We hope that everyone will come down to Pathfinder Produce this
week, Thursday, June 16, from 1 to 5 p.m., for our next delicious and
well-stocked market. Our Pathfinder Produce Hoop House “home grown” items
are now available, and we offer a wide selection of other fresh items, just
brimming with flavor and nutrition. Try to add some fruit and veggie
splash to your Father’s Day fun!
***
Recently, my co-worker Martha and I were discussing the recent
re-make of the mini-series “Roots” and how it compared to the ABC-TV
blockbuster series from 1977, which both elevated LeVar Burton to stardom and
created huge interest in family history research. Afterwards, I found my
copy of the novel, and now I am tearing through it. It’s well worth a revisit
and offers some great comparative agricultural and food history.
In the early chapters of the book, Author Alex Haley intertwines
the farming practices that were prevalent in the pre-European conquest era of
West Africa into the narrative: The story offers insight into land usage
and ownership, the seasonality of food, the division of labor, and illustrates
how humans both adapted to and manipulated their environments. Gambian
River Basin crops mentioned include rice, which the village women grew in marshy
lands; couscous, a product made with semolina wheat that was another staple
crop; groundnuts, which I believe are the same or similar to our peanuts, and
yams, which are a distinct species from our sweet potatoes, which are Central
American in origin. Corn, another product out of the Americas, is
mentioned briefly, but it wasn’t an important food until later; non-fictional
sources indicate that it became an important crop in Africa after the
mid-19th century.
The “Roots” tale then segues into Colonial American agriculture,
as the young protagonist is brutally enslaved at about the time of the War of
Independence. The southern plantation system was firmly entrenched by
that time in Virginia, the Carolinas, and the other southern colonies.
Tobacco and cotton, rice and indigo were commercially grown, and were
labor and land-intensive. Tobacco and cotton were planted in large fields, wore
the land out quickly, and made it necessary to clear new fields in a
never-ceasing cycle that encroached on Native lands and further entrenched
slavery. This brief
essay by History Professor Timothy Silver from the website of the National
Humanities Center further discusses how three main cultures -- African, English
and Native – intersected in the South during this era and impacted the
landscape through agricultural activities.
Today’s interest in southern style cooking is revealing its roots
in slave cookery, and offers glimpses of how staples – like
rice (Oryza glaberrima) -- migrated
from Africa to the American South. More and more upscale restaurants
and food
historians are re-discovering these cultural ties. According to the
website of membership-based non-profit Southern
Foodways Alliance, “African traditions have had the most impact on the
flavors and the methods of Southern cookery.” I also think this
resurgence is woven into the current real food and slow food movements, through
which ordinary folks celebrate pure, non-processed ingredients and home
preparation over commercial processing.
So until next time, savor the stories of the foods you eat, and
maybe even trace back some of your favorites’ historical roots. You just
never know what tales there are in the larder!
Lori
