Crop of immigrant farmers thrives in Lancaster
By
Paula J. Owen
Correspondent
Posted May 2, 2018 at 5:57 PM
Updated May 3, 2018 at 5:57 AM
LANCASTER – When former dairy farmer Maria C. Moreira was approached
by a young Hmong Chinese woman nearly four decades ago requesting to use
a portion of her farmland to grow food to feed her family, Ms. Moreira,
an immigrant herself, could not say no.
That request was the beginning of a farming journey that Ms. Moreira, 64, did not plan for, but is happy she undertook as executive director and founder of World Farmers.
World Farmers’ mission is to support small farmers in sustainable agricultural production and marketing practices, to connect culturally relevant produce to viable markets, according to Maria Anthony, program development specialist for the organization. The work is done primarily through Flats Mentor Farm.
Since 1984, Flats Mentor Farm has provided the space and infrastructure for immigrant and refugee farmers to get started in small farming enterprises through mentoring, training and hands-on assistance, Ms. Anthony explained.
Flats Mentor Farm farmers produce over 55 acres of ethnic specialty crops, supplying wholesale and retail markets throughout New England, including over 40 farmers markets and dozens of small-scale direct-to-consumer outlets in and around Massachusetts.
At 4 p.m. Friday at Langan and Main streets in Lancaster, World Farmers will have a public celebration of its purchase of 12 more acres to the organization. State and local officials will attend the event to honor the Langan-Burgoyne family for their stewardship of the 12-acre property, Ms. Anthony said.
“The land was purchased through a generous deal offered by the (Langan-Burgoyne) family to World Farmers,” Ms. Anthony said. “We have more than 250 immigrant and refugee farmers farming at Flats Mentor Farm and the demand for plots grows each year, so the land is a much needed and welcome addition.”
Some of the farmers at Flats Mentor Farm grow crops only for their personal consumption, she said, but others grow for wholesale and retail sales at farmers markets and the farm’s community-supported agriculture program.
“I think we have a pretty wonderful organization - and it is due to
the wonderful farmers who work the land,” she said. “Most are from
Africa, 84 percent, and 64 percent are women.”
Ms. Moreira, who came to the U.S. from the Azores in Portugal when she was 13, officially established the nonprofit organization in 2010 after selling her 200 dairy cows in 2006 on her farm, Manny’s Farm.
“I was approached by a young lady who wanted a farm,” she said during a recent interview. “She did a great job and asked for more land. I put her on the cornfield and she brought family and more family.”
She only charged the woman what it cost to plow, harrow and till the land, she said, and the Hmong family was successful in not only feeding their own family members, but also selling the extra produce at farmers markets to make extra money.
“It is not a business,” Ms. Moreira explained. “It was never meant to be a business. Farming – you have to have a passion for it.”
In 2010, she said, there were about 50 Hmong farmers growing crops on the land, and then she was approached by a group of African women who wanted to farm. Now, around 84 percent of the organization’s farmers are African and 10 percent are Hmong, she said.
“The farmers learn from each other,” she said. “We don’t have enough
resources to teach what everybody needs, so many of the farmers here
will ask each other questions, like, ‘Who has this beautiful patch of
chard?’ It’s about mentoring. They are literally mentoring each other.”
Ms. Moreira said when she came to the U.S. she could not speak English and was “thrown into a classroom.” Her parents, she said, “went through hell and back.” She said many of her farmers have had so many barriers placed in front of them, she does not want any more put on them at the farm.
“I identify with the farmers that we serve and my heart goes out to them,” she said. “I’ve never been a refugee, but I hear stories and get goosebumps. Our program mirrors the strife existing in the world at the time and we have an open-door policy.”
The organization recently received a $124,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to open a commercial kitchen on Main Street in Lancaster, she said, that farmers will use to make products to use or sell
Txong Yang, 26, of Fitchburg grew up working the land at Flats Mentor Farm with his parents and eight older siblings and selling produce at farmers markets in the Boston area. He became a full-time farmer there last year after leaving a job in Boston as a lab technician.
“I always remember my parents working on the farm,” he said, adding that his parents were farmers their entire lives in Laos before moving to the U.S. in the mid-1970s. An aunt who lives with them also helps at the farm. “They wanted to get their home country’s produce. Just being able to produce the vegetables they’ve always eaten and that their parents always cooked for them back home, it gives them a sense of comfort.”
Mr. Yang said he did not realize until recently how important the organization was to his family.
“It definitely was the foundation for everything and everyone,” he
said. “It wasn’t until the past few years that I’ve come to understand
how important the whole thing is to immigrant farmers. From having the
land and being farmers and growing ethnic crops they are bringing to
their communities ... I’ve learned to appreciate how beautiful the whole
process is. It brings a sense of comfort and kind of fills in that
empty space I think immigrant farmers have when they are forced to leave
their country or who are leaving to find a better life.”
Thomas F. Burgoyne, who with his sister co-owned the 12 acres sold to World Farmers, said they wouldn’t want the land used any other way. The land, originally purchased by their immigrant grandmother from Ireland in 1907 for $1 and seven cows, he said, was used to grow potatoes and corn, until it was deeded to his parents in 1963. His father, Francis J. Burgoyne of Clinton, was chief construction engineer for the former Norton Co. in Worcester and traveled the world building new facilities in Norway, Mexico and South Africa, but farming was always his hobby, he said.
“We could have put a baseball field or storage facility there,” Mr. Burgoyne said. “We could have made a business out of the land, but our grandmother and dad, they’re just going to love the concept that people are using the land to farm.”
He said he and sister had other inquiries to purchase the land, which is on the banks of the Nashua River.
“But after we toured Maria’s (Moreira’s) garden and saw people with their knees in the dirt working with their hands taking back a little locale and selling it back to people for food from all over the world, it was just really neat,” he said. “Maria has received awards from the White House. She’s just unbelievable.”
That request was the beginning of a farming journey that Ms. Moreira, 64, did not plan for, but is happy she undertook as executive director and founder of World Farmers.
World Farmers’ mission is to support small farmers in sustainable agricultural production and marketing practices, to connect culturally relevant produce to viable markets, according to Maria Anthony, program development specialist for the organization. The work is done primarily through Flats Mentor Farm.
Since 1984, Flats Mentor Farm has provided the space and infrastructure for immigrant and refugee farmers to get started in small farming enterprises through mentoring, training and hands-on assistance, Ms. Anthony explained.
Flats Mentor Farm farmers produce over 55 acres of ethnic specialty crops, supplying wholesale and retail markets throughout New England, including over 40 farmers markets and dozens of small-scale direct-to-consumer outlets in and around Massachusetts.
At 4 p.m. Friday at Langan and Main streets in Lancaster, World Farmers will have a public celebration of its purchase of 12 more acres to the organization. State and local officials will attend the event to honor the Langan-Burgoyne family for their stewardship of the 12-acre property, Ms. Anthony said.
“The land was purchased through a generous deal offered by the (Langan-Burgoyne) family to World Farmers,” Ms. Anthony said. “We have more than 250 immigrant and refugee farmers farming at Flats Mentor Farm and the demand for plots grows each year, so the land is a much needed and welcome addition.”
Some of the farmers at Flats Mentor Farm grow crops only for their personal consumption, she said, but others grow for wholesale and retail sales at farmers markets and the farm’s community-supported agriculture program.
Ms. Moreira, who came to the U.S. from the Azores in Portugal when she was 13, officially established the nonprofit organization in 2010 after selling her 200 dairy cows in 2006 on her farm, Manny’s Farm.
“I was approached by a young lady who wanted a farm,” she said during a recent interview. “She did a great job and asked for more land. I put her on the cornfield and she brought family and more family.”
She only charged the woman what it cost to plow, harrow and till the land, she said, and the Hmong family was successful in not only feeding their own family members, but also selling the extra produce at farmers markets to make extra money.
“It is not a business,” Ms. Moreira explained. “It was never meant to be a business. Farming – you have to have a passion for it.”
In 2010, she said, there were about 50 Hmong farmers growing crops on the land, and then she was approached by a group of African women who wanted to farm. Now, around 84 percent of the organization’s farmers are African and 10 percent are Hmong, she said.
Ms. Moreira said when she came to the U.S. she could not speak English and was “thrown into a classroom.” Her parents, she said, “went through hell and back.” She said many of her farmers have had so many barriers placed in front of them, she does not want any more put on them at the farm.
“I identify with the farmers that we serve and my heart goes out to them,” she said. “I’ve never been a refugee, but I hear stories and get goosebumps. Our program mirrors the strife existing in the world at the time and we have an open-door policy.”
The organization recently received a $124,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to open a commercial kitchen on Main Street in Lancaster, she said, that farmers will use to make products to use or sell
Txong Yang, 26, of Fitchburg grew up working the land at Flats Mentor Farm with his parents and eight older siblings and selling produce at farmers markets in the Boston area. He became a full-time farmer there last year after leaving a job in Boston as a lab technician.
“I always remember my parents working on the farm,” he said, adding that his parents were farmers their entire lives in Laos before moving to the U.S. in the mid-1970s. An aunt who lives with them also helps at the farm. “They wanted to get their home country’s produce. Just being able to produce the vegetables they’ve always eaten and that their parents always cooked for them back home, it gives them a sense of comfort.”
Mr. Yang said he did not realize until recently how important the organization was to his family.
Thomas F. Burgoyne, who with his sister co-owned the 12 acres sold to World Farmers, said they wouldn’t want the land used any other way. The land, originally purchased by their immigrant grandmother from Ireland in 1907 for $1 and seven cows, he said, was used to grow potatoes and corn, until it was deeded to his parents in 1963. His father, Francis J. Burgoyne of Clinton, was chief construction engineer for the former Norton Co. in Worcester and traveled the world building new facilities in Norway, Mexico and South Africa, but farming was always his hobby, he said.
“We could have put a baseball field or storage facility there,” Mr. Burgoyne said. “We could have made a business out of the land, but our grandmother and dad, they’re just going to love the concept that people are using the land to farm.”
He said he and sister had other inquiries to purchase the land, which is on the banks of the Nashua River.
“But after we toured Maria’s (Moreira’s) garden and saw people with their knees in the dirt working with their hands taking back a little locale and selling it back to people for food from all over the world, it was just really neat,” he said. “Maria has received awards from the White House. She’s just unbelievable.”
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