Coral sorghum. The majestic Coral Sorghum, Sorghum bicolor, was developed by the Shilluk people of South Sudan and cultivated across the savannas all the way to Mauritania. Its sweet canes can be pressed for juice to make sorghum syrup, and its large purple grains can be popped, boiled, ground into flour, and brewed as beer. It is tolerant of drought and marginal soil. Sugar Drip Sorghum is another variety popular in the South for its high sugar content.
African black rice. In rapid decline, Oryza glaberrima mainly persists for ritual use by the Jola people of Senegal. The farmers of the Niger River watershed domesticated it 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. It is superior to the Asian rice variety in terms of its climate adaptability and nutritional value.15
Finger millet, dragon’s claw. Millet, Eleusine coracana, is native to the Ethiopian highlands and frequently intercropped with peanuts and cowpeas.
Distant Cousins
Many of the crops we have curated and cherished over millennia do not thrive in the soil to which we have been transplanted. For example, the yam (Dioscorea spp.), “King of Crops,” sits tired looking on the shelf of the African market in town having endured a transatlantic journey. Our ancestors recognized that the sweet potato, of the Convolvulaceae family, native to the Americas, could supplant the nutritional and spiritual role of the yam in Black agrarian life. Similarly, some of the greens of our homeland struggle in cool temperatures, so we grow malabar spinach (Basellaceae family), collard greens, amaranth, and spinach to fill that culinary niche.
The following sections cover growing tips for Umbelliferae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Liliaceae, Chenopodiaceae, and other crop families adapted to the northern climates that have become part of our cultural cuisine, even as recent adoptees by our people.
Umbelliferae Family: Carrots, Cilantro, Celery, Parsley, Parsnips
Carrots and parsnips are hearty root vegetables that can stand in for the tubers of our homelands in soups and desserts. Both of these crops have a long taproot that will not stand for transplanting, so we place the seeds directly into furrows in the ground. We recommend planting seeds at their precise spacing, rather than planting them thickly and thinning later, as it saves time overall. Weed prevention is exceptionally important, as carrots and parsnips are slow growing and easily overwhelmed by competitors. It is best to use a stale-bedding technique, which means weeding the area, waiting until another batch of weeds appears, weeding again, and then planting. This process depletes the weed seed bank in the top inch of soil so your roots can get a head start. Alternatively, you can use the tarping method described in previous chapters to smother the weeds in advance. Many farmers, including our fire-loving son Emet, like to flame-weed their carrots. Flame-weeding works by heat-damaging the growing point of the broadleaf weeds, but is less effective with grasses, which have a growing point below the soil line. One strategy is to plant a few fast-germinating radish seeds along with the slow-germinating carrots. When the radish seedlings come up, it means that the carrots are about one week behind. You can use a flame torch to burn the young weeds without damaging the pre-emergent carrots. It’s ridiculously fun and quite effective. Another challenge for carrots and parsnips is heavy clay soil. In order to prevent stunted and gnarly roots, we use a soil fork to loosen up the ground before direct seeding. These roots can also be harvested with the aid of a gentle loosening by the soil fork.
Parsley and celery are prolific, cold-tolerant, disease- and pest-resistant herbs that are super packed with nutrients. They can stand in for most greens in soup and stew. Parsley can also be used in pesto. They are slow germinators, so be patient and keep hope when you start the seeds indoors. We transplant our parsley in late spring and throughout the season, interspersing it with lettuce and tomatoes as a pest deterrent. Parsley can be continuously harvested when you cut it so that about 2 inches (5 cm) of the plant remain for regeneration. Celery is harvested when it reaches desired size; the whole plant is removed at once.
We manage to coax carrots out of our heavy clay soils, which brings us great joy. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Cilantro is a key ingredient in sofrito for our Afro-Latinx family. It can be direct seeded and grows quickly and abundantly. We find that we can get two to four cuttings of cilantro before it starts flowering. You can even plant the cilantro in early fall, cutting it once to leave ½ inch (1.25 cm) of stem and then allowing it to regrow. It will survive the winter and resume growth in the spring. After offering several rounds of tasty greens, the plant turns its energy toward making coriander seeds, which are a rich and potent spice. Culantro or Recao is also an essential ingredient in sofrito for many Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Trinidadians, and other Afro-Latinx people.
Asteraceae Family: Lettuce, Dandelion, Chicory
Lettuce is a versatile, popular, fast-maturing, and lucrative green that can be grown year-round in the North. We seed lettuce every two to three weeks in succession to ensure that there is always a steady supply for the members of our farm share. Lettuce can be transplanted with a wider spacing and allowed to fully mature into heads, or it can be direct seeded with tight spacing to be harvested as baby greens. Recently, farmers have been switching to Salanova as an alternative to direct seeding lettuce mix. It is transplanted at close spacing to completely cover the ground and harvested by the fistful, saving weeding and harvesting time. We use all three methods throughout the season. It is best not to mulch lettuce, as it can introduce debris into your harvested product. In fact, lettuce itself can act as a living mulch when broadcast in the understory of brassicas or other long-season crops.
Eat your weeds! Dandelion is nutritious, flavorful, and naturally abundant. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Dandelion and chicory grow wild in our region and are commonly regarded as weeds, despite the fact that their nutritional value far outshines lettuce and other cultivated greens. Both were frequently used by our enslaved ancestors as vegetables. They are some of the first edible greens in early spring, and can provide essential nutrients in the cool season before other crops come in. The young leaves of both dandelion and chicory can be harvested for fresh eating, soup, or herbal infusions.
Brassicaceae Family: Collards, Turnip, Cabbage, Radish, Kale, Cauliflower, Mustards, Brussels Sprouts
Collards, turnips, and cabbage have become central to Black cuisine, despite their genetic origins in Europe. The brassica family thrives in the North and produces a diverse array of vegetables, from brussels sprouts to cauliflower. We grow both a spring and fall crop of most of the members of this family. We start collards, kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts in the greenhouse in 1020 flats and transplant them into beds once they have four true leaves. Brassicas appreciate a thick straw mulch. We have found it most efficient to lay down the mulch on top of the prepared bed and then transplant into the mulch, rather than mulching after planting. When brassicas are young, they are sensitive to pest damage from flea beetles (Psylliodes chrysocephala), so we install floating row cover to keep off the bugs and give some extra warmth. The row covers can be removed once the plant sizes up to about 10 true leaves. In the middle of the season, the cabbage worm (Mamestra brassicae) becomes the major threat to brassica thriving. We intercrop marigold flowers in the brassica beds because they host parasitic and predatory beneficial insects that consume the eggs and larvae of the cabbage moth. For kale and collards, Pick it from the bottom is the mantra for keeping the plant healthy while continually harvesting. Use a downward motion to remove the leaves evenly from the bottom, always leaving at least five leaves intact to generate new growth. Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage are harvested when they “head up”; use a sharp knife to remove the vegetable. One of the magical things about brassicas is that they get sweeter after the frost, continuing to give love to the farmer after the less hardy crops have quit for the season.
Turnips, radishes, arugula, and mustards can be direct seeded. We space turnips and radishes precisely, rather than seeding densely and thinning later.
These roots are harvested based on size, and you can often get several harvests from the same bed. The greens of turnip are edible and delicious in stews. Some call turnip greens “the real greens of the Black South.” We plant mustard greens as a complement to baby lettuce in our salad mixes. Mustards grow to size a few days faster than the baby lettuce, so we plant them a bit later with the goal of having the entire salad mix mature on the same day. We do not use mulch on mustards, arugula, turnips, or radishes.
William Alexander Heading collards. This heirloom variety of collard greens comes to us via Black farmer William Alexander. A group of African American sorority sisters and Master Gardeners in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is keeping this variety alive for our community.
Green Glaze collards. This is the oldest known variety of collards, dating back to the late 18th century. Michael Twitty praises this variety as “pretty, waxy, crisp, tough against bugs, and extremely delicious.” The consumption of collards, or “sprouts,” was popularized by enslaved Black chefs in the American South. Ezra Adams, a formerly enslaved chef, said, “If you wants to know what I thinks is de best vittles, I’se gwine to be obliged to [admit] dat it is cabbage sprouts in de spring, and it is collard greens after frost has struck … I lak to eat.”16
East African kale. Amara, Ethiopian kale, has been grown in its homeland for over 6,000 years. Brassica carinata tastes like buttery young collards and can be grown like cutting lettuce, offering several harvests in a season.
Participants in BLFI tend to the collard greens at Soul Fire Farm. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Liliaceae Family: Onions, Garlic, Leeks, Scallions, Chives, Asparagus
The Liliaceae family gives us the profound gift of flavor. Onions, leeks, and scallions can be started from seed in the greenhouse in late winter and transplanted out as soon as the ground thaws. They are sensitive to weeds, so ensure that you prepared a weed-free area using tarping or stale bedding in the prior season. Some farmers like to plant onions and scallions in bunches to facilitate ease of weeding and harvest, rather than spacing them evenly. We have found good success with that strategy and plant scallions at five seeds per hole in the flat and then transplant those same five seedlings in a clump in the beds. Scallions, onions, and leeks are harvested based on size. For storage onions, wait until the stalks turn brown and die back to harvest. Then cure the onions by resting them in a warm, dry place for a few weeks before transferring to storage.
Youth at Soul Fire Farm harvest and tie garlic into bunches for curing. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
One garlic clove yields an entire bulb of garlic when planted directly into the ground in late fall. We plant our garlic around the time of Fet Gede, November 2, the Haitian holiday honoring the ancestors. Each garlic clove is separated, the papery covering intact, and placed in the ground with the pointy side up. We cover the planted ground with a thick layer of straw mulch and await spring, when the garlic shoots will penetrate the mulch covering and delight us with some of the first greenery of the season. Rather than discarding the very small cloves, you can plant them densely and cut the young leaves to make pesto. The leaves will regrow three or four times.
Egyptian walking onion. The perennial walking onion, Allium cepa var. aggregatum, originated in North Africa. It has a harvestable onion at the tip of its stalk. The onion is spreading and appears to “walk” across the field.17
Chenopodiaceae Family: Amaranth, Spinach, Beets, Swiss Chard
Callaloo is a Caribbean dish invented by enslaved Africans that features an indigenous green vegetable, sometimes in combination with African okra. For African Americans this green is usually collards or a member of the Chenopodiaceae family: amaranth, Swiss chard, or spinach. For Jamaicans, Belizeans, and Guyanese, callaloo almost always refers to amaranth. Amaranth is a high-protein, mineral-rich super green that tolerates poor soils. We direct seed amaranth in our milpa together with corn, beans, and squash. The leaves, seeds, and root are all edible.
Farmer Melony Edwards of Willowood Farm, Coupeville, Washington, harvests a giant chiogga beet that was overwintered. “We grow beets this big that are not woody and grow big from the result of LOVE.” Photo by Kyle England.
We prefer to transplant Swiss chard, and to direct seed spinach. We transplant the first two successions of beets, and then direct seed the later season successions. Of these crops, only the Swiss chard receives straw mulch, since we continually harvest it throughout the season. The leafminer (Pegomya hyoscyami) leaves unsightly brown tunnels in the leaves of the Swiss chard. It is best controlled by removing the damaged leaves regularly and putting them in the garbage, and by keeping the area free of weeds. Spinach and chard are harvested using a sharp knife, such that the growth point remains intact for regeneration. Spinach can also be cut below the growth point and bunched for a “one and done” crop. Beets are harvested when they reach the desired size.18
Convolvulaceae: Sweet Potatoes
The Diasporic King of Crops (Ipomoea batatas) is a staple food for our people and a mainstay for Black farmers. It is the spiritual and culinary stand-in for the African yam (Dioscorea cayenensis). Unlike most crops that are grown from seed, sweet potatoes are grown from slips. You can order these or sprout your own indoors. To grow sweet potato slips, cut a sweet potato tuber into large chunks and suspend them in water, with half of the tuber exposed to air and the other half in the water. You can use toothpicks to hold it in place. After a couple of weeks, green sprouts will emerge. Carefully twist these sprouts off the potato and transfer them into a shallow basin of water, where they will develop roots. In the meantime, prepare the soil to receive the sweet potato slips. Fork it thoroughly, as loose soil is essential to the development of large tubers. Once the slips have roots 1 inch (2.5 cm) long, they are ready to be transplanted. We like to use black plastic mulch and plant the slips into soil through holes that we have cut in the mulch. The black plastic warms the soil and suppresses weeds. Take care to position your sweet potatoes away from the field edges where mice will have easy access to burrow under the plastic mulch to eat your tubers. Regular watering is essential for the first few weeks after transplanting.
Both the leaves and tubers of sweet potatoes are edible. We harvest both at the same time in late summer. A soil fork is useful to loosen the soil and liberate the tubers. Cure the sweet potatoes in a warm, dry place for a few weeks before transferring to storage. You can use the leaves fresh, sautéed like spinach with onion, garlic, and a splash of hot spice.
Newly harvested sweet potato tubers and leaves at Soul Fire Farm. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Pedaliaceae: Sesame
The oldest oilseed crop known to humanity originated in sub-Saharan Africa, with cultivation beginning around 3500 BCE. Egyptians called it sesemt, and included it in the list of plant medicines in the scrolls of the Ebers Papyrus over 3,600 years ago. Enslaved Africans brought sesame (Sesamum indicum) to the Carolinas. Sesame is known as the survivor crop because it grows in adverse environments with high winds, drought, high heat, and even flooding. Sesame requires 90 to 120 frost-free days and prefers highly fertile soils. Sesame seeds grow within a capsule that bursts open when the seeds ripen, a process called dehiscence. Harvest sesame seeds before full maturity and store them in an upright position to continue ripening until the capsules open.
Polycultures
Splashed with bits of soil kicked back from the spray of the hose, we added the finishing touches to our long beds of green cabbage by transplanting lemon drop marigolds down the middle every few feet. Their delicate yellow flowers understated the thick, sweet aroma that permeated the air and clung to our fingertips. Lemon drop marigolds (Tagetes tenuifolia) attract green lacewings, ladybugs, hoverflies, and other predatory insects that eat aphids and the eggs of pest insects. We laughed and joked, wondering if all of these synergistic interspecific love relationships were trying to give us some message about how we should take care of one another in the human community.
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bsp; Marigolds and brassicas are one of our favorite polycropping combinations, for both practical and aesthetic reasons. In fact, planting beneficial flowers down the middle of beds or at the bed ends is the least intrusive way to get started with intercropping. Nasturtiums, marigolds, borage, sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and aromatic herbs all attract pollinators and predatory insects while adding a touch of color and joy to otherwise tedious rows of green. These flowers can be added at the end of virtually any crop row, but are especially suited to collaborate with brassicas, cucurbits, and solanums.
UPLIFT
Polycultures of Africa
Just as the forest does not plant a monoculture of one species of tree, so have our African ancestors universally developed intercropping strategies on their farms. The Hausa farmers of Nigeria developed at least 156 systematic crop combinations, including no-till polycultures of grains, legumes, and root crops planted on ridges. The Abakaliki farmers of Nigeria used their hoes to construct mounds and then planted crops on distinct parts of the mound; they planted yams on top of the mound, rice in the furrow, and maize, okra, melon, and cassava on the lower parts of the mound.19 They also intercropped egusi melon with sorghum, cassava, coffee, cotton, maize, and bananas because it confused the pests and blanketed the ground, suppressing weeds.20
Farming While Black Page 18
