06/19/2026
As we observe Juneteenth this year, I hope you will pause to learn about three Black herbalists whose work has been foundational to present-day understanding.
As a garden historian, I find that the successful survival of ancestors (indigenous, enslaved, and immigrant) in back yard gardens, kitchens and regional landscapes; offer a far more engaging, useful and inclusive history than the study of wars and conquests. When we take time to explore the lives of marginalized people (like the women who were the primary caretakers of gardens scarcely mentioned throughout garden history), we often unearth helpful seeds and clues to lifeways that nourished mind, body, spirit, and planet.
Like Heirloom seeds, our history is our shared cultural inheritance. Nurturing these seeds and stories, cultivates much needed common ground...and with the smallest of seeds you can hold in the palm of your hand, we can all participate in healing a nation, and an ailing planet. https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbg.org%2Farticle%2Fblack_herbalists_harriet_tubman_emma_dupree%3Ffbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR27rKsF2CyPS5gnXhVzaF2iVUjZj1IT3Fhrb5l5lIhN57RF1qX5k5Lo8sA_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw&h=AT0QNUHulYtyWUD7GvNYcVZI3u1VTJSAmCESsU65D9zLQxUaGycHyTKysTVyrpKAMzj0hUCcgpMLZkCk5F4G0aqI5DpguNExWgPrbN6Vj8_sHWhKCW7EkXAwnsKuyU3qXg&__tn__=%2CmH-R-R&c[0]=AT3gxttpgu1w3zNNvQIaKcm1aZcJozDDM1U5TANoeWQNWVls_LqYR5aEK2TV9fk-KHBy3isYaKulen4XmtrPhPqubHoMDP4Tybx8FRjAVXvrSiQCia6mx7GCV1jmWPU1vIIeE5HYUSDGNyA4BrbQccxpt0vmE1nIXtbRyh9hUYcNZPcSXfM7PW4lslNgH75LCM2FdzIsitUz6b1ZdG7PlpHKZZDifR03fu-A
