Tasting and Hearing Heritage Flavors

My children and I visited my friend David Ward and his family at their wonderful farm in Snow Camp. Our visit was initially planned to last an hour turned into a four hour farm tour.

I am finding that just learning about the stories of those who farm is just as interesting as the food they grow. David is a southerner while his wife, kasey, is Jamaican and the two cultures combine to create an interesting food culture. We talked about music, food, spices and fruits. We grilled okra and dear meat while the children ran around the yard and feed the goats.

Their interest is in unique and rare fruits. One of my favorite type of the rare watermelons he shared with me is called strawberry watermelon. I identified another 9 different types of mellons and 22 different tpes of fruits. Each watermelon had it's own flavorI. Commercial fruit growers have tended to concentrate on just a two or three types of watermelons for convenience. It was a great feeling to see so many heritage breeds of seeds gaining popularity. Each type of watermelon had it's own stories too.

What a great way to grow our food literacy through the stories of our seeds. In other words, in planting seeds, we are also planting history and stories of how that history came about. Here is a way of tasting different flavors and hearing history. It was a lovely day.