EP. 33: Ms. Valerie Erwin, Philly's Geechee Chef on the African Influence on American's Foodways

In late October, 2024, we (Chris and Owen) walked down our Germantown, Philadelphia street to interview our friend and neighbor Ms. Valerie Erwin on her porch. 

We talked about traditional (and less traditional) Gullah Geechee foodways with a focus on rice, field peas, okra, cornbread, shrimp and grits, thyme, hog jowls, Nan-e berenji (a Persian rice cookie), duck confit with fried Hoppin' John, and much more. Of course, with Chris and Ms. Val on the same porch, there are lots of easy segues into the African influence on Southern food. We talked about her former restaurant, her work as a chef now, and we took a walk around her garden. 

Here is an excerpt from Ms. Valerie’s bio from Les Dames D’escoffier’s member directory (with some updates):

Valerie Erwin is a longtime Philadelphia chef who, for 12 years owned the critically acclaimed Geechee Girl Rice Cafe. Valerie specializes in the food of the Low Country—the coast of South Carolina and Georgia—where her grandparents were born. During its tenure, Geechee Girl was featured on many major media outlets, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Magazine, The Food Network, and NPR. For two years Valerie was the General Manager of EAT Café, a West Philadelphia neighborhood restaurant with an innovative pay-what-you-can model. Since 2020, Valerie has managed Farm to Families, a produce access program of St Christopher’s Foundation for Children. Valerie has served on the board of the Southern Foodways Alliance—the country’s premier institution for the study of food and culture. She now serves on the board of the Wyck Historic House Garden and Farm, a Germantown historic home, and the People's Kitchen Philly, a mutual aid kitchen. Valerie spends her time catering, doing business consulting, and working on food related projects with cultural institutions such as the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Jazz Project.

FOOD PLANTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Sea Island Red Peas

• Sea Island Okra

• Hill Rice (Trinidad)

• Corn

• Thyme

LINKS:

• Valerie Erwin / Geechee Girl Cafe on Instagram

• Anson Mills, Columbia, South Carolina

• Kilimanjaro Restaurant, Philadelphia

• Black Rice, by Judith Carney

• Chef Edna Lewis

• Culinary Historian Jessica B Harris

• Culinary Historian Michael W Twitty

• Fish Pepper episode on Seeds and Their People

THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY:

• • YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds
  • The No-Till Market Growers Podcast Network (which includes our friends at the Seed Farmer Podcast)
  • Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio

ABOUT:

Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden.

trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio

FIND OWEN HERE:

Truelove Seeds

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FIND CHRIS HERE:

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden

THANKS TO:

• Valerie Erwin
• Our son, Bryan :)
• Elissa Fredeen of Scribe Video Center