Kentucky Dawgs with Ashley C. Smith

Ashley C. Smith is reconnecting African Americans in Kentucky with their legacy and contributions in agriculture. She lives in Lexington, a city where the local farmers market is held at a former slave auction block. She says conversations about race and reparations make some people angry, but it’s important to confront the truth and reexamine history.

In this episode, she cooks a veggie stir fry with shrimp and Kentucky Hemp Dawgs. While we eat, she explains why these these hot dogs made with hemp taste so good. (Hint: there’s a dash of criminal justice reform mixed in.) We also talk about her childhood garden and how her grandmother Caroline inspired her outspokenness.

Black Soil: Our Better Nature, co-founded by Ashley C. Smith and Trevor Claiborn, is a Lexington, Kentucky-based organization that offers farm tours, farm-to-table dinners, and workshops with the goal of reconnecting black Kentuckians to their legacy and heritage in agriculture.