Sweet, crisp, cool watermelon is about as good as it gets on hot summer days! 

 

We've been reading Slow Food's The Ark of Taste, which features prized heirloom varieties such as the Bradford and Moon and Stars watermelons. These melons are sizable with a deep red flesh and packed with seeds. Also known as ‘picnic melons’, they bring back memories of being a kid, playing with friends at a picnic, spitting seeds and savoring deliciousness. 

 

Recipe for pickled rinds.

 

See HERE.  

Oral History Project Preserves Black and Indigenous Food Traditions, by Liz Susman Karp, is a thoughtful tribute to the Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project (HGP), an initiative that aims to memorialize Black and Indigenous long-held expertise and culturally meaningful foods.

 

The article highlights a conversation with two of HGP’s organizers about how HGP “democratizes seed collection and knowledge-sharing while supporting diversity in the seed industry.” One grower talks about how saving and growing the seeds of her ancestors is not just about taste, “It’s also the memories and the possibilities for intercultural connections.”

 

Learn more HERE.

How can ecofeminism help us envision the future of food? by Alicia Kennedy reconnects readers to the ecofeminists writings from the 1990s. 

 

“Ecofeminism is a framework that sees the subjugation of nature and animals by humans as akin to the dominance of marginalized genders by patriarchy." The article is a powerful reminder of the gender injustices that continue today. Kennedy notes, “According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, women in agriculture earn 82 cents for each dollar earned by a male counterpart, while also enduring a greater burden of unpaid care work, cooking and cleaning — the social reproductive labor that enables wage labor — and being “underrepresented in climate policy decision-making at all levels.” Kennedy presents us with an opportunity -- to reimagine the food system and envision one that is just and resilient and integrates ecofeminist principles into new frameworks.

 

Learn more HERE. 

The demographic of farming is changing across the United States. More and more the stewards of farmland and growers of our food reflects the remarkable cultural diversity throughout the country. 

 

Farming with Pride: LGBTQ-Led Farms and Organizations to Support  by Ocean Robbins is an excellent breakdown of the obstacles that LGBTQ farmers face, what “Queering” agriculture looks like and models of cooperative ownership and decision -making.

 

Learn more HERE.

In June the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (CT DoAg), in partnership with Connecticut Land Conservation Council (CLCC), released “Farmland Access & Ownership: An Overview of Barriers, Models, and Actions to Increase Land Access for Connecticut’s BIPOC Farmers." 

 

CT DoAg engaged with CLCC to conduct the study and publish the report which looks at challenges and barriers to farmland access and ownership, as well as examining different cooperative models, focused on land trusts and publicly owned lands in urban and suburban areas.

 

The report, prepared by Yaw Owusu Darko, Senior Project Specialist Connecticut Land Conservation Council, speaks of the incredible work the CT BIPOC community is doing to advance food and land sovereignty throughout the state and region. 

 

Learn more HERE.