Kitchen Garden History

Kitchen Garden History. . Early Tennessee settlers did not have access to year-round fresh produce like we do today. General stores were often miles away and sold dried goods and seeds for growing your own food in kitchen gardens like this. Common plants were onions, potatoes, lettuce, peas, turnips, carrots, pumpkins, and beans. Many people relied on wild fruit like strawberries or blackberries instead of growing them in their limited garden space., Enslaved workers had different experiences. After serving and raising crops for their enslavers all day, some African Americans tended small garden plots. The food grown supplemented their insufficient rations and provided rare opportunities for independence and pride when the world attempted denying African Americans these senses of self., The late 1800s and early 1900s brought changes that impacted how people accessed food. First, there was a major migration from rural to urban areas where people did not have space for planting. Next, the Memphis-born Piggly Wiggly, the first self-service grocery store, opened in 1916 and sparked a revolution in food purchasing. Lastly, agricultural institutions and women's organizations popularized canning. As access to food changed, kitchen gardens lost their significance to the family diet. This was also reflected in the neighborhoods of the wealthy, where people replaced kitchen gardens with grass lawns to broadcast that they did not have to labor for their food., In the 1930s, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) made electricity affordable and accessible statewide. That's when most rural people in Tennessee switched from growing their own food to shopping. Starting in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a deeper understanding of healthy eating and development of suburbs encouraged middle class people to grow some of their own food again. The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 saw another resurgence of home gardening, but time has yet to tell how this trend fits into the larger history of food cultivation., Visit the museum to read more about how Tennesseans of different races, genders, and classes contributed to the foodways that shape our identities as Southerners. , Photo: Woman working in Weakley County garden.