“Resources, capital, distribution, supply chain, labor…”
It’s a sunny evening at Oko Farms in Brooklyn, and Omar Tate is listing the many challenges faced by Black farmers. Guests have gathered here tonight for the launch of the Cultivating Community dinner series—a collaboration between Tate and Bombay Bramble gin to spotlight Black farmers and benefit the Black Farmer Fund. “Most farmers that I know are able to continue their legacy through their children taking over the farm,” Tate tells Vanity Fair. “That saying ‘take over the farm’ is a real thing. But it’s 2022; farming is not sexy, it’s not [always] profitable, or it’s difficult to make profitable. I think that every farmer suffers from these issues, but Black farmers especially, because of systemic policies that have inhibited them from taking advantage of [certain] programs and other limiting factors of our society.”
By Chi-Chi Ari.
Over the past 10 years, Tate has worked between New York and Philadelphia, cooking at lauded restaurants A Voce, Fork, Meadowsweet, Runner & Stone, and Russet. His cuisine is heavily inspired by African American culture, with jazz, hip-hop, literature, and poetry serving as key influences. In 2017, Tate launched a pop-up series called Honeysuckle, serving his refined yet unpretentious cuisine in intimate settings from NYC to Martha’s Vineyard. Alongside his wife, Cybille St.Aude-Tate, the Time100 Next honoree has expanded Honeysuckle into a network of community spaces, anchored by a forthcoming area in Philadelphia that will feature a supper club and library café.
Tonight’s meal, served on long picnic tables decorated with fresh vegetables and flowers, is an ode to traditional African American dishes and the summertime meals Tate grew up on: pickled vegetables; crab, tomato, and cornbread salad; ribs from Peculiar Pig Farm in South Carolina, which Tate drove to in order to pick up the meat. A Bramble berry sour and Bramble berry tart are additional highlights of the menu. “Right now it’s my favorite dessert because it’s light and fresh and summery, but it’s also sugar,” Tate says of the latter. “Everyone loves sugar.”