I am a descendant of Jupiter Gilyard
born 1812 as a slave in South Carolina
Jupiter Gilyard married Rena they had
two sons one named Jupiter Junior and
one named London London married a fee a
fee in London had a daughter by the name
of fluorine fluorine married Horace
Johnson they ended up having two
daughters one name a fee when a mole
philia two sons named Horace jr. and
James which we affectionately called JW
now a fee bill decides to marry Arthur
Vickers she dies giving birth to my
mother a fee bill so my Nana or Ophelia
took over the family tree for the
women’s side of the family a fee bell
Mary Mary Ulis Lee Rayford and I am
their son in 1874 Jupiter Gilyard
however spent nine dollars in taxes on
four hundred and seventy six acres of
land
now that land wasn’t unfertile it had
majestic oak trees pine trees and a
place that I still affectionately call
where the wild things grow sweet and so
delicious muscadine vines still growing
up oh yeah oh yeah blackberry patch
underneath and southern huckleberries
some of y’all are thinking what if
southern huckleberries right think about
the original cultivar of a blueberry
still sweet and astringent I grew up in
that area loved it but that wasn’t the
only thing this land was it wasn’t just
about farming it was also the first
school for people of color or black
folks
within a 20-mile radius of where I live
now it was specifically put on the farm
so that those children that traveled
those 20 miles you know that saying if I
had to walk up the hill and it took me
forever this is reality okay this
actually happened and so this food was
used for those children also and I can
remember a time when I was my children’s
age growing up going to that house and
being inside that what is now a guest
house I’m no longer a schoolhouse one
bedroom or one-room schoolhouse and
growing up actually watching my
great-grandmother Florine while I’m on
the porch you know cleaning field peas
with her and looking out and watching my
uncle Horace playing everything from
sweet corn to watermelon the crookneck
squash you name it it was planted to
include sugarcane I can also remember
the time I going out in the field and
like breaking the sugar king and chewing
on it and standing there with him and
him taking the sugarcane and going we
gonna press all this boy don’t eat up
all the profits and so we take that cane
and we push it through
now that sugar cane press is still in
our property it was brought to that
property in 1919 by and was given as a
gift to Florine and Horace as a wedding
present for them to carry on the family
legacy of growing cane so now time let’s
fast-forward a little bit right I’m a
child of the late 60s early 70s grew up
in Brunswick Georgia and I grew up
during the time that is not the South
that we’re living in right now so what
was said earlier about me not wanting to
stay in the south is reality for me I
wanted to leave I wanted to get as far
away as possible and when I thought
about it I said you know I love to cook
and I said you know I want to go to cook
I’m gonna go to culinary school when I
graduate from high school however my
father Ulis was a baker by trade from
the 50s and 60s and he had never seen
anyone that looked like me become an
executive chef of any shape form or
fashion so he said there’s a lot of
things you can do boy but cooking ain’t
one of them so I decided I joined the
military when the military for
ten years I’ve lived a little bit of
everywhere in the world one of the
interesting things that happen is
everywhere I went people go where are
you from and I go home from Georgia and
it was like man I haven’t had a good
home-cooked meal and I don’t know how
long and I used to always think to
myself what does Georgia have to do with
a home-cooked meal
it didn’t if any quate to me that
initially so what I started doing was
people would say that I’m like oh I know
how to make biscuits and I make collard
greens
barbecue you name it I can do it and I
started cooking not as a skill set in
the military just cooking in general
well 10 years later I decided to get out
I’m going to Howard University to be a
physical therapist and guess what
happens I start throwing parties I’m a
28 year old freshman in college throwing
28 year old freshman parties and all of
them had food and lots of alcohol all of
them did right cuz we also did muscadine
wine so I figured we’d keep it flowing
from that though you know I go and I
leave the military I go to culinary
school I end up going to the Culinary
Institute of America in Hyde Park New
York when I because of that I would have
the amazing chance to work in everything
from Las Vegas to be an executive chef
at the House of Representatives in
Washington DC while there my sister and
I are around 2010 got a phone call from
our family saying baby can you come to
this firm reunion you ain’t been at in a
long time that was my Nana and I said
yes Nana will come and she says okay
come on
so we come and we get there my sister
and I are greeted by not only my Nana
but also my mother and my aunt and for
years every once in a while we get this
phone call that was like baby what are
we gonna do with all this land and I
would say y’all should go back to
farming it because that’s what y’all
know how to do now what happened on this
hot summer day in 2010 I feel like I was
on a filming of Punk’d
because
my name look over at me baby what we
gonna do with all this land and I look
over at my sister I look back at my Nana
and I said
Nana we should go back to farming and
they reach underneath the table and give
deed my sister and I 28 acres of land
and my Nana says baby y’all better get
back to farm so here I go
here here’s how that path kind of got
started I ended up going to the UC Santa
Cruz to Center for agriculture and
sustainable food systems I’m learning
about sustainability I’m learning about
seeds I’m learning about farming I’m
like okay I got this thing I’m gonna
come back to the South okay I can do
this it’s gonna be okay I’m gonna get my
hands in the soil I already know how to
cook this can work for me if this can
work and what I do is I decided I’m
gonna plant an orchard hundred trees
Nana I’m a plant dis orchard because I
just learned that a man does not plant
an orchard for himself he plants an
orchard for his children’s children I
want to do that so I plant those hundred
trees I run in the house trees now I
didn’t dug the perfect hole right
perfect amount of compost perfect amount
of mulch perfect amount of water this
thing is perfect hundred trees Nana
comes out with her little cane that she
used to use as a broken broomstick and
she walks over she goes right there I
said oh it’s a pomegranate tree and she
goes home what is right there well
that’s an angio pepper and repair tree
she goes I said a fig tree she goes oh
let me know when that one gets big so I
say to myself what is really going on
with this right and then I find out that
my hundred trees died so the first thing
I think to myself oh goodness Nana put a
hex on everything
so I walk in the house I go Nana I was
like I don’t know what happened but the
trees I don’t have any and she goes baby
sit down for a second I got something
for you and she hands me a letter in
that letter written in 1945 was a
conversation between her and my
great-grandmother talking about what
they had taken to market and what they
were getting ready to plant good lord I
have gilyard farms Farmers Almanac in my
hand and then guess what I started
thinking about these roses that my Nana
had planted around the farm and how
sweet-smelling they weren’t I said then
why did you plant those rose she said
cuz I didn’t wanted to just look like a
farm it needs to look pretty reds and
pinks and oranges that’s the way it’s
supposed to look and so I said oh okay
well that makes sense so we keep the
roses going and as we’re walking around
the house and I’m still talking to us
she picks up another letting go here you
go baby and I read the other layer and
I’m like oh my god this is what’s going
on this is what’s happening they have
actually unintentionally but
intentionally figured out where my
legacy was where it was coming from
they’ve written it all down for me I can
follow it that was very intentional I
had no idea that that is what they were
going to do and so not only do I have
those letters I also have the
schoolhouse that we’re in I also have
all the memories that I have from being
with my great-grandmother and my uncle
and my grandmother and my mother which
is amazing I am a descendant of Jupiter
gilyard Rena ofey ofey Belle Florine you
lessly rayford i Matthew Rayford and the
father of Chanelle Kayla Kenton Corvin
Kyra Evan Amir and Chloe 77 generations
I am Gullah Geechee what are you going to be intentional about
born 1812 as a slave in South Carolina
Jupiter Gilyard married Rena they had
two sons one named Jupiter Junior and
one named London London married a fee a
fee in London had a daughter by the name
of fluorine fluorine married Horace
Johnson they ended up having two
daughters one name a fee when a mole
philia two sons named Horace jr. and
James which we affectionately called JW
now a fee bill decides to marry Arthur
Vickers she dies giving birth to my
mother a fee bill so my Nana or Ophelia
took over the family tree for the
women’s side of the family a fee bell
Mary Mary Ulis Lee Rayford and I am
their son in 1874 Jupiter Gilyard
however spent nine dollars in taxes on
four hundred and seventy six acres of
land
now that land wasn’t unfertile it had
majestic oak trees pine trees and a
place that I still affectionately call
where the wild things grow sweet and so
delicious muscadine vines still growing
up oh yeah oh yeah blackberry patch
underneath and southern huckleberries
some of y’all are thinking what if
southern huckleberries right think about
the original cultivar of a blueberry
still sweet and astringent I grew up in
that area loved it but that wasn’t the
only thing this land was it wasn’t just
about farming it was also the first
school for people of color or black
folks
within a 20-mile radius of where I live
now it was specifically put on the farm
so that those children that traveled
those 20 miles you know that saying if I
had to walk up the hill and it took me
forever this is reality okay this
actually happened and so this food was
used for those children also and I can
remember a time when I was my children’s
age growing up going to that house and
being inside that what is now a guest
house I’m no longer a schoolhouse one
bedroom or one-room schoolhouse and
growing up actually watching my
great-grandmother Florine while I’m on
the porch you know cleaning field peas
with her and looking out and watching my
uncle Horace playing everything from
sweet corn to watermelon the crookneck
squash you name it it was planted to
include sugarcane I can also remember
the time I going out in the field and
like breaking the sugar king and chewing
on it and standing there with him and
him taking the sugarcane and going we
gonna press all this boy don’t eat up
all the profits and so we take that cane
and we push it through
now that sugar cane press is still in
our property it was brought to that
property in 1919 by and was given as a
gift to Florine and Horace as a wedding
present for them to carry on the family
legacy of growing cane so now time let’s
fast-forward a little bit right I’m a
child of the late 60s early 70s grew up
in Brunswick Georgia and I grew up
during the time that is not the South
that we’re living in right now so what
was said earlier about me not wanting to
stay in the south is reality for me I
wanted to leave I wanted to get as far
away as possible and when I thought
about it I said you know I love to cook
and I said you know I want to go to cook
I’m gonna go to culinary school when I
graduate from high school however my
father Ulis was a baker by trade from
the 50s and 60s and he had never seen
anyone that looked like me become an
executive chef of any shape form or
fashion so he said there’s a lot of
things you can do boy but cooking ain’t
one of them so I decided I joined the
military when the military for
ten years I’ve lived a little bit of
everywhere in the world one of the
interesting things that happen is
everywhere I went people go where are
you from and I go home from Georgia and
it was like man I haven’t had a good
home-cooked meal and I don’t know how
long and I used to always think to
myself what does Georgia have to do with
a home-cooked meal
it didn’t if any quate to me that
initially so what I started doing was
people would say that I’m like oh I know
how to make biscuits and I make collard
greens
barbecue you name it I can do it and I
started cooking not as a skill set in
the military just cooking in general
well 10 years later I decided to get out
I’m going to Howard University to be a
physical therapist and guess what
happens I start throwing parties I’m a
28 year old freshman in college throwing
28 year old freshman parties and all of
them had food and lots of alcohol all of
them did right cuz we also did muscadine
wine so I figured we’d keep it flowing
from that though you know I go and I
leave the military I go to culinary
school I end up going to the Culinary
Institute of America in Hyde Park New
York when I because of that I would have
the amazing chance to work in everything
from Las Vegas to be an executive chef
at the House of Representatives in
Washington DC while there my sister and
I are around 2010 got a phone call from
our family saying baby can you come to
this firm reunion you ain’t been at in a
long time that was my Nana and I said
yes Nana will come and she says okay
come on
so we come and we get there my sister
and I are greeted by not only my Nana
but also my mother and my aunt and for
years every once in a while we get this
phone call that was like baby what are
we gonna do with all this land and I
would say y’all should go back to
farming it because that’s what y’all
know how to do now what happened on this
hot summer day in 2010 I feel like I was
on a filming of Punk’d
because
my name look over at me baby what we
gonna do with all this land and I look
over at my sister I look back at my Nana
and I said
Nana we should go back to farming and
they reach underneath the table and give
deed my sister and I 28 acres of land
and my Nana says baby y’all better get
back to farm so here I go
here here’s how that path kind of got
started I ended up going to the UC Santa
Cruz to Center for agriculture and
sustainable food systems I’m learning
about sustainability I’m learning about
seeds I’m learning about farming I’m
like okay I got this thing I’m gonna
come back to the South okay I can do
this it’s gonna be okay I’m gonna get my
hands in the soil I already know how to
cook this can work for me if this can
work and what I do is I decided I’m
gonna plant an orchard hundred trees
Nana I’m a plant dis orchard because I
just learned that a man does not plant
an orchard for himself he plants an
orchard for his children’s children I
want to do that so I plant those hundred
trees I run in the house trees now I
didn’t dug the perfect hole right
perfect amount of compost perfect amount
of mulch perfect amount of water this
thing is perfect hundred trees Nana
comes out with her little cane that she
used to use as a broken broomstick and
she walks over she goes right there I
said oh it’s a pomegranate tree and she
goes home what is right there well
that’s an angio pepper and repair tree
she goes I said a fig tree she goes oh
let me know when that one gets big so I
say to myself what is really going on
with this right and then I find out that
my hundred trees died so the first thing
I think to myself oh goodness Nana put a
hex on everything
so I walk in the house I go Nana I was
like I don’t know what happened but the
trees I don’t have any and she goes baby
sit down for a second I got something
for you and she hands me a letter in
that letter written in 1945 was a
conversation between her and my
great-grandmother talking about what
they had taken to market and what they
were getting ready to plant good lord I
have gilyard farms Farmers Almanac in my
hand and then guess what I started
thinking about these roses that my Nana
had planted around the farm and how
sweet-smelling they weren’t I said then
why did you plant those rose she said
cuz I didn’t wanted to just look like a
farm it needs to look pretty reds and
pinks and oranges that’s the way it’s
supposed to look and so I said oh okay
well that makes sense so we keep the
roses going and as we’re walking around
the house and I’m still talking to us
she picks up another letting go here you
go baby and I read the other layer and
I’m like oh my god this is what’s going
on this is what’s happening they have
actually unintentionally but
intentionally figured out where my
legacy was where it was coming from
they’ve written it all down for me I can
follow it that was very intentional I
had no idea that that is what they were
going to do and so not only do I have
those letters I also have the
schoolhouse that we’re in I also have
all the memories that I have from being
with my great-grandmother and my uncle
and my grandmother and my mother which
is amazing I am a descendant of Jupiter
gilyard Rena ofey ofey Belle Florine you
lessly rayford i Matthew Rayford and the
father of Chanelle Kayla Kenton Corvin
Kyra Evan Amir and Chloe 77 generations
I am Gullah Geechee what are you going to be intentional about
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