Meet Special Guests of the Heirloom Food Forum

Slow Food North Louisiana is excited to host its second heirloom food forum - “Hand Them Down to Lift Them Up” - on November 15 to shine a bright spotlight on the work of the North Louisiana Seed Preservation Program in preserving and celebrating our region’s food culture.

To add extra flavor to the program, we will have two Richmond, VA-based food writers and historians joining in the wonderful story-telling to take place at the event, and we want you to get to know them.

Joshua Fitzwater, known to his colleagues as “Fitz”, founded Southern Grit Magazine in November 2014 in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. The magazine centered around Virginia foodways and history, which he felt were highly under-recognized nationally. Fitz took Southern Grit from a regional publication to a statewide publication that also creates content on the greater South. In all, he has self-published 16 editions of Southern Grit to date, organized multiple food history events, most notably Stirring the Pot: A James Hemings Dinner, which received recognition from Senator Mark R. Warner of Virginia.

A multi-faceted photographer working primarily in Hampton Roads and Richmond, Fitz photographs nearly 75% of the publication, contributes multiple articles to each edition, often supplies hand drawn illustrations to the magazine and designs the layout to boot. While doing this, he has also been a steady contributor to other Virginia food media as a writer and photographer for television, newspapers, and as a host of the Hampton Roads radio food show, Grit with Deb and Fitz. In 2024, Fitz won four Virginia Press Association Awards for his photography and writing.

The Melon Man

Joshua Fitzwater poses with a bumper crop of his heirloom melons

Fitz has not only distinguished himself as a food journalist in the Old Dominion but also has made a mark on the culinary scene by cooking, conserving and educating the public. Most notably, with heirloom watermelons and authentic Virginian whole hog pit barbecues. His work with these subjects has been featured in Garden & Gun Magazine, Gravy Magazine and The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

Specifically when it comes to heirloom watermelons, Fitz was instrumental in large scale grows in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He grew Ancient Crookneck watermelons on indigenous Patawomeck land, which are attributed to Native Americans, and also grew other rare heirloom watermelons for seed saving purposes. He has begun the early work of cross pollinating select heirlooms in an ongoing effort to create a uniquely Virginian watermelon. These efforts, along with getting many of these heirloom watermelons into the hands of Virginia chefs and restaurants, were paired with a project to make watermelon hot sauce and barbecue sauce that led to both national and regional recognition. Most notably when it comes to watermelons, however, Fitz collaborated with LSU horticulturist Kerry Heafner to commercially reintroduce Louisiana's finest heirloom watermelon, the Red-N-Sweet. In the last few years, due to Fitz's efforts, the Red-N-Sweet's heirloom seed has reached thousands of growers all across America and has begun to be recognized as one of the South's great heirloom watermelons along side highly prized watermelons like the Bradford family watermelon and select others.

Our second special guest is award-winning culinary anthropologist Deb Freeman. Freeman delves into the intersections of race, culture, and food – especially in Virginia and across the South. She is the executive producer and host of the Emmy-winning PBS documentary Finding Edna Lewis, a film that explores the legacy of the famed chef.

Food Anthropologist

Deb Freeman explores and documents Black foodways and culinary history.

She is also the host and creator of Setting the Table, a critically acclaimed and multi-award winning podcast exploring Black foodways and culinary history. Setting the Table was named by Apple Podcasts as “one of the shows we loved in 2022,” while Texas Monthly wrote that the podcast “explored topics they wished they had covered.” In 2023, Setting the Table was honored by the International Association of Culinary Professionals as “Podcast of the Year,” and also won gold in the food and drink category at the Signal Awards. Freeman has also been honored by Slow Food USA and is a Black Women in Food honoree. 

Freeman has appeared on Chef Carla’s Hall’s show, Finding Flavor, on Max, as well as The Key Ingredient on PBS. Her written work includes contributions to Eater, Condé Nast Traveler, Food52, Modern Farmer, The Local Palate, Plate Magazine, Epicurious, Garden and Gun, Pit Magazine, Gravy, and Gastro Obscura, and she has provided cultural commentary for BBC Radio.

We hope you are as excited to engage with Deb and Fitz as we are! Buy your tickets to “Hand Them Down to Lift Them Up” today!