Like bits of loose soil slipping through one’s fingers, John Coykendall is keenly aware of how quickly the agricultural lifestyle is being lost, not just in Louisiana but around the country. As master gardener at Tennessee’s Blackberry Farm, most of Coykendall’s days are spent growing the heirloom vegetables served in the resort’s restaurants. He notes that 94% of the fruits and vegetables that were grown 100 years ago are now extinct or nearly extinct.
He’s made many visits to Louisiana, specifically Washington Parish, to collect stories of the old ways of farming. He also collects seeds—especially the heirloom varieties most in danger of disappearing.
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“Reclaiming those flavors that we remember is essential to preserving our collective cultural heritage, a heritage that will be lost if we don’t scramble to save it,” he writes. “My mission is to pass that legacy on to generations who don’t know what they’re missing.”
Preserving Our Roots, which Coykendall wrote with help from LPB documentary filmmaker Christina Melton, was published in October by LSU Press. It’s also the realization of Coykendall’s desire to pass on and preserve farming heritage in Louisiana and elsewhere in the South.
Read on for the rest of the story about the book from inRegister‘s December 2019 issue.