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Utopian Seed Project persuades people to eat their vegetables

Is there a commonly known vegetable more in need of some love and understanding than okra? Maligned as slimy and stringy, it has long been deemed edible only when hidden in a bowl of gumbo, or cut into nuggets, encased in cornmeal and deep fried.

Chris Smith, founder of the Utopian Seed Project

Writer, author, and sustainable agriculture activist Chris Smith was determined to give the plant a makeover, and in 2018—while working for Sow True Seed in Asheville, North Carolina—he grew out 76 different varieties of okra on two rural properties.

“I was incredibly excited about the diversity in the field, the things you could do with okra,” he says. “I shared my okra with friends and chefs and cooked it myself. It was very celebratory.”

The experience became the foundation of his book, The Whole Okra: A Seed to Stem Celebration, recipient of a 2020 James Beard Award.

His dive down the okra rabbit hole was the genesis for creating Utopian Seed Project. “I felt like something was missing in the local seed system. We needed an organization doing hyper-regional varietal exploration and crop trialing.”

Smith’s success with okra pushed the start button. “I felt that if people can get really excited about okra just because I’m showing pictures of 70 different varieties and saying, ‘Hey, look at this cool okra!’ then we could do that with other equally diverse crops that aren’t generally represented in the food and farming system.”

Utopian Seed Project’s mission is to experiment, educate, and celebrate diversity in food and farming to improve food security and mitigate climate change. The small nonprofit trials crops and varieties on two plots of experimental farmland. The majority are grown on Franny’s Farm in Leicester, North Carolina; in 2022, they received a second site from the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy in Alexander. USP also partners with a network of farmers and growers who share the organization’s curiosity and commitment to regional biodiversity.

“It has always been key that we have our hands in the earth,” Smith says. “We are not just philosophizing here. We are doing the work on the farm. But to have meaningful impact in the food system, we have to share why what we do is important.”

Vegetables grown by the Utopian Seed Project

Smith and the USP board, which includes chefs, farmers, and academics, knew that to pull people to the project, there had to be something good to eat.

The inaugural Trial to Table was held at the end of 2019 in a barn at Franny’s Farm. The concept is simple: Challenge and compensate three savory chefs and one pastry chef to each come up with two dishes based on a particular crop USP has grown, and sell tickets at a nominal fee to attend the event.

“The idea was, once people were in the room enjoying beverages and delicious food, we could whack them over the head with what we do,” he says with a laugh.

The first event, featuring several crops USP had grown, sold out and generated a lot of excitement for the next. Due to Covid, that did not occur until August 2021, but they came back strong with a Collard Celebration.

Terri Terrell, a chef and USP board member, came on staff in 2023, bringing her culinary skills and a deep background in event management. She focused on fine-tuning logistics, broadening the roster of chefs, and creating a Trial to Table series of five events per year, each with a theme.

“Trial to Table is genuine and thoughtful, with real purpose and meaning,” she explains. “There is a different type of participation from the chefs than [at] many food events. We provide the crop and invite them into our pantry of about 50 items from local farmers and makers. We challenge them, and they are genuinely intrigued and excited.”

Trial to Table is held at different locations around Asheville and Buncombe County; tickets are $50 but also offered on a sliding scale. Attendance is capped at 150 people to maintain intimacy and encourage conversation.

In 2024, a demonstration table was added to each event, providing a platform for a farmer to talk about a crop and offer an unadorned taste of the particular item. Bitter melon was the star of the show in September 2024; farmers Chue and Tou Lee shared their love and knowledge of the relatively unknown tropical fruit they grow on Lee’s One Fortune Farm.

“Bitter melon was one of the riskier tastings we have done,” Smith says. “Everything was bitter, and we even did a bitter mocktail. I was afraid we had gone too far. But it was really great, and 150 people walked away super jazzed about bitter melon. If we can do that, we can do anything.”

Attendees at Trial to Table put on by Utopian Seed Project

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