The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters · American Public Media

Episode 735: 3 Junes

·50 min·5 clips

Chef farmer Matthew reveals why June is 'where the wild things are' with blackberries straight from the vine.

Francis Lam opens by observing the cultural gap between calendar summer, which begins June 1, and actual seasonal availability, noting that in his region, the tomatoes and corn associated with summer do not arrive until late July. This prompt drives an episode structured around regional correspondents describing what June concretely looks, tastes, and smells like where they live. The centerpiece is a conversation with Matthew Rayford, a sixth-generation farmer and chef from Brunswick, Georgia, and a descendant of the Gullah Geechee people, an African-American coastal community whose culture and language developed from the commingling of enslaved West and Central African people on the sea islands of the Carolinas and Georgia. Rayford is the author of Breasts and Yam, a cookbook of Gullah Geechee recipes whose title means Bless and Eat. His June is defined by wild blackberries that grow in abundance on his property, which he describes as an unmatched eating experience compared to any store-bought version. The farm in June is layered with mature wild plants including sumac and mullein, rice seedlings in early growth, and a working menagerie of chickens, hogs, and ducks. Shrimping season opens with large shrimp from boats working three miles offshore, and Rayford describes the Lowcountry boil he grew up with, which included turtle eggs alongside shrimp, crab, sausage, corn, and potatoes. He contrasts this tradition with the modern versions that have lost the turtle egg component due to conservation rules. Watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers, black radishes, and Persian limes are all in season simultaneously, creating the summer abundance that defines Georgia coast cooking. The episode also features contributors from Alaska, where June is the start of the salmon run and continuous daylight, and from Appalachian communities where June means ramps have just ended and berry season is beginning, illustrating how American food seasons are entirely regional and resist simple generalization.

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