(soft music) [Narrator] At a weekly produce stand at a Lincoln Farmer's Market.

Shahab Bashar helps his customers find just the right fresh ingredients, green peppers and tomatoes or more specialized items like pickling peppers and shishitos.

[Narrator] Shahab helped grow this produce as part of a nonprofit called Community Crops designed to help people grow their own food.

[Narrator] Shahab also works part-time at Community Crops as the Yazidi cultural liaison.

-Yeah.

[Narrator] Providing interpreting and translation assistance including advice on how to get the most out of Nebraska soil, which differs from the sandier soil of his homeland in Northern Iraq.

[Narrator] Shahab is part of Lincoln's Yazidi refugee community.

A non-Muslim ethno-religious minority, many of whom like Shahab and his family, were forced to flee from Iraq after multiple genocides.

(soft music) Lincoln is home to some 3,000 Yazidis, the largest such community in the US.

[Narrator] Shahab's family served as translators with the US Army in Sinjar, Iraq before receiving visas to come to the US, joining Lincoln's growing Yazidi community in 2017.

(soft music) With the trauma of the genocide back home and the culture shock of their new home.

The family struggled to adjust.

(soft music) [Narrator] Part of the culture shock had to do with food.

[Shahab] [Narrator] That's when Shahab and Community Crops launched the effort to find the seeds to grow food that is culturally important to the Yazidi community.

[Shahab] [Narrator] When Shahab is attending rows, he's helping other immigrants and refugees navigate some of the same struggles he and his family faced.

[Shahab] At the Yazidi Cultural center, (soft music) (soft music) [Narrator] Friend and fellow Yazidi refugee.

Nawaf Haskan was also an interpreter for the US military.

(soft music) [Narrator] 6,000 miles from Sinjar.

Food is key to preserving cultural traditions in his own family.

(soft music) Both Nawaf and his wife Layla are skilled chefs cooking elaborate feasts from unwritten recipes passed out from one generation to the next.

(soft music) At their home in Lincoln, the camera eats first, so Nawaf can post images to his Instagram site, Yazidi Kitchen in America.

[Nawaf] [Narrator] Over aromatic plates of Dolma, lamb stuffed Kutelk dumplings, and pickled shishito peppers.

Nawaf and Shahab are not just planting seeds, they're planting a future in the US with their growing families.

[Nawaf] [Narrator] Shahab has his farm and the culinary traditions, it inspires, only strengthens the connection of his soul to the Nebraska soil.

[Shahab] [Narrator] Shahab likens his existence to that of a tree or plant part of the land here, ready to grow roots in his new home.

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