A Different Side of Roxbury

I found this second article in the Boston Globe while I was looking over yesterdays paper and I found it interesting because I typically don't think of Roxbury as being an agricultural center. However Nadine Nelson proves me wrong. Take a tour of the culinary richness of Roxbury with Nelson, the owner and chief of Discerning Taste.

The Boston Globe
October 31, 2007
Eating Locally
The Street Where You Live

By Genevieve Rajewski, Globe Correspondent

"A short walk from Nadine Nelson's home is a small farm where tuft-headed hens cluck contentedly and grape vines twine the latticework in the late autumn sun. "Look as these! They're just perfect," says Nelson, stooping to pluck a handful of ripe red, yellow, and orange heirloom tomatoes.
Most Bostonians don't think of Roxbury as a center of agricultural bounty, but crops and cuisines flourish there - so much so that Nelson, a chef, now offers a culinary tour and cooking class in partnership with the nonprofit group Discover Roxbury.
Nelson loves exploring the neighborhood. "Roxbury is like Harlem in that it's the black mecca of Boston," she says. "It's the convocation of cuisines of African descent. And there are more food gardens than there are in Jamaica Plain and the South End."
Next month, Nelson's tour starts not far from her home in Fort Hill, with a discussion of the neighborhood's current cultural influences. "The population here is primarily African, Caribbean, Latin American, and African-American," she says. Those cuisines all make use of stewing and hot flavors as well as okra and other greens, she says."
Continue reading at the Boston Globe's website:
http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2007/10/31/on_the_street_where_you_live/