Welcome . . .
Welcome to Seeds & Receipts, an online collection of galleries honoring elements of my food story and how it is interlaced with others. Here you’ll find personal food writings alongside recipes from my past, present and future; dedications to the people who’ve fed me; and ingredient profiles for those who are interested in getting nerdy.
This ongoing collection is also a call for your engagement, and I welcome you to share what resonates or comes up for you as you read via comments, thoughts, critiques, or video responses that can be sent to mayamarie.food.edu@gmail.com.
Warmly,
Maya
(Photo by Maya marie @ Kcc urban farm Summer 2019)
Seeds & Receipts is a multimedia project for deepening knowledge around Black food and farming through cooking.
It is an ongoing collection of profiles about the crops, people, land, and innovations that connect the African diaspora to the Americas, Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. Alongside these profiles are recipe galleries contextualized with personal essays, videos, illustrations, and other elements to create an immersive experience.
Site Map
Food Galleries and Receipts
People Profiles
Crop Profiles
Q & A
Why Seeds & Receipts?
For me seeds represent and encourage life, death, growth, patience, strength, tenderness, gratitude, adaptation, and legacy. I want to express these elements through this online collection in a playful and venerable way.
Recipes were originally called receipts because they were meant to record and transfer information in the case of its original creator not being around or to profit off of knowledge (e.g. white slave owning mistresses needing to know how their enslaved black cooks made certain dishes). Many receipts were originally a paragraph or so, with very minimal directions and the ingredients were in the directions rather than being listed. Receipts in a lot of ways required you to do more than read, you had to know another cook and/or have some experience, or a desire to gain experience, in the kitchen.
To me this illustrates how cooking is more than reading a list of ingredients and following directions, its a vehicle for communicating and sharing with other people. I want this collection to be a site of that sort of sharing and communication. Although no judgement if you’re just here for photos, recipes and profiles. But. . . you might get more out of it if you read a story or two and place the music and videos provided to create a shared experience.
How often is this place updated?
2-3 times a season there will be a new profile, writing, and/or feature. I’ll post it on my socials.
Who are you and what made you create this?
This is me (provide link).
I’m also interested in making information about food history widely available so that more Black and POC are empowered to learn about their own rich food histories and build on them.
Also . . . not to get too too dark . . . but as a farmer and cook, life and death are often at the forefront of my mind, and I’m interested in creating spaces that celebrate the living and dead while I’m still here. I feel like food is a great place to celebrate the living (cooks, farmers, mothers, fathers, scientists, coworkers, friends, plants, water, etc.) and honor the dead (animals, grandparents, plants, friends, etc.) who continue to give life and guidance in obvious as well as subtle ways.
Is this apart of some religious or spiritual practice?
No . . . but you can interpret it that way if you want.