A BOTANICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

What plants have influenced or shaped you?

Explore this question first in the immediate context of your own life. Consider: 

a.	Favorite plant foods and flavors.
b.	Favorite places of childhood where particular plants and plant communities are remembered. (Secret forts, tree houses, bush houses, club houses, play places).
c.	Toys developed and derived from plants. (Sling shots to potions).
d.	Gardening, horticultural, or agricultural experiences.
e.	Collecting--flowers, fruits, nuts, seeds, leaves.
f.	Particular plants as 'friends' in the yard, in a park, on a walking route, etc. 
g.	Plant smells, colors, forms, etc. and their role in associated memories.

Next, find out about how your own family's experience has been shaped by the intertwined lives of people and plants. Consider specific family memories and stories. The following questions or similar ones may help you focus your investigation. 

a.	What are your family's favorite foods? Do they have any ethnic or cultural flavors? How does the family discuss these foods? How are recipes passed on to the next generation?
b.	Are you Irish? How was your family affected by the great potato famine?
c.	Are you African American? How does your family regard cotton?
d.	Does your family come from the South? What foodways have persisted? What regard does the family pay to the culinary influences of African Americans, Native Americans, and European Americans in Southern Cooking? Can any current practices be tied to the various traditions? 
e.	Did your family come from the Caribbean? What are the memories of sugar?
f.	Are you Jewish? What foods connect strongly with your family's sense of heritage?
g.	Are you Native American? What place does fry bread hold in your family's culinary traditions? What do the older members of the family say about the origin and place of fry bread in tradition?
h.	Are you from Thailand or Malaysia? What would your traditional cooking be like without the chili pepper--a plant whose origin is the Western Hemisphere?
i.	If you are of Italian heritage, What would your traditional cooking be like without the tomato--a plant whose origin is the Western Hemisphere?
j.	Did or does a grandparent have a particular attachment to a particular plant? What is his or her story?
k.	Was the family ever involved in farming? When? Where? What are the family stories associated with change? Is there still a family farm? Did the family own the land, rent, or share-crop?
l.	What was grown on the family farm or in the family garden? How do those plants connect with family traditions and heritage in terms of biogeographical origin? 
m.	Did anyone in the family or does anyone in the family grow and eat food from a garden? What is grown? What kind of gardening is practiced? How are insects controlled? Is compost used?
n.	Are there family cures and tonics connected with plants? What are the recipes? What can you find out about their origin?
o.	Did or does anyone in the family work in a business that depends on plants or plant products--directly or indirectly? What can you find out about the history, economics, and associated (botanical, agricultural, processing) practices of the business?

Lastly, speculate on more distant economic and ethnobotanical events and practices that led to consequences that in turn shaped and influenced the course of your ancestors' lives.

a.	Speculate on the major timelines and pathways in your ancestors' lives that lead to you. 
b.	Locate in those timelines and pathways major events connected with the lives of plants. 
c.	Reflect on the role the intersection of major botanical events could have played in the timelines and pathways of your more distant ancestors.