Soul food as ancestral practice and wellbeing
There’s a moment in every pot where the greens have given all they can give. The heat has worked its slow magic. What’s left at the bottom is dark, rich and alive. Some folks pour it out and call it water because they do not understand the transformation that just took place. They don’t know they’re throwing away the teacher.
That liquid is called pot likker: the nutrient-rich broth that is left behind after simmering greens, traditionally collards, turnip greens, or mustard greens, with smoked pork like ham hocks or neck bones. It may not look like much, but when greens cook low and slow, their cell walls break down and release vitamins A, C and K, along with iron, calcium and potassium, directly into the water.
The greens aren’t fading; they’re distilling themselves into the richest, most nutrient-dense essence of the pot, a deep, soulful flavor that carries you back in time with a single bite. Pot likker is the epitome of culture in a pot, everything that was poured into us, simmered down…