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Grinding Stone Collective Presents
Grinding Stone Collective Presents is a twice-monthly zine series dedicated to deepening our collective knowledge of Native foods across Turtle Island, Abya Yala, and the Caribbean, as well as the people, communites and organizations who continue to grow, protect, and share them in abundance. We want to highlight the relations revealed in the cultivation of Native foods across territories, and the Indigenous science and technologies used.
Each issue offers an accessible exploration of a single Native plant or ingredient, from its Indigenous names and traditional uses to its scientific properties and contemporary cultivation practices across Indigenous territories. Through stories, research, and art, the series highlights the ongoing work of Native food leaders, protectors, grassroots growers, cultural stewards, and our allies. Each issue also includes sources and recommended further reading, related films, videos, and podcasts for those who want to go deeper into the world of Indigenous food sovereignty.
This series is written and designed by Alexandria Cruz, Grinding Stone Collective’s Program Communications Manager. If you’d like to collaborate on a feature or share your work for a future zine, please email us at info@gscollective.org.
Pawpaw (Asimina Triloba)
This first issue of Grinding Stone Collective Presents centers the Pawpaw (Asimina triloba), Turtle Island’s wild, native tropical fruit, and explores its uses as medicine, material, and memory. Blending Indigenous knowledge, scientific research, and cultural storytelling, we trace the Pawpaw’s historical names, uses, and ongoing relationship with the land and its Indigenous caretakers. With guidance from foragers, botanists, and thinkers like Robin Wall Kimmerer, we offer practical harvesting tips alongside deeper reflections on reciprocity, responsibility, and respect.