Heirloom Gardens

Ira and Sariah talking in the Spelman Garden.

About the project

The Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project is a collaboration of Princeton University, Spelman College, and the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance to collect oral histories of people who have worked to preserve Black and Indigenous seed and foodways through the Southeastern United States and Appalachia.  Working across six sites over two years, students and faculty will work with communities to interview and archive the stories of farmers, gardeners, chefs, community organizers, local historians and others who have been actively sustaining rich farming, culinary, and medicinal traditions.  

People

Bonnetta Adeeb
Co-Founder
Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance
Whitney Barr
Program and Garden Manager
Food Studies Program
Spelman College
Tessa Lowinske Desmond
Associate Research Scholar & Lecturer
Effron Center for the Study of America, Princeton University
Hanna Garth
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Princeton University
Fatimah Hasan
Co-Founder
Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance
Kimberly Jackson
Professor of Biochemistry
Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Director of the Food Studies Program
Spelman College
Christian Keeve
Doctoral Candidate in Geography
University of Kentucky

Share your story

We’d love to hear your stories of working to preserve Black and Indigenous seed and foodways in the Southeastern United States and Appalachia!  If you’d like to talk about your experiences, please send us a message.    

Location

* The project is currently focused on the Southeastern United States and Appalachia.

Planting seeds and beans

Supported by

The Princeton Alliance for Collaborative Research and Innovation, an initiative of the Office of the Dean for Research at Princeton University