Plants/Animals

Blue corn tassels at KCC Urban Farm (2020)

“The importance of Native American foods to the development of African American, Southern, and American cuisine, more broadly, cannot be understated. Perhaps no single food has more profoundly shaped African American and southern cuisine than maize, or corn.”

— Robert A. Gilmer

Plants, Animals, and herbs

This season’s featured plants are Corn and Tomatoes. Two plants that are incredibly entangled throughout my food story, but have also connected me to some of my favorite farmers in ways I hadn’t thought about prior to farming.

Corn and tomatoes are two, of many, indigenous plants I grew up eating for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and everywhere in between.

Whether it was cornbread, corn fritters, pupusas, party mix, syrup sandwiches, batter for chicken, or a cob alongside BBQ mains, there really hasn’t been a week in my life that I haven’t eaten corn in some form. Same with tomatoes. In soup, salad, in cabbage rolls, chili, lasagna, meatloaf, ketchup on a hot dog always, salsa, relish. The list could go on.

They’re also, two ingredients I’ve developed a deep reverence for as a farmer.

Whenever I stand next to corn, I feel really safe. The hairy, papery leaves create melodies in the wind that make my soul feel so comforted. The corn on the farm has never really been grown as a part of the farm’s larger crop plan for reasons unbeknownst to me, but, whenever someone has decided to plant a few seeds in a neglected area of the farm, that corn patch becomes my sanctuary. I’ll go there every other week or so to sink my knees nearby their roots to express gratitude or sometimes to cry and ask for guidance.

Every summer I look forward to trellising tomatoes because it reminds me so much of the process of braiding hair. An act of service and love for something that would honestly be fine if left alone. However, similar to braiding hair, it’s not really about “taming something unruly”, as much as it’s about bonding with another being and helping them get rid of excess branches or parts that could inhibit healthier growth patterns later on.

For these reasons, and many more, the Fall galleries are celebrating corn and tomatoes. And yes, corn and tomatoes grow in the summer and this was honestly supposed to go up in August, but here we are.