“The term ‘reparations’ is often thought of as ‘forty acres and a mule.’ But I feel like what we should be asking for is forty acres and a tractor. And a tractor should just be a resource that we get when acquiring land in the form of reparations, because if we were to stay up with the times, and technology, and modernization, in order to steward forty acres, you need a tractor. And I think we need to be a little more realistic in our ask of what a reparation, or what land reform looks for.” — Melony Edwards
“There’s a lot of land out there that’s not being farmed. It’s in the hands of families, but it’s not being put to good use, and I think that there are opportunities for those people to come to the table and offer that land in partnership with young farmers or nonprofits and give people an opportunity to put into practice all of the things that they’ve learned.” — Natalie Baszile
My guests on this week’s episode of Food with Mark Bittman are a pair that left me feeling really inspired: Natalie Baszile and Melony Edwards. You have likely heard of Natalie — she’s an accomplished writer and filmmaker, and her novel, Queen Sugar, about siblings in Louisiana who come together to run the family’s sugar cane farm, was made into a TV series by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey. Her new book, We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy, is a beautiful anthology that examines Black people’s connection to the American land, from emancipation to today.
One of the stories in We Are Each Other’s Harvest is that of Melony Edwards, a first-generation farmer whose journey of reclaiming farming landed her on a twenty-acre mixed vegetable farm on rural Whidbey Island in Washington State, where she immersed herself in small scale agricultural practices. Edwards recently launched Ebony By Nature, a fiber farm, and is extending her knowledge in seed growing and saving. I’m really happy to welcome Natalie and Melony to the show.
The recipes featured in the episode are here (Pumpkin or Winter Squash Soup) and here (Bitter Greens Gratin).
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