Welcome to Emergence Magazine's podcast.

I'm Emmanuel Vaughn Lee, executive editor of Emergence Magazine.

In each issue, we feature in-depth interviews, narrated essays, and stories, exploring the threads connecting ecology, culture, and spirituality.

Thank you. culture and spirituality. Crystal Wilkinson is the author of The Birds of Opulence, Water Street, and Blackberries Blackberries.

In this essay, Crystal recalls her upbringing on a farm in Appalachia, where she was nourished in the abundance of her grandmother's kitchen.

Following the thread of recipes passed down through her family, Crystal traces the generations

of resilient women who, in the face of slavery and its brutal legacies, fed their families

with joy, love, and plenty.

People are always surprised that black people reside in the hills of Appalachia.

Those not surprised that we were there are surprised that we stayed.

My family lived in the hills of Kentucky for four generations.

My grandmother came from a long line of women who worked hard and cooked well.

The long list of food I'll describe here will make

you think my folks had deep pockets, but they didn't. Hardworking poor blacks who couldn't break

the barriers of nepotism or racism in education or the workforce, they continued the tradition

of farming, tobacco, corn, a few

head of cattle, a few dairy cows. My grandparents lived primarily off the land. They owned 64 acres

and had a modest income from the crops they raised. My grandfather prided himself on taking care of his family,

his animals, and his land. My grandmother prided herself on making sure her family was fed.

I read somewhere once that pride stems from fear. I imagined my grandparents were hungry more than once in their use,

but I never was. Every morning of my childhood, my grandmother, who stood a little under five

feet tall, dawned an apron and cooked breakfast, slow, precise, deliberate. She equated food with love, and she cooked with both a fury

...