{"id":150956,"date":"2023-11-16T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T13:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/?p=150956"},"modified":"2024-08-30T00:47:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T04:47:46","slug":"refugee-farmers-homeland-crops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2023\/11\/refugee-farmers-homeland-crops\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Refugee Farmers Raising the Crops of Their Homelands From Texas Soil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Krishna Bista grew up on a diversified farm in her native Bhutan, where her family cultivated sweet potatoes, ginger, corn, wheat, millet, citrus and cardamom. At age 30, she was forced to seek asylum in Nepal, and for the next 19 years, she was unable to work or grow her own food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had to rely on others to eat, and it was really difficult,\u201d says Bista, who is one of six refugee farmers employed by <\/span>New Leaf Agriculture,<\/span><\/a> a 20-acre organic operation located in Manor, Texas. \u201cI\u2019m happy now, because I can feed myself and I have friends and a support system, thanks to New Leaf.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When Bista was granted refugee status in 2010, she began taking English classes at Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, 14 miles west of Manor. It was there she met Meg Erskine, co-founder and CEO of the Multicultural Refugee Coalition (MRC), the non-profit that oversees New Leaf and a textile manufacturing studio located at the church.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MRC\u2019s two social enterprises were created to provide refugees and asylees from traditional farming and sewing cultures with training and dignified employment that reconnects them to their respective vocations. \u201cWorking with these people every day, it\u2019s very clear that self-sufficiency is in their blood,\u201d says Matt Simon, New Leaf\u2019s agricultural director. \u201cBeing able to take back some control over their lives when they\u2019ve previously had none is empowering.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Krishna Bista grew up on a diversified farm in her native Bhutan. (Photo courtesy<\/span>\u00a0Leia Vita\/Farmers’ Footprint)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The public-facing farm, which was established in 2017, employs refugee farmers to cultivate crops for its CSA, Austin\u2019s Mueller and Lakeline farmers\u2019 markets and local restaurants and makers. New Leaf helps refugees who aren\u2019t employees by donating 90 of its CSA shares per week to families in need, in partnership with the Center for Survivors of Torture and the Austin Independent School District.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

New Leaf also runs a community farmer program, established in the fall of 2022, that provides refugees with small plots and supplies so they can cultivate their own culturally desired crops. With grant funding from Travis County, New Leaf purchases all of these crops (including those consumed by farmers and their families) and distributes them free of charge within their respective communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The benefits of helping displaced immigrants become self-sufficient after years of instability are many. \u201cMost social enterprise programming is focused on life skills and job placement,\u201d says Simon. \u201cThis is different because we\u2019re actually providing them with the assets they need to feed their families. Our goal for this program is to endow and equip our farmers with the skills and knowledge necessary for running their own farming business, should they choose to do so.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Doli Wikongo, a refugee farmer employee who grew up cultivating bananas and rice in her native Congo, New Leaf has been a lifeline. \u201c[It\u2019s] helped me to assimilate greatly,\u201d she says. \u201cThe farm is a community of immigrants, mostly from Africa and Asia. We\u2019re culturally similar because we traditionally grow the same crops, share resources and live in big, family-oriented groups, so we see one another as extended family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Doli Wikongo at New Leaf Agriculture’s farm. (Photo courtesy\u00a0Leia Vita\/Farmers’ Footprint)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After arriving in the US in 2013 with her five children, Wikongo and her teenaged son Wandaka began volunteering at Farmlink, MRC\u2019s predecessor to New Leaf. The agricultural partnership was located at Austin\u2019s Green Gate Farms and provided a way for refugees from farming cultures to keep their hands in the soil and receive free produce in exchange for several hours\u2019 of work each week.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was Wandaka who ultimately became the catalyst for New Leaf in 2017, says Simon. The then 17-year-old was also involved with Future Farmers of America through his high school and knew well the importance of agricultural programming for refugee immigrants. In early 2017, the owner of Green Gate Farms introduced Wandaka to a local grower who was leasing land from a man named Jon Beall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWandaka noticed that there was quite a bit of unutilized land on Beall\u2019s property, so he asked Jon if MRC could lease the acreage,\u201d says Simon. \u201cJon was happy to do so, and our first growing season was the spring of 2018. Wandaka, who is now attending university in France, was our first farm manager.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Doli Wikongo and Bista were also two of New Leaf\u2019s first refugee farmer employees. The women are now crew chiefs for the public farm program and oversee four other refugee farmers from Burma and Congo. Together, the farm crew cultivates and harvests more than 50 different crops including heirloom peppers, melons, summer and winter squash, okra, greens, brassicas and botanicals such as Mexican mint marigold, which is used as a textile dye.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Wikongo and Bista oversee the farm crew. <\/span>(Photo courtesy Leia Vita\/Farmers’ Footprint)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The starting pay for refugee farmers is \u201ccompetitive with other certified organic farms in the region and actually higher than some small, family farm managers make,\u201d says Simon. \u201cWe also give yearly raises and paid time off.\u201d The farmers also receive twice-weekly in-house ESL classes and regular meetings with MRC\u2019s case manager. To help them navigate health care and other benefits, New Leaf connects the farmers to relevant local organizations such as <\/span>Foundation Communities<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Manos de Cristo<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Leaf launched its community farmer program in the fall of 2022 as a way for refugees to grow their own food and earn supplemental income. Each of the 24 community farmers, including Bista and Wikongo, are allocated a 750-square-foot plot along with farm implements and organic fertilizer; they come from traditional farming cultures including Congo, Burma, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh.<\/span><\/p>\n

The community farmers grow culturally desirable crops such as amaranth, various types of eggplants and peppers, red noodle beans, roselle hibiscus and more. Bista cultivates daikon radish, brassicas, kale, beets, winter squash and blisteringly hot Dalle Khursani peppers, which she adds to gundruk, a fermented dish made from the leaves of mustard greens or cauliflower. Bista uses daikon for achar, a pickle flavored with various spices and chiles. \u201cI mostly make vegetables and pickles,\u201d she says. \u201cIt makes me very happy to eat the food I had growing up in Bhutan.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bista\u2019s son Bal is New Leaf\u2019s chicken and greenhouse manager, and he and his in-laws also have community farmer plots. Any leftover crops not used by the Bistas and their relatives are given to their neighbors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wikongo and her two teenaged daughters grow cauliflower, cabbage, green onions, various greens and winter squash. She uses the leaves from the squash for bishusha, a dish traditionally made with pumpkin greens. After boiling the leaves to remove their thorny outer layer, she cooks them with tomatoes and a bit of heavy cream, to be served over rice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I have enough vegetables to feed my family, I\u2019ll give the rest to my friends or sell it back to New Leaf,\u201d says Wikongo. \u201cWe have a Congolese community here in Austin and New Leaf delivers food to one of our churches.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Wikongo and her daughters grow cauliflower, cabbage, squash and more. (Photo courtesy Leia Vita\/Farmers’ Footprint)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mang Thian Cing, a refugee from Burma, grows roselle hibiscus, among other crops, on her allocated land. The plant\u2019s tart flowers are used for tea in Burma, and the lemony-tasting greens (known as chin baung hin ywet, or sour leaf), are added to soup or used in chin baung kyaw, fried roselle leaves and bamboo shoots flavored chiles, onion, shrimp paste and fish sauce.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learning to farm in a climate like Texas\u2019s is challenging, even for farmers like Wikongo who are from tropical regions, because there are differences in botany and methodology, she says. \u201cIn Congo, the seeds are bigger, so we just plant them in the ground. Here, the seeds are smaller and it\u2019s necessary to start them in a greenhouse.\u201d She has also learned to mix and amend soil and place irrigation pipes in a way that maximizes water distribution.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the climatic extremes and lack of consistent rainfall, Wikongo loves farming and considers it her permanent vocation. \u201cIt\u2019s what I want to do,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you work in the fields, it keeps you active and healthy. I\u2019m able to do so much more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Krishna Bista grew up on a diversified farm in her native Bhutan, where her family cultivated sweet potatoes, ginger, corn, wheat, millet, citrus and cardamom. At age 30, she was forced to seek asylum in Nepal, and for the next 19 years, she was unable to work or grow her own food.\u00a0 \u201cI had to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1980,"featured_media":150961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":[33277],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33067],"tags":[33218,33084,33079],"article-theme":[33291],"class_list":["post-150956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farm","tag-culture-heritage","tag-food","tag-plants-crops","format-mtmf","article-theme-people"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeet the Refugee Farmers Raising the Crops of Their Homelands From Texas Soil - Modern Farmer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Krishna Bista grew up on a diversified farm in her native Bhutan, where her family cultivated sweet potatoes, ginger, corn, wheat, millet, citrus and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2023\/11\/refugee-farmers-homeland-crops\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the Refugee Farmers Raising the Crops of Their Homelands From Texas Soil - 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