Eight heirloom seeds. Centuries of story. Each packet in the kit carries the agricultural wisdom, foodways, and living memory of the Black and Indigenous communities who shaped Virginia's land and table — brought together for the first time by Jolly's Mill Pond Farm.

This is not just a seed kit. It is a hands-on journey into the history of American food — from the West African black-eyed pea to pawpaw, from the Three Sisters fields of Indigenous Virginia to the provision gardens of enslaved communities. Every seed you plant continues a tradition that was almost lost.

What's Inside

Each kit contains eight carefully selected heirloom seed varieties, along with a beautifully illustrated growing and history booklet featuring public-domain botanical prints and heritage recipes sourced from 19th-century cookbooks.

The Story Behind the Seeds

Black-Eyed Peas

Domesticated in West Africa thousands of years ago, black-eyed peas arrived in Virginia with enslaved Africans who carried their agricultural knowledge across the Atlantic. Grown in small provision gardens to supplement meager rations, they became foundational to Southern soul food. Eating them on New Year's Day for luck and prosperity is a tradition still very much alive today.

Clemson Spineless Okra

The word "okra" itself traces back to the Igbo word ọ́kụ̀rụ̀. Originating in Ethiopia and northeastern Africa, okra traveled with enslaved Ghanaians and Nigerians to the American South, where it became the soul of gumbo and an irreplaceable thickener in stews. The Clemson Spineless variety won the All-America Selections award in 1939 and remains the most beloved home garden okra ever developed.

Purple Top Turnips

In antebellum Virginia, the turnip's greens — often called "turnip tops" — were as prized as the root itself. Simmered low and slow with salted pork, they produced the nutrient-rich pot likker that sustained generations of enslaved families. In African-American New Year's tradition, turnip greens symbolize paper money, hope, and prosperity in the coming year.

Crookneck Squash

One of the oldest cultivated plants in North America, crookneck squash has been grown by Indigenous Virginians for thousands of years as part of the legendary Three Sisters — planted alongside corn and beans in one of the most sophisticated agricultural systems ever devised. Squash leaves shade the soil and suppress weeds; beans fix nitrogen; corn provides a living trellis. Together, they fed continents.

American Persimmon

The largest edible fruit native to the Eastern United States, the American persimmon was a staple of Indigenous foodways long before European contact. Cherokee, Chickasaw, and other nations consumed it fresh, dried it into winter cakes, and brewed its seeds as a coffee substitute. After the first frost sweetens its tannins, the fruit transforms into something extraordinary — the basis of persimmon pudding, a spiced baked custard still beloved from Virginia to Indiana.

King of the Garden Lima Bean

Known simply as "butter beans" in the South, large lima beans became central to African-American culinary tradition — slow-cooked with smoked ham hock until creamy and rich. The King of the Garden is an heirloom pole variety with exceptional flavor and large, flat seeds. It is a climbing vine that rewards patience and produces abundantly all summer long.

Pawpaw

North America's forgotten tropical fruit. The pawpaw's custard-like flesh — tasting of banana, mango, and vanilla — was harvested by Indigenous nations including the Shawnee and Potawatomi for centuries. The Spanish explorer de Soto recorded seeing Native Americans cultivating them as early as 1541. Today the pawpaw is undergoing a quiet revival, championed by foragers, farmers, and anyone lucky enough to taste one at peak ripeness. As a bonus: the zebra swallowtail butterfly depends entirely on pawpaw leaves, making every tree a monarch in its own ecosystem.

Witch Hazel

One of North America's most important medicinal plants, used by the Mohegan, Potawatomi, Iroquois, and many other nations for centuries as an astringent, anti-inflammatory, and wound treatment. European settlers adopted these practices wholesale, and witch hazel bark and leaf extracts remain a cornerstone of herbal medicine and modern skincare worldwide. The plant blooms in late fall and winter — a remarkable burst of yellow strap-petaled flowers when everything else is bare — and is among the few shrubs that can reliably divide water-finding sticks, earning its evocative name.

The Booklet

Every kit includes a booklet featuring:

• The complete cultural and agricultural history of each plant
• Planting guides with spacing, depth, and days-to-harvest for each variety
• Heritage recipes from 19th-century sources, including Abby Fisher's 1881 Gumbo Soup and Lydia Maria Child's 1833 Succotash

"Our work has led us to (re)discovering forgotten ingredients and the history behind everyday American foods. This seed kit is our small way of building a greater understanding of the cultures and history of our regional food system." — Angi Kane, Co-owner, Jolly's Mill Pond Farm

Who This Kit Is For

• Home gardeners looking to grow something with meaning, not just produce
• Educators and families exploring food history, African-American heritage, or Indigenous studies
• Culinary enthusiasts interested in the origins of Southern and Appalachian cooking
• Gift-givers who want something beautiful, purposeful, and unlike anything else on the shelf
• Anyone who believes that planting a seed is an act of remembrance

Growing Notes

All eight varieties are well-suited to Virginia's climate and thrive in the heat and humidity of Mid-Atlantic summers. The six annual varieties — black-eyed peas, okra, turnips, squash, lima beans, and crookneck squash — are beginner-friendly and reward a first-season gardener. The American persimmon and pawpaw are long-lived perennial trees that will feed you and your family for decades. Witch hazel is a low-maintenance native shrub that blooms when nothing else will.

Full growing guides for every variety are included in the booklet.

About Jolly's Mill Pond Farm

Jolly's Mill Pond Farm is a third-generation farm in Virginia that teaches history through food. Through our culinary heritage programs, we celebrate the contributions of the Black and Indigenous people over the centuries and millennia.