Ten years later I’ve had the opportunity to develop my message and my approach to teaching about early African American foodways and their impact on our culinary history and gardenways.  Every day presents new lessons and insights from the distant past.  Now I am embarking on a journey to the Deep South to look for more heirlooms, to encourage community gardens and farmers to grow more African American heirlooms, to promote racial reconcilliation and healing and to find out more about my enslaved Ancestors.  The Cooking Gene Project blends contextual genealogy, heirloom gardening, culinary history and social justice into one cohesive project that looks at the impact of enslaved African Americans on Southern/American culinary history while looking at the long term influence and legacy and what it means for our contemporary best practices in food, community development, health and spirit.  Having been an Edna Lewis Lecture guest speaker for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello and a three time presenter at the Southern Exposure Heritage Harvest Festival, discussion with fellow heritage-food enthusiasts have fermented into a project like this where we look back in order to move forward.  I hope in being able to trace my Ancestors experience through food I can encourage others to do so and help bring us all to a greater understanding of our common culinary DNA. 

Our team could really use your help.  We only have a few days left to reach our funding goal.  By visiting our Indiegogo page we hope you will consider contributing to our campaign.  This year’s Heritage Harvest Festival will benefit from the project with a special class on using heirloom gardening to promote contextual genealogy.  We want to teach people how to use food to trace their roots–no matter what their background!  The past ten years have been just the start of a larger learning and sharing experience and we have so enjoyed learning with and from our friends at SESE and growing the plants that teach people about our heritage while making a way for a better future for all.  Please be sure to visit our campaign site and contribute whatever you can.  Our project is the only one of its kind and we hope if you follow us on the blog you will join us for some of our "Southern Discomfort Tour!"

Michael Twitty
Afroculinaria.com

• The Cooking Gene: Bringing Food & Family to the Table & Garden (Saturday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.) with Michael Twitty
• HeritageHarvestFestival.com
• Festival Tickets

Wild creatures that help you in the garden are everywhere. Birds, butterflies, bees, and hover flies all provide pollination services. Birds, wasps, beetles, and nematodes actually control harmful pests. Some birds, beetles, and nematodes can harm your plants, however, so strive to maintain a healthy balance in the garden. Everything you do to encourage your beneficial partners from the wild helps to create this balance. You can invite these helpers into your garden by growing those plants that attract them. These plants lure beneficials into your garden by providing food, nectar, and shelter.

A whole host of beneficial insects prey on the harmful insects that eat your garden. Most of us know lady beetles (aka lady bugs), and almost every gardener knows that lady beetle adults and their larvae eat aphids. But so do green lacewings, minute pirate bugs, hover fly larvae, and many more.

Parasitized Hornworm

Many tiny wasp species lay their eggs inside caterpillars. When the eggs hatch, the baby wasps eat the caterpillar alive from the inside out. They burrow out of the caterpillar when mature and spin cocoons that hang on the caterpillar’s body like little cotton swabs. There are even tinier wasps that lay their eggs inside aphids! There are also mites that love to hunt down and eat all those spider mites on your roses.

Hover Fly on Cosmos

Disguising themselves as bees to discourage predators, hover flies are actually quite harmless. The adults pollinate flowers and sip nectar. Their babies (maggots), however, kill and eat aphids. Check out our blog Beneficial Babies and click on the link to see a very short video of one of these predatory maggots exploring my rose bush.

Lady Bug on Fennel

Ladybird beetles (aka Lady Bugs) are some of our favorite and best-known beneficial insects. The adults and babies devour aphids and other small, soft-bodied pests. Fennel flowers are magnets that lure these small beetles into your garden.

Plants that attract a large number of beneficial insects are members of the carrot family (Apiaceae), the daisy family (Asteraceae), and the mint family (Lamiaceae).

The carrot family includes herbs such as dill, fennel, coriander (cilantro), parsley, and cumin, along with flowers like Queen Anne’s lace.

Daisy family plants to consider for your vegetable garden include herbs like tarragon and chamomile, and flowers like Cosmos, sunflowers, Gaillardia, Echinacea, bachelor’s button, and yarrow.

Agastache

Mint family herbs include thyme, rosemary, lavender, catnip, horehound, and sage, and flowers include catmint, Agastache, and Pycnanthemum.

If you’ve been growing vegetables for a while now, think about redesigning your approach to the garden to include flowers and herbs. If you’re planning your first vegetable garden definitely incorporate ideas from nature to make your garden work for you.

David Deardorff PhD
Kathryn Wadsworth
www.ddandkw.com

• Make Your Garden Work for You (Friday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.) with David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth
• Be a Plant Doctor. No Ph.D. Required (Saturday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.) with David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth
• HeritageHarvestFestival.com
• Festival Tickets

• Best Fruit Tree Varieties for the Mid-Atlantic (Friday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.) with Kathy Jentz
• Small Space Gardening (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.) with Kathy Jentz
• HeritageHarvestFestival.com
• Festival Tickets

It’s now been two winters since I traveled up to Keene, NH, to defend my dissertation on the “Loss of Ethnobotanical Knowledge in the Bull Run Mountains of Virginia”. The night before I had spent the evening with Rosemary Gladstar snowed in at Sage Mountain. We had a deep discussion not about the loss of plant knowledge but its reemergence, as she has witnessed the growth and demand of herbalism and thus the need to establish United Plant Savers, as a non-profit organization, to be a voice for the plants. 

The theme of my dissertation is that knowledge is not necessarily lost but instead dormant, waiting to re-emerge. Thus it seemed synchronistic that the morning of my defense, as I was sitting there eating breakfast at a small inn in southern Vermont, there on the wall was the most serene painting of a winter day in New England. I sat there gazing at the painting’s simplistic snow covered field with a small wooden fence as the only sign of life besides the sky’s colorful blues and pinks in the far distance. There were moments when I mourned the loss of local ecological knowledge in my study in which I interviewed elders in the Bull Run Mountains. Ironically, though, in the final year of writing up my research I realized that it is important to understand the process of loss, because it is through a deep understanding of how and why the way in which plant use changed historically around the 1940s that we gain a more thorough understanding of the importance of the role plants play in local communities. It is through this research that I devised the illustration, “Gears in Motion, Benefits of Local Ecological Knowledge in Regards to Plant Use”. I discovered through the interview process the powerful and also inspirational way plant use drives social and community benefits. Social benefits revealed themselves in the stories that evoked pride in being self-sufficient, such as growing one’s own food and knowing where and how to harvest plants for food and medicine and many other valuable skills. Another social benefit is the intangible feeling of sense of place that grounds a person who knows the ecology of one’s home. The community benefits were clearly demonstrated in stories from the Great Depression. Locals were protected from the economic recession because small self-sufficient homesteads provided critical food security. Then there were the stories of community cohesion, especially surrounding the local mill, where farmers came together and where locally gathered products were bartered, such as wild harvested cress and pokeweed in spring.

The Bull Run Mountains were at the time of settlement a remote outpost already abandoned by Native Americans.  Land grants were given out in parcels starting around the late 1700s. What grabbed my attention as I gathered the folkloric stories and ways in which plants were used or economically significant was that it was only within a hundred years or so that a strong knowledge of plant use emerged. The interview data collected documented local folklore, agricultural and foraging skills, and ecological interactions such as intentional use of fire.  This was significant to me because as I mourned witnessing the loss of knowledge, or the transmission that could be broken in a single generation, on the flip side it seemed that this connection could come back from the realm of dormancy in just a few generations. I learned from studying the folklore of the Bull Run Mountains that this endemic culture attached to a small geographical area developed a connection to plants that was profound in a very short time period relative to indigenous cultures. This concept is important to grasp because it validates our ability at this critical time in human evolution to heal Gaia and ourselves. One folkloric tale that seemed to exemplify the connection that the settlers of the Bull Run Mountains made with spirits of those plants was a story called, “The Growing Tree”.

The story begins with an old woman who lived by herself and “had a gif’ o’ doctoring wi’ herbs and roots she got herself and th’ proper time t’ use ‘em” (Beale, 1941). This woman was the midwife for the mountain, and many said she had a lot to do with the future health of newborn babies that she helped deliver. One of her rituals to ensure a healthy baby was performed right after the baby was born and before the baby was washed: she took a piece of the newborn hair, and as soon as she could find a young tree she would cut a slit, put the hair into the slit, and then chink the tree up. She would most often choose a poplar tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) because it grows fast and straight. Because poplar did grow fast and straight, there was a risk that the tree would be cut before the child finished growing, and in this case it was bad both for the person who cut the tree and the child. In the case of Simon Kenton (1755-1836), who was born in the Bull Run Mountains, she chose a gum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua), which grows slowly and is sometimes malformed. This particular gum tree was hit by lightning, and a limb was taken to make gun-stocks. Both of these events should have caused the tree to be stunted, but it grew tall and straight nonetheless, just like Simon Kenton, who later in life traveled out west and was known for saving Daniel Boone’s life and escaping numerous near death experiences.

This folk legend is so rich because it ties the history of midwives and the use of herbs and roots to life in the mountains. The legend also provides a link between local folklore and the necessity of herbal medicine. The legend reveals the folk magic/trick of a midwife admired for her abilities, reflects a unique belief system that connects human life to one’s relationship to the growth characteristics of specific tree species. It also reinforces the idea of how knowledge can be perceived as power; in this case, the midwife’s knowledge of plants gave her presumed power. This knowledge existed because during Simon Kenton’s time plant use and the role of midwives were of necessity. This is important to the next insight into the concept of dormancy, because it is out of necessity that critical knowledge takes on the role as social power. Time wise it is important to point out that the social status of midwives shifted dramatically by 1935, when it was estimated that 37% of women in America were having hospital births, and by 1950, that number grew to 80% (Rooks, 1999).

In finishing my dissertation on the theory of dormancy, meditating on the beauty of the winter painting I had stumbled across, it could not seem more synergistic that I embark on a new journey as the Executive Director of United Plant Savers. The organization’s inception grew out of a concern to be a watchful eye for those native species that were in danger of over-harvesting due to the rise in demand for herbal medicine. UpS has not only championed the cause, but more importantly it has been a grass roots organization connecting plant people to each other and vocalizing the spiritual wisdom that goes along with respecting our plant elders. Thus we are like the sun rising on a winter’s calm landscape, silently awaiting our reemergence out of dormancy into the gears in motion of the interactions between plants and people. The Heritage Festival is an example of this reemergence as we gather and celebrate the diversity of seeds, and ways in which we connect and interact with plants.  I look forward to participating in this event sharing about the work that United Plant Savers carries out in regards to medicinal plant conservation.  At this event I will talk about our Botanical Sanctuary Network and the recent research in regards to poaching of medicinal plant in our parks and national forests in Virginia.  I will also be talking about why we need to ensure that we protect remote populations of medicinal plants as we are just now beginning to understand the relationship between genetic diversity and medicinal alkaloids.

Green Blessings,
Susan Leopold, PhD. Executive Director, United Plant Savers.
unitedplantsavers.org

Bibliography:

• Beale (1941). Barden, (Ed). (1991). Virginia Folk Legends. The University of Virginia Press. Charlottesville, VA.
• Rooks (1999). Midwifery and Childbirth. Temple University Press. Philadelphia, PA.
• Leopold (2011). Dormant Ethnobotany: A Case Study of Decline in Regional Plant Knowledge in the Bull Run Mountains of Virginia. Ph.D. Dissertation. Keen, NH: Antioch University Department of Environmental Studies.

• United Plant Savers: Promoting Stewardship of At-Risk Native Medicinal Herbs (Saturday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.) with Susan Leopold
• HeritageHarvestFestival.com
• Festival Tickets

Snapdragons in May

Sharing the best-kept secret in gardening has become a source of inspiration for me as well as for those who hear it. The secret is: how easy it is to grow flowers planted in the fall and how simple it is to do from seed. This group of flowers will be the first bloomers come spring and will continue to perform into summer after spending the winter becoming well established.

Sweet William in May

Planting pansies in the fall is widely practiced by gardeners everywhere.  But not nearly so well known is the fact that many other flowers follow the same growing conditions as pansies. This group of plants is known as hardy annuals–hardy meaning they survive and often thrive through winter and annual means it performs for one season.

Larkspur in May

What are these plants? Well I will tell you that they are some of the most beloved spring bloomers to grow in a garden–sweet peas, sweet william, snapdragons, larkspur, bells of Ireland, and so many more! Try your best to grow them in spring, you will have little to no success, but plant them in the fall and you will not believe how well they perform.

Sweet Peas in June

Another really easy part of gardening in this “forgotten season” is that many of the flowers prefer to have their seeds planted straight in the garden. Couple this with the favorable gardening conditions of fall–warm days, cool nights and occasional rain—and planting seeds is a sure success!

The Sweet Pea Harvest in June

On our farm we plant in the fall to have a large garden blooming in spring. These flowers are our cash crop for April, May, and June and into July. As I write this in late March, the garden is preparing to spring into action any day. The snapdragons are coloring up and the sweet william is already putting on the show. I cannot tell you how inspiring it is to have an amazing garden this early–and I did all the work last fall!

Come learn the best kept secret in the garden world!

Lisa Ziegler
Gardeners Workshop Farm
www.shoptgw.com

• Easy Fall Planted Cut Flowers from Seed (Saturday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.)
  with Lisa Ziegler
• HeritageHarvestFestival.com
• Festival Tickets

All trimmings to the hens

For the third year at the Heritage Harvest Festival I am really looking forward to my tag-team workshop on raising hens in one’s back yard, something even urban folks did quite routinely up through the turn of the 20th century. Working with Guinevere Higgins has been a blast! I’ve raised chickens for both eggs and meat off and on for over forty years and my husband and I particularly love the golden yellow, mild mannered Buff Orpington. However, at each festival workshop it has been fun comparing the benefits and drawbacks of the many popular and unusual individual chicken breeds. My particular focus in our workshop tends to be the use of the birds for meat after they have spent their egg-laying life, including how to humanely butcher chickens, as well as how to prepare and freeze the meat.

Master of the coop

Back on our South Dakota farm I kept 25 laying hens and raised 400 fryers each year, but here in Virginia I keep only a very small flock for eggs and raise 40-50 meat birds for our own use each season. In addition, from spring through fall on our small acreage in western Albemarle County I teach rural life skills (cookery, gardening, canning, and raising small livestock; all in a historical context).

Hens doing their duty

Leni Sorensen, PhD
Culinary Historian
www.indigohousehistory.com

• Hens in the Hood & Broilers in the Backyard (Friday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.) with Guinevere Higgins and Leni Sorensen
• Hens in the Hood & Broilers in the Backyard (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.) with Guinevere Higgins and Leni Sorensen
• HeritageHarvestFestival.com
• Festival Tickets

a mining bee on apple blossoms

squash bees in a squash blossom

I’ll also highlight ways you can support bee and other beneficial insect populations on your farm and in surrounding landscapes.  You can protect and plant pollen and nectar sources (right now trees like willow, maple, redbud, and serviceberry are providing a lot of food for early spring bees, and later in the season meadow species like beebalm, milkweed, and wingstem will be vital), protect nesting sites (scout for and protect bare areas for groundnesting bees, leave dead wood and canes for cavity nesting bees, and leave bunch grasses like broomsedge unmown for bumble bees) and take care in your use of pesticides (even organic pesticides can kill bees if sprayed when they’re visiting flowers).

bumble bees in a squash blossom

a bee community on wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia)

If you’d like to see a few Virginia bees in action, you can watch a short video montage.  For information on pollination resources for the mid-Atlantic region, visit xerces.org. Contact me, Nancy Adamson, at nancy@xerces.org or nancy.adamson@gnb.usda.gov, where I work jointly as a Pollinator Conservation  Specialist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service.

• Farming for Pollinators (Friday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.) with Nancy Adamson
• Farming for Pollinators (Saturday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.) with Nancy Adamson
• HeritageHarvestFestival.com
• Festival Tickets