I interviewed five horticultural workers in the Greater Rochester, New York area to understand this all too familiar work through a new lens. I conducted five individual interviews at each interviewee’s place of work, which allowed me to take photographs at each garden center and get a feel for what the work environment is like. My hope was to gain a better understanding of occupational folklore…Additionally, I wanted to learn about each person’s individual connection to the field of horticulture and what motivated them to continue working in the field…
Ethnobotany/Botany
Foodways
“You’re my first customer!”
I was delighted to be greeted with this exclamation
when, after rolling up to Sasha Kocho
Williams’ annual plant sale, I got enticed
into picking up some gorgeous homemade
bread, muffins, and cranberry lemonade
before I even made it to the array of plant
starts. Two of Sasha’s four children were
running the tent, selling a beautiful array of
baked goods in paper packets, eggs, flowers,
homemade salves, and more. A nearby
homemade sign noted there would also be
music later in the day. A short walk past it,
down the path would take you into Small
Change Farm proper, Sasha and her husband
Ali’s homestead farm in Potsdam, New York,
with its extensive vegetable and herb patches,
high tunnel, greenhouse spaces, and barns
lively with goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, and
pigs.
Digital Phenology:
There is a long-standing association between phenology and traditional foodways. Arguably, all phenology is connected to foodways, in that whether hunting, fishing, foraging, propagating, and/or cultivating food, all food based in the landscape is inextricably connected to natural processes, ecological conditions, and seasonal cycles—whether or not they are explicitly and obviously food-related.
Snowdrops: Science, Myths, and Folklore
An Ethno-botanical study of the Snowdrop plant.