“At the heart of the movement for liberation is the opportunity to heal intergenerational trauma. The most authentic way to do so is to cultivate the earth, eat the foods of your ancestors, reweave yourself back into the story that been sprouting from the village hearth since time immemorial.” - Rowen White, Indigenous Seed Keepers Network
Heritage and healing is Black farming. Many in the Black community find healing from the past through farming and growing heritage foods like collards, okra, and black eyed peas that are so central to Black American cooking. This singular practice honors the generations of ancestral earth knowledge and creativity, and reconfigures a painful relationship to land. The purple tree collard at Acta Non Verba’s farm in East Oakland. This variety was brought to the Bay Area from the American South during the Great Migration. It’s purple, green and even pink leaves and veins are distinct to this variety. It can easily be propagated from a single cutting. Okra is a seminal Black food often used in gumbo or fried and eaten on it’s own. The mucilaginous quality of okra is amazing for gut and digestive health. Black eyed peas ready to be planted. Many historians and culture keepers say that the bean was braided into the hair of enslaved African women, making their way across the Atlantic during the Middle Passage. This historical preservation of seed makes it especially significant to Black foodways.
"George Washington Carver in silhouette" by quinn.anya CC BY-SA 2.0
