The Cooking Gene: Activism and Relevance–Why This Matters

Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi.---Twi Proverb (It isn't wrong to go back and get what you have forgotten.) Food is incredibly political and so is history.  Politics doesn't feed, but activism does.  That's why we're doing this.  We're inspired to use knowledge to make change even as we seek to preserve our …

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The Cooking Gene: Identity and Food and Family History

"Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you what you are." Those are the famous words of Brilliat-Savarin that everybody seems to have morphed into "You are what you eat."  I like the "original" translation a lot better.  It's more accurate....it's not so much that we are what we eat than it is true …

My Grandmother’s Fried Green Tomatoes

Fried Green Tomatoes: Grammy Style According to my Mother, "Mama raised some beautiful, fist-sized tomatoes.  We'd go out to the garden at Kennedy Street in D.C. and get baby squash, a few green beans, greens, and one time you wanted to plant like the Indians, so we planted broccoli each with a sardine."   INGREDIENTS 2 …

Into another Country…..and into More Country…Charting our Journey

Alabama.....Russell County, Coosa County, Clay, Monroe, Tallapoosa, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson.....North Carolina.....Nash, Edgecombe, Onslow, South Carolina...Charleston, Lancaster, Virginia....Richmond City, Henrico Co., Prince Edward, Appomattox, Buckingham, Lynchburg, Amelia, Surry, New Kent, Accomac....south central Tennesee, western Georgia.... "Where?" in the South is not an easy question... I guess I have always put these places in some mythical category …

Food History and the Cooking Gene

There are four aspects to The Cooking Gene--Genealogy, Food History, Identity and Connection/Legacy.  The campaign to fund the Southern Discomfort Tour begins February 1, 2012 on Indiegogo.com.  I encourage you to make sure everybody in your network knows about it and passes it on!    We want this campaign to be as successful as possible! Food …

Genealogy and Food: What it all Means

There are four aspects to The Cooking Gene--Genealogy, Food History, Identity and Connection.  The campaign to fund the Southern Discomfort Tour begins February 1, 2012 on Indiegogo.com.  I encourage you to make sure everybody in your network knows about it and passes it on! My Great-Great Grandmother Hattie Mabry Bellamy born enslaved, 1862? Russell County, Alabama/Source: …

First Steps: Welcome to The Cooking Gene

So there are a few different threads that are coming together to make this project: ---My love for African American foodways, historic and otherwise, Southern foodways--historic and otherwise, and the land and the people that make them possible...and making sure that the story of the African/African American contribution get's told in an accurate, respectful and …

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