Soul food is the ethnic cuisine of African Americans. Originating in the American South from the cuisines of enslaved Africans transported from Africa through the Atlantic slave trade, soul food is closely associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States. The expression "soul food" originated in the mid-1960s when "soul" was a common word used to describe African-American culture. Soul food uses cooking techniques and ingredients from West African, Central African, Western European, and Indigenous cuisine of the Americas.
The cuisine of the Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several subregions, including cuisine of Southeastern Native American tribes, Tidewater, Appalachian, Ozarks, Lowcountry, Cajun, Creole, African American cuisine and Floribbean, Spanish, French, British, and German cuisine. In recent history, elements of Southern cuisine have spread to other parts of the United States, influencing other types of American cuisine.
Sesame is a plant in the genus Sesamum, also called simsim, benne or gingelly. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods. World production in 2018 was 6 million tonnes, with Sudan, Myanmar, and India as the largest producers.
In agriculture and gardening, seed saving is the practice of saving seeds or other reproductive material from vegetables, grain, herbs, and flowers for use from year to year for annuals and nuts, tree fruits, and berries for perennials and trees. This is the traditional way farms and gardens were maintained for the last 12,000 years.
Acorn is a farm-based, anarchist, egalitarian, intentional community located in rural Louisa County, Virginia, United States. It is a member of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. Acorn was started in 1993 as a spin-off community of the older, larger Twin Oaks Community. In the early 1990s, the Twin Oaks population filled to capacity, with many more people who still wished to join. The increase of people put pressure on the community, eventually having the founding of Acorn by Twin Oaks members on a 75-acre farm 7 miles away from Twin Oaks.
Mother Earth News is a bi-monthly American magazine that has a circulation of 500,520 as of 2011. It is published in Topeka, Kansas.
An heirloom plant, heirloom variety, heritage fruit, or heirloom vegetable is an old cultivar of a plant used for food that is grown and maintained by gardeners and farmers, particularly in isolated communities of the Western world. These were commonly grown during earlier periods in human history, but are not used in modern large-scale agriculture.
Kent Whealy was an American activist, journalist and philanthropist who co-founded Seed Savers Exchange and promoted organic agriculture and the saving of heirloom seeds. Raised in Wellington, Kansas he was inspired by the works of agricultural geneticists Jack Harlan and H.Garrison Wilkes to use his training in communications to promote the protection of genetic diversity in agriculture.
Edna Regina Lewis was a renowned American chef, teacher, and author who helped refine the American view of Southern cooking. She championed the use of fresh, in season ingredients and characterized Southern food as fried chicken, pork, and fresh vegetables – most especially greens. She wrote and co-wrote four books which covered Southern cooking and life in a small community of freed slaves and their descendants.
The American Horticultural Society (AHS) is a nonprofit, membership-based organization that promotes American horticulture. It is headquartered at River Farm in Alexandria, Virginia.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE) is a cooperatively-owned seed company based out of Mineral, Virginia. SESE is a source for heirloom seeds and other open-pollinated (non-hybrid) seeds with an emphasis on vegetables, flowers, and herbs that grow well in the Mid-Atlantic region. SESE also supports seed saving and traditional seed breeding through their product line, through lectures and workshops, and by working with over 90 small seed-growing farmers in the Mid-Atlantic and other parts of the United States. SESE publishes an intermittent email newsletter and blog for gardeners, as well as the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Catalog and Garden Guide.
Cherokee Purple is the name of an old variety of tomato that develops a fruit with a deep, dusky-rose color while maintaining a somewhat greenish hue near the stem when mature for eating. The deep crimson interior and clear skin combination give it its distinctive color. It was one of the first of the darker color group of tomatoes sometimes described as "blacks." Southern Exposure Seed Exchange was the first seed company to offer Cherokee Purple, released in limited quantity in 1993. The Cherokee Purple has become a popular heirloom variety.
Amy Goldman Fowler is an American billionaire heiress, gardener, author, artist, philanthropist, and advocate for seed saving and heirloom fruits and vegetables. She is one of the foremost heirloom plant conservationists in the US. Goldman has been called "perhaps the world's premier vegetable gardener" by Gregory Long, president emeritus of The New York Botanical Garden.
Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) is an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, dedicated to the documentation, study and exploration of the foodways of the American South. Member-funded, it stages events, recognizes culinary contributions with awards and a hall of fame, produces documentary films, publishes writing, and maps the region’s culinary institutions recording oral history interviews. The group has about 800 members, a mixture of chefs, academics, writers, and eaters.
Ronni Lundy, is an American author and editor, whose work focuses on traditional Southern American foods, Appalachian foods, and music.
Heather Elizabeth Apple is a Canadian writer, artist, and educator, with an interest in organic horticulture. She was awarded a 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal in 1992.
Will Bonsall is an American author, seed saver and veganic farmer who lives in Maine. He is a regular speaker about seed saving, organic farming and veganic farming.
Jamila Norman is a first generation American, born in New York to Caribbean parents. She grew up in Queens, New York, then eventually moved, with her family, to Connecticut, and finally to Georgia. Her mother grew up on a family farm in Jamaica, and her father is from Trinidad. She earned a bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Georgia. She is a mother and currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
