Agraria_Journal_Summer_2022

ON SEEDS, FOOD, AND FOODWAYS eating was quite varied and seasonal. Growing up we always had a patch of mixed greens. I’m very interested in figuring out how I can help young Black farmers make money because it’s not just in growing food that you make money; it’s like adding value-added products and getting that money that middle people are getting, and having it be more directly connected to the farmers. Amanda: What advice would you give young people to encourage them to save seed? Ira: Pick one seed that is important to you to pass on a living legacy to your children and to your grandchildren, something eaten in the community that you grew up with. We have one bean called a wedding bean that used to be given out. I planted two seeds and they covered a five-foot trellis and I got like 10 pounds of beans from these two seeds and this is just one part of self-sufficiency that we lack in our communities. I want to encourage young people to grab that heritage and make it their own. Beth Bridgeman, an associate professor of cooperative education at Antioch College, leads seed saving workshops at Agraria. COMPILED BY BETH BRIDGEMAN AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022 31 Michael Twitty is a Black teacher, cook, culinary historian, historical interpreter and author of The Cooking Gene: A Journey through African-American Culinary History in the Old South . Edna Lewis was an award-winning Black writer of cookbooks. The first edition of one of her most famous, In Pursuit of Flavor , is featured at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Dr. David Shields , professor, author of Southern Provisions: The Creation and Revival of a Cuisine and chairman of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, researches and has helped resurrect lost varieties of historic crops, such as the Bradford Watermelon, Carolina African Runner Peanut, Rice Peas, and Purple Ribbon Sugar Cane, and incorporate them into the modern American Foodways. Edward Davis and John Morgan researched the origins, journey and stories of the collard from West Africa to the American South in Collards: A Southern Tradition from Seed to Table . Read about the Willian Alexander Heading collard at heirloomcollards.org/project/william-alexander-heading-76-2/ Ujaama Seeds (ujamaaseeds.com/) , is a project of the Ujaama Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA) (https://ujamaafarms. com/), a BIPOC-led collective that recognizes the need for increased diversity in farming in general, and diversity in the $15 billion dollar U.S. seed industry in particular. They are committed to providing increased opportunities and support for growers from historically marginalized communities. To this end, the Ujaama Cooperative Farming Alliance is working to bridge the gap between prospective growers and seed companies. Southern Exposure Interview with Ira Wallace: southernfoodways.org/interview/ira-wallace/