Adjoa Kittoe Transcript
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Hi, everyone. You're listening to The Future Of Food Is You, a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host, Abena Anim-Somuah. Each week I talk to emerging talents in the food world and they share what they're up to as well as their dreams and predictions for what's ahead. As for me, I'm the founder of The Eden Place, a community that's all about gathering people intentionally around food. I love this new generation of chefs, bakers, and creatives making their ways in the worlds of food, drink, media, and tech.
Today's guest is Adjoa Kittoe, chef, farmer, and founder of Seulful Pantry. We talk about Adjoa's passions for elevating African cuisine. Yes. There's more to it than jollof rice. Why she got involved with community farms in New Jersey and what the future of agriculture holds for black farmers and urban farms.
Thank you to Kerrygold and Walmart for supporting today's show. Kerrygold is delicious, all-natural butter and cheese, made with milk from Irish grass-fed cows, raised on small family-run Irish dairy farms. Kerrygold's farming families pass their craft and knowledge from generation to generation. This traditional approach is the reason for the rich taste of Kerrygold. You can enjoy delicious sliced or shredded Kerrygold cheddar cheese available in mild or savory flavors. The shredded cheddar is perfect for those who love making mac and cheese. Now the grilling season is here, the cheddar slices will take any burger or veggie burger up a notch. There's also Kerrygold's classic salted butter in the gold foil. It's perfect for slathering on corn on the cob, always a summer fav. The unsalted butter in the silver foil is an absolute must if you're turning sweet summer strawberries into strawberry shortcake. Visit kerrygoldusa.com to find the Kerrygold retailer nearest you and lots of great recipes.
I have a little housekeeping for everybody. Our podcast is headed to Atlanta for a live event. It's taking place Wednesday, June 28th from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. at Star Provisions. We'll have lots of snacks and drinks, a panel conversation, networking, and more. Tickets are $30 and include the latest copy of Cherry Bombe Magazine, plus all bites and sips. Come meet other members of the Atlanta Bombesquad and learn how they are shaping the future in the world of food, drink, tech, and media. Head to cherrybombe.com to get your ticket, and I can't wait to see you there.
Now let's check in with today's guest. Adjoa, it's so lovely to have you on the podcast. Thanks for joining us.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Nice to see you, Abena. Thank you for having me.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Of course. Before we get started, I have to say we have something interesting in common. We're both Ghanaian.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Whoop, whoop.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
It's funny because our names are part of the day name system. My name means girl born on Tuesday, and your name is...
Adjoa Kittoe:
Girl born on Monday. But there's a deeper meaning. Meaning peace and philosophy.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Really?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's beautiful. I should go find out what Abena actually means. I got the basic version. Can you just tell us about your childhood and how food showed up in your life?
Adjoa Kittoe:
It's so funny because people think you're a Ghanaian woman, so food has always been there. I actually did not like being involved with food. My mom had to force me to be in the kitchen. She really had to really drag me into the kitchen to watch her cook, stools and rice. But it was not my thing until maybe about 15 years old that I decided to cook my first meal.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
What was it?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Okay. This is going to sound cliche. I was watching the Food Network and it was “Chopped” and someone made this chicken dish with barbecue sauce and wine and some other stuff. I went to the store and got some chicken thighs, some orange juice and the box rice, the yellow box rice, and I did a reduction of red wine with orange juice.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wow.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes. I baked the chicken and I did a nice little sauce and I presented it to my family. They were skeptical to eat it because I never cooked before in my life, but everybody loved it. Then from there, they were like...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Chicken was cooked through.
Adjoa Kittoe:
It was cooked thoroughly. It wasn't overcooked at all. The rice was perfect and fluffy. Then they were like, "Yeah, you need to start cooking for us," and I said, "No." Yeah. It was very interesting connection I had to food prior to me starting my business.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Who did you consider to be your food inspirations as you were growing up or as you were coming into your food business?
Adjoa Kittoe:
There wouldn't be any person in particular, really. I do a lot of sightseeing. I would go on Pinterest, on Google, on Instagram, and just look at what caught my eye. What really caught my eye was very minimalistic, I guess, modern style of plating and cookery. I really loved the style of Norwegian and Scandinavian dishes. But I said, "How do I take that style of cooking but make it a little bit more African-like?"
At that time, I was completely plant-based. I was 100% vegan. I was cooking mostly alkaline food. All of the other alkaline chefs, they didn't really care too much about the aesthetics. I wanted to bring in, I guess, my inspiration would be the alkaline chefs. But when it came to how to present it, it would've just been straight up Instagram, honestly.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Can't even think of one person. Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. That's awesome. Are there people that you're following on Instagram that you just, pun intended, eat up everything that they're posting?
Adjoa Kittoe:
In the past, my now partner, was my huge inspiration, Chef Kwame Williams.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh, that's so beautiful.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. I know. I had the biggest chef crush on him. I'm like, "I want to learn from him. I want to learn how he cooks. I want to see ... I love his splattering style." I was always in the DMs like, "Hey, teach me." He didn't pay me no mind. Years later, here we are, three years in the game.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wow. That's beautiful.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. Then definitely had a chef crush on Rasheeda Purdie as well, just more so how she presents herself. But chefs in their style of cooking, nobody in particular. I think I grab inspiration from almost everyone and everything, and most of my inspiration comes from just art, going to galleries, reading books, and that brings my inspiration.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's really beautiful. You dub yourself as a self-taught cook. You also have Seulful, which we'll talk about in a little bit. When you decide to self-teach to become professional, what sort of things did you think you had to learn and how did you find resources to make sure that you were up to speed on being a culinary professional?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. My journey to the culinary world was a little different. My approach was really to make food approachable, sustainable, accessible. It was specifically within the alkaline diet. If anybody knows about the alkaline diet, it's pretty, pretty strict. It was Dr. Sebi came up with a list of food that is what he considered most nutritional for people of the diaspora, African diaspora.
It consisted of things of non-hybridized foods. There wasn't much starches, wasn't like much potatoes and rice and things like that. It was quinoa, fonio, ancient grains. I had a very limited choice of foods to come up with. Because of that, I didn't have much flexibility of cooking.
When I was trying to grab the resources of how to learn how to cook, the focus wasn't on the traditional classical French cooking. It was more so how do I give people the nutrients and the minerals that they needed? It took about four years into that process of me just doing meal prep and just helping people transition to an alkaline diet that I was like, "I want to learn how to cook meats."
Because I had a client who was vegan at first, and then one day he wanted me to cook lamb and I was like, "I've never touched lamb in my life." I'm like, "I don't want to give him a piece of raw meat or overcooked meat," right?
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Then I said, "You know what? I'm just going to go to culinary school." I can say the first four years was me just creating food that taste good and looked good. But when it came to the technicalities of it, the science and just the whole process of what sauce goes with this, what herb works with this, I didn't know any of that. I just worked from my spirit. As long as people enjoyed the food, I felt good. Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You mentioned you went to culinary school?
Adjoa Kittoe:
I did.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Where did you end up going?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Institute of Culinary Education.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh, nice.
Adjoa Kittoe:
2019, started December 2019, and then the pandemic hit. The first few months was fun. It was in-person.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Adjoa Kittoe:
I was really enjoying it. I really went to the school to network more than anything, and then the pandemic hit. My whole purpose was like, "Well, how can I network with people if we're not even meeting up in person." But I enjoyed it. It worked out, nonetheless.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Tell us about Seulful and what the mission behind that brand is.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes. As I said, Seulful started off as plant-based events and catering organization. The mission really, as I said, to make food, fine dining, specifically accessible, affordable, and attainable within the black community. Usually when people hear fine dining, they just think about white tablecloth and it's going to cost $450 plus for a three, four course meal.
I wanted people to be able to enjoy really good food. Good is subjective, of course. But good in the sense that the food comes from local farms, whether it's directly from farms or farmer markets. 80% of the produce that I use was organic. Then also I had a scalable meal plan that people were able to decide if they wanted 3 meals a week, 5 meals, 15 meals a week. The mission really is just to highlight the flavors of Ghanaian cuisine, but also bring it in a plant-forward light.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
What are some dishes that you think and encompass Ghanaian cuisine for those who are listening who are new to understanding?
Adjoa Kittoe:
It is more than jollof rice, I could say that for sure but...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You know jollof rice is the best.
Adjoa Kittoe:
It's the bombe.com. It's the bombe.com, but there's much more than that. I think of tomatoes, onions, garlic, and pepper. I feel like almost any dish you see, specifically in the Ghanaian cuisine, not just West African, but Ghanaian specifically, you see those four ingredients, whether it's light soup, whether it is nkatenkwan. Whatever it is, you got to see some type of tomato underneath, garlic thing. But some of the dishes that I personally love, I love peanut butter soup.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's in nkatenkwan what you just mentioned.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes. In nkatenkwan, peanut butter soup. I love efo riro which is the spinach stews and the coco yam stews. I love anything with okra. Okra stool is like my thing. I know people have their feelings about okra. But I think if you have...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
It's also really common in southern cuisine. You got fried okra and all that stuff, too.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes. I guess people don't like it because of just how slimy it can get. Then in North Ghana, there's a lot of uses of shea butter and ancient grains like black or white fonio, which I think I'm trying to bring into the forefront of Ghanaian cuisine.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Also, you mentioned your partner, Kwame Williams. You also have a supper series. Why did you think it was important to have a supper series as another way to demonstrate your mission for uplifting the diaspora when it comes to food?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. The main thing was that I knew I loved food away. I didn't want to be in restaurants. I knew when I was working in restaurants, I didn't have the space to actually share my story and talk about the culture to people. You can present a dish and you can hope that the individual is really understanding what they're eating. But sometimes I just hungry. They just want to eat.
But when it comes to supper clubs and private settings, I'm actually able to interject and pass out the plate and say, "Hey, by the way, this is what you're eating. This is why you're eating. This is why we chose these dishes." I felt it was very important because I wanted people to understand there is historical context behind the ingredients that I'm chosen. There's a cultural reason for these things.
Sometimes it's even a spiritual reason as to why I'm using these ingredients. I really wanted people to be educated on Ghanaian cuisine, as I said, outside of jollof rice, which is awesome. But just to know there's other options. But unfortunately, my summer club is on pause right now because I'm in school and all other stuff.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. Which we talk about. I think you have so many projects while also getting your MBA. That's really impressive.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
But hopefully your summer club comes back and we'd love to get a seat at that table.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes, yes, yes.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Something that you're also really passionate about is agriculture systems, particularly black agricultural systems in the northeast. What sparked the interest to be involved with that particular niche of the food world?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. I have never been a recipe kind of girl. I've contributed to cookbooks. On my website, I have a couple of recipes. But it's not the white thing. I would walk around farmers' markets and just pick up ingredients. I have no idea what some of these ingredients were. I would just feel it and connect with it. I'd be like, "You feel like you taste like this? No way."
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's beautiful.
Adjoa Kittoe:
It's so weird, but it worked.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's cute. I love it.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Eight out of 10 times it worked. Okay. I would make dishes out of these and just experiment with it. But one thing I really enjoyed about farmers' markets was connecting with those individuals, talking to the person behind, the person who's in the soil. Whereas when you go to... Co-ops are great. I used to belong to a co-op.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I'm a co-op member.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. I love co-ops. But the one thing was that sometimes they didn't know where the food was coming from. Some co-ops knew exactly where the food was coming from. Fast forward, I dealt with a lot of health conditions. I currently deal with gout and rheumatoid arthritis. Imagine dealing with gout and standing on your feet for 12 hours at the restaurant, wasn't a thing. I was crying every day.
It wasn't because of the harshness of the restaurant industry of being a black woman as a chef. No. It was literally because of staff.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Chronic...
Adjoa Kittoe:
Chronic pain. I was in pain.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. I'm sorry to hear that.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. I'm talking it about. But I don't want to leave food completely. I love food media and I love writing. But I still want to be active and I want to be visible. Let me go back to the beginnings of the farmers' market. I'm like, "Okay. Instead of just collaborating with farmers' markets, why not be the farmer?"
I found myself and I just recently moved to Montclair about two years ago. I found myself getting involved with a couple of different urban farms and gardens throughout the Essex County, and quickly dug my feet in there. I belonged to the Black Farmers United. I do a little bit policy advocacy work there. But I wanted to be involved not just with politics, but also with the production of food.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's really beautiful. I think you mentioned earlier just the fact that you sought out farmers' markets. Farmer's markets too, it's another contentious topic. Are they accessible even though it's an urban concept? Obviously in New York, we are so blessed with the farmers' markets we have here. There are still some neighborhoods that are desperately in need for them, but don't get access like we do, if you're living close to Union Square or Fort Green or down in Parks Slope by Grand Army Plaza.
When you think about the work that you're doing with Black Farmers United, why do you think it's important to particularly focus on black farmers and what is the state of black farmers as they exist in America right now?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. For me, it was more about looking at myself and being a representation of younger Adjoa. I knew when I was younger, I thought it was weird for people to be buying healthy food.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Really?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. I did. Because I mean, the only food I ate was rice and stews. It wasn't really much of green stuff.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Wasn't much of like ...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Spinach stew has green.
Adjoa Kittoe:
But yeah. But even then it's like a whole bunch of oil and fish and other stuff that my mom would add into it. Everything had meat in it, and nothing wrong with that. But specifically with black farmers, we're severely underfunded. Also, we could talk about this is something that's generational.
When you go to these large farms where you're getting your tomatoes and your corn, they're on places that used to be plantations.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's a complicated history.
Adjoa Kittoe:
There are certain people who are owning this land that shouldn't necessarily only belong to them. Now, we're left in very small communities who have vertical farms or have small pots in our windowsills and grow in the backyard. When it comes to black farmers, it's really about the lack of funding that I feel like is one of the most important things what I try to focus on.
Also, educating our community that it is not a poor man's career. If anything, food touches everything. We saw very quickly in 2020 what happens when supply chains are interrupted, people are not getting the food that they want. People are not getting the clean water access that they need. But the black farmers that I saw were still out giving out eggs for free, still giving out cases and cases of food in Newark, in Patterson, in Clifton, and New Jersey.
I'm speaking about all these neighborhoods in Jersey and several black farmers in Brooklyn were doing the same thing. My focus is on that because of the fact that it's kind of easier to get a grant from the USDA if you own a large white rural farm...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Absolutely.
Adjoa Kittoe:
…in Tennessee. Whereas if you own a small urban farm in the Bronx, not so much.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Today's show is presented by Walmart, the world's largest retailer. So many people in this country depend on Walmart for its groceries and trust Walmart to have high quality food at affordable prices. That sounds like the future to me and the present.
Walmart is always listening to its customers and values, the feedback received about new products and flavors. To help meet and exceed customer expectations, Walmart employs a range of experts like classically trained chefs in vital roles within the company. I love knowing that. Another thing I love about Walmart is how many interesting new food brands can be found there?
Female and black-owned brands in particular, such as partake foods, vegan and gluten-free cookies, baking mixes and snack packs, founded by Denise Woodard. Iya Foods, which as gluten-free baking mixes, spice mixes and whole food powders, and were started by Toyin Kolawole.
If you're a founder of a CPG brand and would like to work with Walmart, you need to know about Walmart's Open Call. 2023 will be the 10th anniversary of Walmart's Open Call event. It's an exciting and unique opportunity for entrepreneurs to meet face-to-face with Walmart merchants at the largest sourcing event in the United States. This year's open call will be in Bentonville, Arkansas on October 24th and 25th. Registration starts this July. If you are a future retail star, stay tuned for more details.
Now, back to our guest. I'm curious, how should consumers start thinking critically about ways to support black farmers directly if they can?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. The same way how we Google to see what's the cool event that's happening on Eventbrite. It's the same way how we should be Googling to see what are the black farmers near us. Actually, Black Farmers United is working on a wonderful database, specifically in the New York state of farmers, black farmers and black farms.
I'm working on something similar in New Jersey with a food access map. We're working. We're integrating technology to do so. It can be more accessible. But really just sometimes a switch search, a quick search, whether on Google or on Instagram to see what is around us. If you're going to purchase groceries, try to consider being involved in the CSA program in a local farm.
Sometimes the farm might be black, might be brown, might not be. But a lot of times, especially if you're in the New York City area, you're going to find a lot of black and brown farms and just involve yourself that way. People hear CSA think it's expensive. But when you look at ... you're investing $500, but you're getting groceries every week and you don't even have to think about going grocery shopping anymore.
I would do that. I would just really search up what's around you and see it as just as important as your entertainment. Knowing where your food comes from should be just as important as everything else in your life.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. I mean, I'm just looking up some stats here from the Feeding America published last year. But today, we have 45,000 out of the 3.4 million farmers in America identify as black. That's from a century ago where we had one million black farmers. Also in that century, black farmers in America have lost more than 12 million acres of farmland as a combination of systemic racism, bias government policy, and inequitable social and business practices.
Clearly, there's a lot of work to be done. Are there three or four farmers that you love to shout out that for people who live in the tri-state area, they can start to find their stuff at the farmers' markets or in CSA boxes as you just mentioned?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Ooh, Oko Farms in Brooklyn, tri-state. Can I include? Al-Munir Farms, this is a little biased because I'm the co-manager there. Al-Munir Farms in Newark, we're awesome.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. Do you guys bring stuff to the city?
Adjoa Kittoe:
No. But it's not that far. It's just Newark. I feel like people could go.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Okay. What produce are you guys cooking up there?
Adjoa Kittoe:
A lot of cultural relevant things. Right now, we're growing up some okra, we're trying to get sorghum. Let's see how if it's going to pop up. We have hibiscus. We have a whole lot of herbs, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, like different types of chilies because it's a Latinx community there. We have a whole lot of things that people can actually bring home. We actually grow for restaurants as well.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Nice.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. Peas, black-eyed peas, sweet peas. Honestly, when it comes to New York, because I've been out of New York for two years, I don't even know who's there anymore. But I do know Oko Farms is there.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Okay.
Adjoa Kittoe:
She's awesome.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Something that I also really appreciate about you is you talk a lot about seed to plate education. What's your philosophy behind that and why do you think it's important for people to know or understand that whole process in a food system?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. Growing up in Brooklyn, I did not have a lot of access to home economics. Okay. I was an honors kid from elementary school till today. All I did was school, school, school, math, math, math, English, science. It's fun and it's important. But there are some things that you need to know when you leave school, you might not want to be in academia for the rest of your life like I am.
I think trade is important, which is ... One aspect of trade is food. With seed to play education is really getting the youth at quite young age to be exposed to nature, and then also to be exposed to the foods that they're eating, how it looks like. Our children are so impressionable. Showing them a seed and then a week later it's a cute little spurt. Then after that it's a whole plant. Then weeks, weeks, weeks into it, they're able to eat it themselves.
They're more likely to eat rutabaga when they know that they planted it themselves rather than they go and their mom is bacon in and roasting and they're like, "Ew, that's nasty." I know for sure I've seen children want to eat spinach because they grew the spinach themselves. Yeah. My philosophy on that is just pretty much bringing back home economics outside of the classroom.
Then the importance of it is just if you really want to defeat issues like childhood obesity and diabetes and other health issues that we have all throughout the country, and we're encouraging people to eat healthy, you kind of have to give them healthy options. But imagine ... I don't know. I don't know how you were at six years old. I don't know if you really into eating a whole bunch of vegetables.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I grew up with very granola parents. Actually, my family comes from ... I have multiple generations of farmers in my family.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Okay.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
My mom was huge on vegetables. We lived in an agricultural town.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Lovely.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. I know my greens. I know my greens and my colors, lots of color in my playground.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Well, that's good.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I was very blessed for that. Yeah, for sure.
Adjoa Kittoe:
That's good. Yeah. I don't really know many of my friends who grew up like that. I was raised in Brooklyn. I went to school, Crown Heights. The kind of vegetables we had was the pasta sauce on my pizza when we had it for lunch.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Adjoa Kittoe:
It's hard to convince young people to eat these healthier options if they're not exposed to it. The best way of exposure is putting their hands in it from younger.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. I mean, being real, I think it's honestly a privilege to be able to eat healthy and eat well. But it's been really nice to see with things like Feeding America or even the food education fund that's based in New York, that there are people who are now using schools as a way to educate kids on how to eat healthy. Because eating healthy, it's not just in the moment, it's lifelong. If you eat longer, you live better, you feel better. You are what you eat.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I think that's really important. Not only are co-manager at the Al-Munir Farms in Jersey, but you also volunteer at the Montclair Community Farms. What are some of the activities that you're working on while you're there?
Adjoa Kittoe:
I'm actually on the board of the Montclair Community Farms. I am the first individual community member on the board, which is ...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Congratulations.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Thank you. I was like, "Yeah. Let's do this." Because everybody else on the board on, oh, the coalition come from organizations like Rutgers University, Montclair State University, and other organizations. My role there is really to diversify programming and also the members. Right now, if anybody knows Montclair is a very cute town, but there's a very small population of black and brown individuals there.
We're trying to get more people of color involved in a Montclair Community Farm. That's what my work is there, doing more the DNI initiatives. I am involved in a little bit of everything. Not much of the education side. We have a whole department for that. But I help with ... We have a greenhouse. At the greenhouse, we pretty much grow these smaller the plants and we do plant sales, not of the full-blown produce, but just the starters.
We also do sell the full-blown products as well. We have a farm stand, a mobile farm stand. We go all across Essex County and sell.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's so cool.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. It's so cute. There's the student interns. They're like college kids. They stick their head out. It's really adorable. We sell to senior homes at a very discounted price. I'm hoping that we can do past the senior homes at some point. It's a small team. It's only two full-time, actually one full-time and two part-time now. We have the sweet peas thing where their children under the age of six who are there playing with the chickens and learning all about. Yeah. We have a...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's so cute.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. It's so cute. There's so many pictures that I'm holding the chickens and they're not afraid. The girls love, they love the attention, the girlies. Then we have the farm paneras that we do value addict products. Products. They grow the plants themselves and then they make pasta. They make granola and they sell it, and they get to take home all of their money.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Proceeds.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's really awesome. That's exciting. As people think about ways to be more involved in their communities through farming, what are your best pieces of advice for anyone that lives in a city wants to get involved with urban farming?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. I know for sure in Jersey there's over 150 urban farms in Newark alone.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wow.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Alone. Okay. That's just Newark, New Jersey. I know there are well over 50 farms throughout the five boroughs, and I know there's a lot more, but I can only think of 50. You don't have to commit to come in every week or every day, but stopping by once a month and picking up on a hour or two to volunteer. Some of these farms are teaching people how to do hydroponics.
Now you know how to grow without having all this soil. People are teaching how to do vertical farming where you're not necessarily taking up all this space, because you might not have a backyard, but you might have a little space in your windowsill. Just taking an hour or two to volunteer at these places. In addition to that, I recommend that people donate to the farms a dollar counts, a 50 cents counts.
You don't have to be rich to contribute to these farms, because most of the time the money is going to the tools and utilities so that we can actually continue to produce this food and give out the CSA. A lot of the times the CSA programs are free in some places, especially in Newark.
Then lastly, I know people get so many, so many emails. But I'm an email checker, I'm a newsletter checker, and I've seen a lot of good resources on where people can get food for free. They would not know if they're not signed up to some of these newsletters.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Sometimes just putting it in your email and just checking the letter for the day.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Adjoa Kittoe:
You might have a really cool resource.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Are there one or two that you recommend for budding farmers, farm enthusiasts?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes. But it's in Jersey. Is that okay?
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's okay.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. NOFA-NJ. They're awesome. Whether it's educational information or simply updates on what farmers across New Jersey are doing. That's awesome. This is more national. The National Young Farmers Coalition, that's a lot more about advocacy, but it's still a great way for a farmer to get involved because they give information about grants and also give information on workshops and free workshops so you can actually learn. Some people even offer their skills to create raised beds for you.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's awesome.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. Once again, newsletters.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
How do you think that the urban farming environment or community farm environment will help shift the conversation for more sustainable food systems in America based on your learnings in business school, based on your experience on the farms?
Adjoa Kittoe:
I would say that when it comes to urban farming and urban garden, it's a lot more accessible than people think. Because of that, there's less of that. The first, when it comes to gas, of bringing a truck from Cali all the way to New York or a plane or shipping produce. When you're buying or supporting an urban farm, you're cutting out that middle transportation. Therefore, all those gas emissions are also reducing, right?
Abena Anim-Somuah:
The carbon emissions.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yeah. That's one thing. I think that's how urban farming really is going to change the world of agriculture. Then also one thing that I think we all notice when it came to the height of the pandemic is that people really need community. We're not as individualistic as we think that we are. When it comes to urban farming, I've noticed that I've been a lot more happier being in a space with 5, 10, 20 other people who are just happy to be out in the sun and the soil.
I think urban farming gives people more purpose to be involved in their local community, to feel like they have more of a voice, because now you are telling people like, "No. I don't want snap peas. I think we should have this because none of us eat snap peas in this neighborhood. We eat this instead." You're having a voice when you're contributing or being involved in an urban farm. I think that's really important.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's really beautiful. Then with all this work that you're doing, obviously, you're beginning a very beautiful journey of supporting black farmers, ensuring that we have sustainable food systems. What do you hope to see yourself doing in the next 5 to 10 years?
Adjoa Kittoe:
I would like no more than an acre. I really don't need that much.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Keeping it simple.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Keep it as simple. But that acre would have one my home and one in the corner, and then it's going to be like another building where in between the home and the building is the farm. Okay. It's going to be chickens. That other building is going to actually be the updated seat at our table where people are actually going to be able to consume all of the good food that we're growing on that space, but in long form course meals. Fingers crossed that I can have that pretty beautiful space.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. I think it'll happen. Adjoa, we are about to do our fun Future Of Food Is You tradition, called our Future Flash Five. Are you ready?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Perfect. The future of farms?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Expansive.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
The future of food systems?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Intersectional.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
The future of community?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Oh, woven.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
The future of sustainability?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Practical.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
The future for black farmers?
Adjoa Kittoe:
Funded.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Amazing. Adjoa, thank you so much for joining us. If we want to keep supporting you and following your journey, where the best places to find you.
Adjoa Kittoe:
You can find my business Instagram at S-E-U-L-F-U-L. That's Seulful. If you want to just send me your private DM personally, my personal Instagram is a a as in Adjoa, D-J-O-A, K-I-T-T-O-E. Those are the best two places I would say.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Amazing. We can't wait to keep supporting you and following you.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Yes. I'm so glad to be able to express my love for farming and food and just the intersection of all of that. Thank you for having me.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Before we go, our guest is going to leave a voicemail at The Future Of Food mailbox, just talking to themselves 10 years from now. You have reached The Future Of Food Is You mailbox. Please leave your message after the beep.
Adjoa Kittoe:
Hey, boo thang. It's me 10 years ago. Girl, you've been doing really amazing. Honestly, I think that you have worked so hard on really owning up and being proud of your accomplishments. I know it's 10 years from now and I'm hoping you already have this farm space that you've been thinking about. I know you have at least 10 chickens and two goats and two ducks and maybe a cow.
Do you have a cow yet? Hope so. I know you've been doing amazing, amazing work in the tri-state area. But I know you had to leave Jersey because you know as much as you do love Jersey, you also love the sun. I'm pretty sure you are enjoying your best life somewhere in Louisiana, right? How's school going? Are you done with school? School's done. Okay.
Now you're in your PhD program. That's what I'm talking about, girl. I love you so much and I can't wait to see what you have to do 20 years from now. See you soon.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's it for today's show. Do you know someone who you think is the future of food? Tell us about them. Nominate them at the link in our show notes, or leave us a rating and review and tell me about them in the review. I can't wait to read more about them. Thanks to Kerrygold and Walmart for supporting the show. The Future Of Food Is You is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. Thanks to the team at CityVox Studios, executive producers, Kerry Diamond and Catherine Baker and associate producer, Jenna Sadhu. Catch you on the future flip.