The Gumbo Garden is a true extension of the museum. The garden provides living artifacts that enhance the understanding of the artifacts in the museum proper.
In the Garden
The Gumbo Garden contains and specifies specimen culinary plants that are native to the region.
The Gumbo Garden contains 3 beds that are planted each season to reflect the foods from the 3 continents that helped first influence the food of the southern region of the US – Africa, America, and Europe. It identifies where the food that we eat in the south originates. Post provide exemplars of later developments from Asia.
The Gumbo Garden provides a learning opportunity for children to see how plants look before they are harvested and cooked. Children can participate in planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting and cooking.
The Gumbo Garden contains outdoor cooking equipment as well as space for outdoor demonstrations and historical cooking.
The museum’s Sustainable Table initiative will also benefit from the Garden through events with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and other organizations that seek to promote sustainable eating practices in Louisiana. It allows for partnerships with the Herb Society of America, the Master Gardener program, and other The NOLA Tree Project which is reforesting New Orleans.
