Through Princeton’s RISE (Recognizing Inequities and Standing for Equality) Fellowship, I was able to intern at the Seed Farm at Princeton and the Native Roots Farm Foundation this past summer. RISE internships are in service of humanity, allowing students to collaborate with community partners to foster positive societal outcomes. My work focused on environmental justice, sustainability, and land sovereignty through restoring community and farmer relationships with seeds and the plant cultivation process.
Working at the Seed Farm was a completely new experience for me. My first day on the job was particularly shocking. It was an uncharacteristically cool day, and it was raining buckets, so I showed up in my best farm clothes: my high school band jacket, linen pants, and my favorite Converse. To my surprise, instead of farming, we were tasked with mulching the dirt road to the Seed Farm! With pitchforks in hand, my fellow interns and I shoveled piles of mulch onto the road. While I was sopping wet and my favorite Converse were stained in mud, I formed valuable friendships during the downpour and fell in love with the laborious yet fulfilling work of the Seed Farm.
And fulfillment is probably the best word to describe my experience as an intern. Contrary to my initial experience, most of our work was on the farm: planting seeds, pulling weeds, spreading mulch, erecting trellises, constructing seed screens, and setting up drip-irrigation systems. We grew all our plants from seed, which were given to us by our community partners. Once the plants were mature, we harvested the seeds from them and gave them back to our community partners. The seeds helped advance a variety of initiatives in sustainable agriculture and community development. One of my favorite projects, which I had the chance to write a literature review for, was the African-Crops Polyculture. In this polyculture, we grew Okra, Sorghum, Watermelon, and Black-Eyed Peas in the same plot and examined their mutualisms in collaboration with community partners such as the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance. This initiative was special to me because my parents practiced polyculture while growing up in northern Ghana, so I was able to share some of their personal experiences. Projects like these allow farmers to connect with culturally significant plants while gaining economic independence through growing from seed. The Pace Center for Civic Engagement also funded a four-day trip to the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance in Maryland, allowing us to get a better understanding of their mission. It was fun to both help tend to their farm and deepen our relationships with seeds during the day and cook meals together once the work day concluded!
My internship involved weekly visits to Middletown, Delaware, where we helped at the Native Roots Farm Foundation’s Three Sisters Garden. The Native Roots Farm Foundation works to revitalize Nanticoke and Lenape relationships with their cultural plants. The most notable of these plants was the Lenni Lenape Blue Pulling Corn. The Seed Farm at Princeton has grown seeds of the Lenape Blue Corn, and the Native Roots Farm Foundation has ground this corn into flour and distributed it to members of the Nanticoke and Lenape tribe. We had the chance to try cookies baked from Lenape Blue corn flour, and those were some of the best cookies I have ever had!
I also interned remotely with Native Roots Farm Foundation. I conducted ethnobotanical research into Indigenous relationships with Winakw (Sassafras), Ahpawi (Cattail), Gachhachgik (Spicebush), Wisahkim (Riparian Grape), and Tekënei Ulèpënàk (Ramps) through looking at archival material. I communicated this information through five plant profiles, which will be displayed at Delaware’s celebration of the United States’ 250th Birthday. It was an amazing experience learning extensively about and talking with members of the Nanticoke and Lenape tribes, and I was able to see how the seeds we grew at the Seed Farm helped revitalize Indigenous relationships.
Working at the Seed Farm and the Native Roots Farm Foundation was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. I was so inspired by my summer experience that I joined the Food Justice and Sustainability Cohort of Service Focus, a program that promotes community-engaged scholarship! I have had the opportunity to continue engaging with the community partners I worked with over the summer through Service Focus.