Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ship after the Americans left the region in 1973. Christian groups throughout the Un-
ited States sponsored the immigration of many Laotians at that time, and gradually a
large number of these people relo cated to Fresno. Here they live, frequently in grinding
poverty, as small farmers. Against all odds, they are not only succeeding in feeding their
families, but they are also changing the way we eat. Almost every farmers' market in Cali-
fornia has at least one Laotian farm stand. Sometimes the Laotians sell standard Americ-
an fruits and vegetables with which they were familiar in their homeland. Cherry toma-
toes, eggplants and peppers are mainstays. Often, however, the stands are stocked with a
wealth of produce that, to American eyes, seems quite exotic: green and purple yard-long
beans; bright orange melons that look like spiny cucumbers and have huge pomegranate-
red seeds; squash that can be eaten like zucchini when they're young or used as a bath
sponge when they mature; stalky Chinese broccoli; giant white daikon radishes; eggplants
of every color and shape; water spinach; exotic mints, basils and other herbs; and the
tender green shoots of pea plants.
So numerous are these growers that the local morning farm reports are now broadcast in
the Hmong language by a Hmong county extension agent named Michael Yang. (Many of
the Laotians are Hmong, a group that lives in the mountains of northern Laos.) A short,
slightly stocky man with a quiet demeanor, Yang seems much like any other county exten-
sion agent except that when he steps into the sun, he pulls on a conical straw hat instead of
a cap with a seed company logo. Yang's family immigrated to the United States in 1980,
when he was eight years old. His father had worked for the Americans in Laos. After he
was killed, it fell to Michael, the oldest son, to guide his mother and brothers and sisters
through the jungle to Thailand and the refugee camps there. At one point he was bitten by
a two-foot-long centipede and was certain he was going to die. His mother carried him on
her back for three days until he could walk again.
Much of Yang's work is done at the Hmong American Community educational farm.
The twenty-acre plot is divided in half, with separate fields for the lowland Lao (another
Laotian people) and mountain Hmong farmers. Partly the separation is necessary because
the two groups prefer different vegetables, but there is welldocumented friction between
the groups as well. The Hmong side is planted with cool-weather leafy vegetables and
herbs that grow through the winter: bok choy, Chinese broccoli, water spinach and napa
cabbage, as well as various kinds of mint and basil. The Lao side is covered with trellises
garlanded with bitter melon, yardlong beans and loofah. Long, lavender Chinese eggplants
and small, round, green Thai ones grow in rows.
New vegetables are added every season, some from families' private seed collections.
Some items are so obscure that Yang says they have to be sent to the University of Cali-
