5 Black Owned Companies To Love in February and All Year Long
And the 12 Year Old Slave Responsible for the Entire Vanilla Industry
Hey……happy Friday! If you were looking for this newsletter yesterday….Apologies! Your girl fell asleep with the laptop open. Again! Have you ever wished you had more hours in a day? That’s me. But no worries! I hope that what I have curated here was well worth the wait. I appreciate each and everyone of you. I recently met a complete stranger who shared that she subscribes to the newsletter. How awesome is that?
Getting Ready for USHERBowl !
I am a huge football fan. I am also a huge fan of the food served on football Sunday. Before I became a plant-based advocate, my Super Bowl menu consisted of wings and nachos. Things have changed but you know what hasn’t changed? Everything still tastes great! This year’s menu includes salmon sliders, jerk spiced chickpeas, plenty of chips, salsa and guacamole and sweet potato pie. And then there’s Usher…..#nuffsaid.
Straight from the Black Girls Eat Website
This month on the blog, I feature five Black-owned businesses that deserve our love all year long. From left to right, get to know The Honeypot Company, Actively Black, Fragrancestrology, Adolophine and Zach & Zoë Sweet Bee Farm.
The Random: A 12 Year Old Slave Is Responsible for Vanilla
I was today years old when I found out that a 12 year old Black child slave is responsible for the cultivation of vanilla. It seems that no one could figure out how to get the vanilla orchid to grow outside of Mexico. The plant had to be pollinated by a bee from that region but nobody was about to transport bees around the world.
So a 12 year old boy, born into slavery but educated as a horticulturalist figured out how to do it. Now hold on while we go back to our high school science class! In 1841 Edmond Albius used a thin stick to separate the male (anther) and female (stigma) parts of the orchid, just enough to smear the pollen from the male part over to the female part. This manual pollination tactic changed the game. Today, most of all of our vanilla is pollinated by hand. No bees required. Crazy right!?!
What’s even crazier than that is the fact that Edmond was freed for his contributions but after a life of struggle which included a ten year stint in prison, Albius died in poverty in 1880.
The Recipe: Roasted Spaghetti Squash
Whew! I finally faced my fears and made roasted spaghetti squash. It was inexpensive, tasty and overall awesome.