[Narrated by Cheryl (“CHAIR-ul”) Mc]

One of the things I remember most about my childhood is being asked to run outside and get a tomato from our backyard vegetable garden. I love tomatoes and I put them on everything, including breakfast. Steam fried chicken with tomatoes and grits might sound weird, but it is the flavor of home.

I never ate a tomato or vegetable that I didn’t like until I left my parents house. That’s when I decided that I couldn’t eat another pink, mushy object marked as a tomato. Or a cold hard object they called cabbage. Or the pale orange colored, leathery objects, stores called sweet potatoes.

I started gardening in my own backyard and later indoors. Control over at least a portion of my food supply is extremely important to me, not only for nutrition but also for protection from recall causing contamination that has sickened me in the past.

I started ColorBlindWork as a company focused on equity and it evolved into a brand that is now focused on connecting people to the plants, our roots as a culture. I am excited about what the future holds as we design programs to engage with people of all ages to transform how they look at vegetables, gardening and their cultural and agricultural roots. If you are a grower or a farmer, a historian, cultural anthropologist, climatologist, conservationists or environmentalists, you are invited to join our conversation. ColorBlindWork: We’re connecting people to plants for purpose. Let’s grow something.

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