In this age of disconnection, food has the power to bring us back together. The seeds we sow, the food we grow, and the meals we make together create the fabric of a flourishing local food web. One of our favorite units offered through our Youth Collective begins unsurprisingly, with a seed. We observe seeds first as humans, nestled as we are in a 10,000+ year lineage of land and seed stewardship. We then observe seeds as farmers and naturalists, asking why seeds look the way they do, and how they germinate and grow. Then we observe seeds as cooks! Two fall favorites are corn and roselle.
First, we shuck and shell Dudley Family dent corn, a local variety that our Seed Collective has been working to revive. Next we grind the corn using a traditional lava rock metate, a hand grinder, and an electric grinder. As we go, we select the best seeds for next year. Slowly sifting grits from cornmeal, we reflect on how culture arises around the interconnected ways in which we grow, process, and prepare food together. Conversations arise organically, as if from the seeds themselves.
Mel walks the rows of corn at The Family Garden in 2019. The variety needs some work to winnow out badly formed ears. Bad seed for growing is fine for eating and turned into corn meal, flour and grits!
Next up is roselle, aptly nicknamed “sour flower” by a four year old, it’s become a familiar favorite in many local gardens, and has been celebrated two years in a row now during the Roselle Festival at Frog Song Organics farm! Telling stories of roselle’s historical travels from Africa to our gardens, we nibble their leaves and calyxes, and drink the tea year round – ice cold and refreshing on hot days, or warm and spicy on cold winter days.
Thousands of juicy red calyxes were harvested recently, seed pods carefully removed and calyxes washed. The processed calyxes are sorted, labeled and stored in our commercial walk-in freezer, with plans to utilize them in teas and projects throughout the year. But with hundreds of pounds still to share after GROW HUB staff harvested all they needed (including the donkeys who demonstrated a surprising fondness for them!), we found a perfect outlet for the surplus with one of our kitchen entrepreneurs.
Val Leitner, owner of Oystercatcher Shellfish recently suffered substantial loss of her shellfish stock in Horseshoe Beach after Hurricane Idalia. Looking for additional sources of revenue and opportunity, Val turned our excess roselle into a delicious Southern “Cranberry” Sauce simmered with spices and Dudley Farm cane syrup, just in time for the holidays (order yours by contacting Val directly)! Val is just one of many local food businesses that share our Working Food Community Kitchen that use locally grown produce and sell their products exclusively at local farmers markets.
Saving roselle seed, harvesting calyxes at the Duval Community Garden, and enjoying fresh roselle “cranberry” sauce on homemade cornbread!
Tying it all together, students make cornbread from scratch – from the seeds we’ve grown, ground, sifted and baked together. Older students who have done this for years lead the class, singing as we shake cream into butter. Warm fresh-baked cornbread is slathered with butter and sour flower jam from the gardens. We feast together, with plenty to share for family and friends at home.
As a community, we can do this too -growing, cooking and eating food together. Taking care of place and each other until, in the words of Mary Oliver, “the giving feels like receiving” because, when it comes to a flourishing food web, it truly is.
