Edition, An Manje: A Celebration of Haitian Foodways