Katie Jesurun

Katie Jesurun is a seed saver and farmer located in Florence, KY. Her passion for seed saving first began while managing a small CSA and Market Garden program but took on new personal meaning after a visit to the island of Curaçao where her grandfather had been the 9th generation of Jesuruns to live there.

Katie’s Jewish ancestors fled to Holland during the Spanish Inquisition and were then sponsored by the Dutch government to travel to Curaçao. Curaçao was an important shipping and trading hub during the establishment of the “New World” and Katie’s ancestors owned and operated the largest shipping company on the island. The company oversaw the transportation of many goods, including the shipment of enslaved people. Realizing that the long arc of her family history included fleeing from oppression as well as oppressing others, Katie felt moved to find an embodied way to grapple with the themes of colonialism, capitalism, intergenerational trauma, and communities living in diaspora.

While reading a small cookbook published in the 1980’s by the Jewish community still living in Curaçao, Katie came across a recipe for “Stoba di Komkomber” which specified the use of the local, spiny cucumbers. Katie decided to grow these cucumbers, the Burr Gherkins, which had originated in West Africa and had then entered the foodways of her Jewish Curaçaoan ancestors, so that she could meet these plants in person and ask the seeds her questions.

Instagram: @farmer_chef_katie