A radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. In late October, , we Chris and Owen walked down our Germantown, Philadelphia street to interview our friend and neighbor Ms. Valerie Erwin on her porch. We talked about traditional and less traditional Gullah Geechee foodways with a focus on rice, field peas, okra, cornbread, shrimp and grits, thyme, hog jowls, Nan-e berenji a Persian rice cookie , duck confit with fried Hoppin' John, and much more.
Of course, with Chris and Ms. Val on the same porch, there are lots of easy segues into the African influence on Southern food. We talked about her former restaurant, her work as a chef now, and we took a walk around her garden. Here is an excerpt from Ms. Valerie specializes in the food of the Low Countryβthe coast of South Carolina and Georgiaβwhere her grandparents were born.
Valerie spends her time catering, doing business consulting, and working on food related projects with cultural institutions such as the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Jazz Project. This episode, recorded in late September , features the voices and wisdom of East New York Farms youth leaders Jemel Thomas, Gaby, and Hope, as well as staff member Alexx Caceres as they talk about their community food work and seed keeping in particular.
We were chatting moments before I Owen led a seed keeping workshop for an awesome group of community members and visitors where all had a chance to share knowledge, swap seeds, and shell several types of beans this part was not recorded, sorry! After Alexx, you hear from Ms. Marlene Wilks and her twin sister Ms. Pauline Reid while we sit at their farmers market table outside East New York Farms' gates during a bustling market.
The two are from Jamaica and have been farming in East New York since and selling their Caribbean vegetables, herbs, and plants at this market since Several customers also share about their cultural foods: another Pauline from Jamaica, Molly from Senegal, and chef Desma Ross from Trinidad and Tobago. Marlene Wilks and Ms. This episode features a conversation in early July with Mohegan tribal members Sharon Maynard and Rachel Sayet about traditional Mohegan food.
