In The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South, Michael W. Twitty writes, “Food is an archiver, a keeper of secrets.” Yet Twitty, a culinary historian, scientist, cook, writer and reader, and justice seeker, shares everything, beginning with his Afroculinaria blog. With ancestral lines that span three continents and more than a dozen states and cities, Twitty speaks not about “from” but “of.” He is “of” these places, of parents born and raised “South by Midwest” and of people who liked to tell stories.

Most accounts suggest that cornmeal, also known by its Indigenous name maize, originated 8,000–10,000 years ago in an area of Mexico termed Mesoamerica and arrived in North America via the migration of Native Americans. In the New World, writes Elisabeth Rozin in Blue Corn and Chocolate, corn was a “beloved and worshipped grain that had nourished and nurtured the aboriginal populations for many thousands of years.” Indigenous peoples introduced corn to different parts of America, and eventually to Africa and Europe, through a system of trade routes. These cultures used intricate methods for farming, including the

images by Mary Jo Hoffman from her book Still, published by Phaidon

Artists and poets explore the ways gardening helps us experience the wonders of nature, tap into our unconscious minds, and bolster our creativity.

How interesting it is that so many artists, writers, poets, and musicians gravitate to gardening. One creative act begets another, after all. And gardening, like art, is process oriented. “It involves creative problem-solving, which is an important aspect of art,” according to artist and Turner Farm Community Gardens Director Peter Huttinger, who gardens alongside potters, jewelers, photographers, and even a puppeteer.