Listen to our radio show: SEEDS AND THEIR PEOPLE!
Philadelphia Stories Collection: Recao (Culantro) *POSTER*
This illustration is part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Community Spotlight initiative.
Recao (Culantro) poster on glossy paper.
Size: 11" x 17"
Weight: 100lb
Printed in Philadelphia by Fireball Printing.
Your poster will be shipped separately in a mailing tube ($3.00 will be added to your shipping fee). For international orders, please contact us about shipping costs.
Seeds and frame not included.
ARTIST:
Celso González's art is reflective and introspective and it honors his Loiceño and Rio Grande roots, where some of the magic that abounds in his compositions germinates. For this project Celso portrayed Iris Brown of Villa Africána Colobó in Norris Square, Philadelphia with her mother, Wencesla Hernández, and her grandmother, Monserrate Rivera, holding a pot of arroz con gandules.
About the Seed:
This saw-toothed, low-growing, pungent, green herb is native to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central, and South America. We first learned about it from Puerto Rican and Dominican friends who call it Recao and for whom it is an essential part of their family Sofrito recipes. In Trinidad, it is known as Chado Beni, and it is also used extensively in Southeast Asia. For many years, because of the difficulty germinating this plant, we have bought seedlings from Vietnamese grocery stores where it is called Ngò Gai. In English, it is called Culantro (which sounds like the milder and similarly flavored Cilantro, but is different as you can see here). We have been experimenting for several years with seed production of this plant, which would really prefer to be growing in a more tropical climate. The last couple years we've grown it successfully in the shade of our Moringa trees and Upland Rice polycultures.
Our recao informant and former Truelove Seeds apprentice Grimaldi Baez, who is admittedly NOT a mixologist, tinctures the leaves and makes a gin and tonic with them as if they were bitters.
"El culantro es indispensable para los Boricuas!!" –Iris Brown
