Together with leaves from a nearby sweet potato plant, the okra leaves will form the foundation of a dish Twitty cooks later in the kitchen of Colonial Williamsburg’s Peyton Randolph House, the former home of one of Virginia’s wealthiest slaveholding families. Here, Twitty wants me to pay special attention to-and carefully pick-its leaves. But here, in the cultural garden Twitty tends to behind the Benjamin Powell House of Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg, it’s not the vegetable’s slimy, well-known pods he says I should be examining.

The vegetable, which forms the basis of gumbos most often traced to the American South, finds its roots in Africa, most notably the Western countries of the continent-though he notes that my parents’ native Ethiopia also stakes a claim. In the words of two great Southerners, nothin’ is for sure, nothin’ is for certain, nothin’ lasts forever.Ĭhef Michael Twitty wants me to know that okra is more versatile and storied than I could possibly imagine. We’re also ranking the best Southern rap albums, imagining the André 3000 mixtape we all deserve, and arguing about what even constitutes the South anymore.

You’ll find stories from all over the map, exploring topics such as the enduring legacy of Confederate monuments in Richmond and Montgomery, the evolution of Charleston barbecue, and the intersection of faith and football in Lubbock. For the next several days, we’re celebrating - and reporting on - the richness of the region.

The cooking gene