Farming is a profession full of heart and soul. Farmers sell products they’ve worked with the earth to create, and these bring sustenance and joy to customers. In addition to the emotional connection farmers have to the crops, animals, or land, farming is a business — and as several farmers shared with us — a business that requires a delicate balance of environmental, physical, emotional, and financial sustainability. Three farmers, originally from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Myanmar, shared their experiences growing culturally significant specialty crops for their use and for the benefit of their communities.

Exotic Crops, Local Markets

Tom Savage, Sam Crisp, and KC Kanu may all share a background in IT, but it was when they combined their unique perspectives on farming that their farmer collective, Tropical Team, took shape under the North Carolina summer sun.

KC Kanu teamed up with Tom and Linda Savage to grow specialty tropical vegetables. “I grew up with these vegetables in Nigeria, my country of origin,” Kanu says. “Tom also networked with Sam Crisp, who had a greenhouse, to collaborate on growing these vegetables year-round. We decided to call ourselves Tropical Team.” Things seemed to fall into place after that.

Kanu specializes in growing Nigerian produce such as fluted pumpkin leaves, water leaves, scent leaves, and garden eggs. “The fluted pumpkin leaves are a best seller and the most challenging to propagate. Keeping the greenhouse warm throughout the winter is a major cost undertaking. Insect attacks, such as those by aphids and spider mites, pose a problem. Extended preservation of the leaves is also a challenge. This can limit our range of sales.”

Kanu shared that when he visited a grocery store that carried produce from a wide array of cultures, the quality of the vegetables wasn’t the best, primarily due to the long delay between harvest and hitting the shelves. When Tropical Team was formed, Kanu approached the grocery store about selling their products and told them the team was growing. The store agreed to take the products on consignment. Now, multiple stores in the Triangle area regularly carry Tropical Team’s produce.

With Kanu’s expertise and Savage and Crisp’s farming experience, Tropical Team is uniquely situated to provide Nigerian produce to the market in their community. As they ramp up production, Tropical Team hopes to expand market reach.

Zimbabwe Roots, Maryland Harvest

Passion to Seed Gardening is a farm in Maryland owned and operated by Tanya Doka-Spandhla. Doka-Spandhla emigrated to the U.S. from Zimbabwe in 1995 with her two sons and spouse.

Doka-Spandhla shares, “It was hard to get used to the taste of the vegetables here, especially the green vegetables. I’d have a bad aftertaste due to whatever was used when growing this type of produce. Back in Zimbabwe, farmers didn’t use pesticides. Growing up, my parents had a huge garden. We never went to the store to buy produce. During school holidays, I’d visit my grandparents, and we would help them [on their land].”

The combination of Doka-Spandhla’s need for food that suited her palate and her experience working the land with her family spurred her to connect with the Montgomery County, MD Office of Agriculture in conjunction with Montgomery Countryside Alliance (MCA). MCA’s Montgomery County Land Link program helped her find land to grow chemical-free, culturally appropriate vegetables.

In 2015, Doka-Spandhla was paired with a landowner who had left a plot fallow for nearly seven years. “I decided from the start not to spoil the land that’s been lying fallow for so long. I decided I would not use any chemicals. Instead, I would use compost, manure, whatever is chemical-free.” These priorities remain firm for Doka-Spandhla despite the high labor intensity of chemical-free farming. Her farm is now officially Certified Naturally Grown.

Doka-Spandhla also spoke about marketing her produce. “The main crop that I grow is white dent corn, which is very popular with people in Africa. You can roast it or steam it. It’s not sweet; it’s similar to Mexican corn but not as big. It’s very popular, and people always ask for it — ‘Is the corn ready?’ they shout! It motivates me. It’s laborious, but I know I’m growing something people like and enjoy.”

Given the vast array of diverse populations in the Washington, D.C. area, Doka-Spandhla said that demand for culturally appropriate foods, such as her dent corn and pumpkin leaves, was already there. In speaking about how her farm can provide these foods locally, she said, “I know that every single [ear of corn] I grow, people will buy and pay what my prices are. As long as the weather works out, it’ll sell. My customers appreciate that it is grown without chemicals. It’s labor-intensive, but I wouldn’t do it any other way. I like to say the taste is in the pudding,” she says, chuckling at her metaphoric twist.

In addition to selling directly to customers, Doka-Spandhla partners with MANNA Food Bank, Community Farm Share, and AfriThrive, a Maryland-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting African immigrant families and communities through economic empowerment, training, and building access to healthy, local, culturally appropriate foods.

Doka-Spandhla’s dedication to farming and her love for organically grown food from her homeland significantly influenced the marketing strategy for her farm. She says, “People tell me how good the vegetables are — there’s no comparison to that feeling of being able to get that feedback and supplying to food distribution organizations who are doing a noble job of supplying to a demographic that wouldn’t be able to get produce from these organic stores because it’s inaccessible to them. And now they can get it from a farm less than 10 minutes from where they live. As farmers, we have a role to bridge that gap.”

Refugee Farmers in Chapel Hill

Transplanting Traditions Community Farm offers land, educational programming, and marketing support to refugee farmers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. As a community farm, it promotes food sovereignty by providing “a cultural community space for refugee adults and youth to come together, recreate home and build healthy communities, and continue agricultural traditions in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.”

Paw Moo, Greenhouse Manager with Transplanting Traditions, shares farming motivations similar to Doka-Spandhla’s. Moo explains, “My parents are farmers, and I have helped them since I was a kid. I helped them with weeding, planting rice, and planting vegetables such as cucumbers, chilies, and pumpkins. Farming is my passion, and it helps me save money on groceries.”

“Farming allows me to eat vegetables I couldn’t find in the grocery store. The vegetables that I eat from farming are fresh and chemical-free. Farming makes me move a lot more and makes me happy,” said Moo, who grew up in Burma, now Myanmar.

Moo enjoys growing bitter melon, Thai chilies, Thai eggplants, water spinach, long beans, and pennyworts, which she sells to wholesale channels and hunger relief organizations such as PORCH in Chapel Hill, NC.

Despite Moo’s love and passion for farming, she says it has challenges. “There is not enough water. Sometimes, I have too many vegetables and can’t sell them wholesale. When the bugs eat my vegetables, I can’t sell them because the quality is not good enough to sell them wholesale,” she shares.

Moo feels supported by the community that Transplanting Traditions has created. “I can plant any vegetable that I love to eat. I can build a trellis and bamboo hut under which I can take a break. It reminds me of home. Meeting other people at the farm and calling each other using our loud voices. It’s fun! We did that all the time back in Burma. The staff also helped us find a place to sell our vegetables. Without them, I wouldn’t know where to sell. Farming is part of my life; it gives me happiness and healthy food. I enjoy farming here and couldn’t imagine my life without this farm.”

In the field, RAFI repeatedly hears how farming is a profession of calling and mission. It is not just “the bottom line” that sparks these farmers to continue doing the hard, strenuous work of growing food. It is the want and need to fill the gap between familiar food and its accessibility, all while feeling happy and grateful for work as physically demanding as farming.

RAFI thanks Dah Wah, who provided translation services for the interview with Paw Moo.

Angel Woodrum works as RAFI’s Market Access Coordinator, assisting farmers markets and farmers looking to expand market opportunities. Originally from Kentucky, Woodrum moved to North Carolina in 2015 to complete her Master of Divinity with a concentration in Food & Ecology at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. Since graduating, Angel has worked on various small-scale vegetable farms and co-owns a small market garden with her partner. For fun, Angel enjoys running, reading, and spending time outside with her dog.