River Bites #1: Bays & River Foodways of the South

Beautiful cabbage from Oko Farms to make our chow chow. Photo by Maya Marie S.

This past weekend we kicked off the first session of River Bites, a 4-part series in partnership with Oko Farms and One Love Community Fridge, exploring how connections to land and water are deeply intertwined with African diasporic foodways.

This session focused on the coasts of the Southern United States, with a particular focus on Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay areas of Maryland as well as South Carolina. We took a look at some of the land histories of Maryland and the many indigneous peoples who’ve been stewarding that area’s land and waterways for centuries. Then talked a bit about the crabbing and fishing histories of the Southern US African diaspora that have been carried over from West African regions including the use of weirs and cages, and are very similar to those practices used by indigenous peoples of the Southeastern coasts of the Americas.

Some participants shared their experiences and aspirations with crabbing in New York, and we also spoke about how activities in the waterways of NY City and State can have long-term impacts on the Chesapeake Bay since it is a watershed for many of the rivers connected to NY and the tri-state area.

After some knife skill demonstrations, participants got to chopping up the ingredients for the chow chow relish which would accompany our Chesapeake Jackfruit Cakes and Oko Karp Fish Cakes. We weren’t able to get a hold of any fresh lump crab meat this time, but between the jackfruit and karp, folks enjoyed what we were able to source and prepare together!

Recipes for everything we prepared can be found in the Bays & River Foodways of the South Mini Book available now in our shop!

Our next session is happening September 16th (register here) and we are hoping to source the shrimp from a local Black-owned seafood shop, so come out and join us for an afternoon of cooking up some seafood goodness!

Fresh karp processed by Yemi from the aquaponics system to go in our fish cakes. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Maya demonstrating some of the knife cuts needed to prepare the chow chow. Photo by Jordan Rosenow.

Diced up scallions, peppers, onions, cabbage, and tomatoes for the demonstration. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Pariticipants chopping. Photo by Jordan Rosenow.

Yemi harvesting peppers with a participant. Photo by Jordan Rosenow.

Asmeret of One Love Community Fridge chopping it up with participants. Photo by Jordan Rosenow.

Participants getting onions and cabbage chopped for the chow chow. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Participants chopping up cabbage leaves. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Jackfruit cakes getting browned in the skillet. Photo by Maya Marie S.

Our karp fish cakes getting nice and brown! Photo by Maya Marie S.

Jackfruit cakes sizzling in palm oil and chow chow cooking up next to it. Photo by Maya Marie S.

A beautiful end to a fantastic day! Photo by Jordan Rosenow.