Corporate Lawyer to Foodie! It's such a pleasure to introduce this week's guest. Rachel Simons is Co-Founder and CEO of Seed + Mill, located at Chelsea Market in New York City. Seed + Mill, is a women-owned business, selling a variety of products made from Ethiopian Organic sesame seeds. Rachel joins me for this episode to share stories of her mother, Jane and her grandmother, Annika. She's recently published a cookbook titled "Sesame," which she dedicated to her mother, Jane as well as her grandparents. Rachel inscribed the book saying, "thank you for teaching me to plant seeds, but also empowering me to hitch a ride with the wind, scattering those seeds to far and distant places."
I'm so glad you're here to take a listen to Rachel's stories of her grandmother's gardens in Zimbabwe and her life growing up in Australia.
Throughout her life, Rachel has travelled and lived in London, Hong King and Tel Aviv. Now she lives in Manhattan and says she "pretty much lives for cooking and entertaining. The history of food, it's culture and migration, as well as its ability to bring people together over a diverse and lively table is why I love what I do." It's been ten years since she and her co-founders, Lisa Mendelson and Monica Molenaar, began Seed + Mill.
As a little girl, Rachel's has fond memories of running through her grandparent's gardens in Zimbabwe, climbing avocado and mango trees. This was the beginning of her passion for what she enjoys today. What she began to understand as she got a little older was her grandparents experience immigrating to Africa from Prague, formerly referred to as the capital city of Czechoslovakia. Today, Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors and fled Prague in order to begin a new life. Jane ,Rachel's mother, was born and lived in Zimbabwe until she was about eighteen years old.
Jane eventually fell in love, got married, moved to London then settled in Sydney, Australia with her husband. My guest shares wonderful stories of her mother, Jane. "She was incredibly generous, passionate about many things, loved to share whatever she was interested in, whether with her family, or share with her friends and neighbors. Whatever she was excited about she loved to share with other people. She was a horticulturalist and a physical therapist." Jane also worked in obstetrics helping pregnant women and post-natal mothers.
In looking back at Jane's childhood, "it was different from what it looked like from the outside. Her parents had been traumatized because of their experience as Holocaust survivors. They were trying to rebuild their lives, but it had taken a toll on all of them. That experience, Rachel shares, "impacted mom's sense of identity."
Jane was brave and resilient, according to Rachel. "She longed for nurture and really deep and meaningful relationships with people. She received and she gave that encouragement in equal measures."
When asked if Rachel felt safe and secure in her home growing up, her response was, "I always felt safe and secure and felt lots of love from my mother. In lots of ways, in an unconscious and unspoken way, I was always worried about her mental health. I could feel that generational trauma from my grandmother to my mother and now probably to me. And I am mindful of this to my own daughter."
This is such a loving and beautiful story of women who loved one another unconditionally, yet there were barriers that couldn't be broken.
Though Rachel's mother has passed away, Rachel says she speaks with her everyday. She visited her mother in Australia several time in her last remaining monthsand weeks. As she was by her mother's bedside, she wrote her most recent cook book "Sesame." She turned in her transcript for the book and the very next day, her mother passed away.
Rachel is so proud of all that her mother did for she and her younger sister. "She was always committed and worked really hard. She filled her time and days and relationships to not feel her own pain."
Thank you for being so open and honest Rachel. It was an absolutely pleasure to meet your mum through your eyes and your heart.
Contact Information:
Instagram: seedandmill
If you're looking for information about Rachel's NEW Cookbook "Sesame" click on this link and then click on "cookbook" on the top left banner. WEBSITE: https://www.seedandmill.com/
Seed + Mill: We believe that food has the power to unify & foster connection between people & place while bringing joy. We're committed to quality, taste & inspiring our community to explore the world through food.