Afrobotany

Host Marty DeHart sits down for a discussion with Ethnobotanist Marc Williams of Botany Every Day. Marc highlights the multitude of contributions that African Americans have made to the farm, garden, herbal, horticultural and scientific traditions in the U.S.

Gardener Extras

Soul Fire Farm brings diverse communities together on a healing land to share skills on sustainable agriculture, natural building, spiritual activism, health, and environmental justice. soulfirefarm.org
Nathan 'Nearest' Green was working on the farm of Rev. Dan Call in Lynchburg, TN as a skilled distiller. He was using a process known as sugar maple charcoal filtering. Jack Daniel, a 7-yr-old orphan, was sent to the Call Farm to be a chore boy. Eventually, Daniel became Green's apprentice.
Roibos Tea is derived from Aspalathus linearis (red bush) native only to the Cederburg Mtns of South Africa. The tea was enjoyed for its flavor and medicinal benefits.
'African American Herbalism: A Practical Guide to Healing Plants and Folk Traditions' by Lucretia Van Dyke contains stories of herbal healers like Emma Dupree and Henrietta Jeffries, who made modern American herbalism what it is today.
Sobande Greer of Clarksville, TN offers holistic health services and an herbal certification program. naturalchoicesbotanica.com

Gardener Notes

www.botanyeveryday.com 'Farming While Black' by Leah Penniman 'The Art & Practice of Spiritual Herbalism: Transform, Heal, and Remember with the Power of Plants and Ancestral Medicine' by Karen M. Rose 'Herbal and Magical Medicine: Traditional Healing Today' by James Kirkland 'Flora and Fauna of the Civil War: An Environmental Reference Guide' by Kelby Ouchley 'In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863' by Leslie M. Harris 'Folk Remedies of the Low Country' by Julia Morton Working the Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing' by Michele Elizabeth Lee 'Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies' by Faith Mitchell 'Secret Cures of the Slaves: People, Plants, and Medicine in the Eighteenth Century Atlantic World' by Londa Schiebinger' 'A Healing Grove: African Tree Remedies and Rituals for the Body and Spirit' by Stephanie Rose Bird

Marty DeHart

Marty's lifelong passion for plants has led her to a long and varied career in horticulture: she's been a professional grower of gloxinias and African violets as well as perennials, a native plant propagator, a landscaper and landscape designer. She deeply enjoys learning constantly and sharing what she learns about plants, particularly information and techniques that can produce thriving plants and green-thumbed gardeners.