Family farm in Oregon grows crops to share South Asian cuisine with its community

Geoff Bennett:

Now to the story of a family farm in Hillsboro, Oregon, that is unlike most here in the U.S.

Amna Nawaz:

As part of our journalism training program, Student Reporting Labs, Sandeep Pillai spoke with the farm's owners about the connection between their South Asian heritage and the crops they grow.

Lakshmi Tata, Manager, Edible Stories Market Garden:

Me and my family own, operate Edible Stories Market Garden. It's a small market garden in Hillsboro, Oregon.

We decided to try growing some vegetables that are used in South Asian cooking. It just made it more meaningful for us to grow these foods that have some cultural heritage behind.

Both my husband and me were thinking of what all we should be growing. And, of course, we have local farms that have — at that time, 10 years ago, were growing what you get in the regular grocery store. But then we said, why don't we try growing something that other people are not growing?

And over time, people started appreciating it. It was something that connected them to their heritage.

Aanandhi Ganesh, Farmer in Training, Edible Stories Market Garden: When my mom goes out, she will, like, pick vegetables, different types of Indian vegetables, and she will come back home, and she will cook that. And she will be talking about how when she was in India how her mother or her grandmother would cook that, and she would be cooking in the same way.

On our farm, we grow many different types of vegetables, but a few ones are like doodhi, which is a gourd. Many times, you just cut it up, boil it, use it for sambars, which is the type of soup, again, with many spices.

My least favorite is karela. It's a bitter gourd. It's extremely bitter. We just chop it up and fry it. And many — you either really like it or really hate it.

Lakshmi Tata:

We are talking, breathing, thinking about the farm a lot. So it is very stressful many a times. And having a child, an only child, who doesn't have children to play with, it sometimes is very hard.

But, at the same time, I think we are just all happy being here and doing what we're doing. I think all children should be involved in some way, just a raised bed, and tell them, this is a little seed and just see what happens, what the seed gives you, the power of seed. It's just amazing.

Amna Nawaz:

What a great story.