CHICAGO, Illinois — Leafy mustard greens might taste sour to native Chicagoans. To Uma Mishra, however, their flavor is a reminder of home-cooked dinners in Bhutan, a small country in Southeast Asia. The greens fill her rectangular plot at the Global Garden Refugee Training Farm in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood. A community organization has transformed an empty lot into patches of soil where refugees can farm.
Many People Are Waiting For Space
The farmers in the Albany Park farm find comfort and purpose in the digging, planting, and harvesting that made up their life’s work back home.
The farm began in 2012 and became a nonprofit group this spring, said Linda Seyler, the executive director and “head weed-puller.” It is so popular that 60 families are waiting for an open plot. Often, newly arrived refugees are so eager to grow food that reminds them of home that they reach out while still learning English. Some are just figuring out the “L,” the city's elevated train system.
Mishra’s family tends one of the 100 gardens in the two-block-long space. Each family pays $20 a year, which helps to offset the cost of seeds they receive.
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Vegetables Meant For Home-Cooked Meals
Most refugees grow vegetables to take home and cook, but about 12 families sell their produce at a local farmers market. Part of the garden also is set aside to grow vegetables for the farm’s community supported agriculture program. A summer membership costs $375 and gives members access to a weekly selection of produce. The program helps to pay for the seeds and plants that the refugees grow.
On a recent sunny afternoon, the garden was filled with people bundling green onions or watering soil. Children darted around mounds of dirt as Mishra tended her plot. She expertly plucked out weeds and selected a handful of the bitter, spicy greens to take home for dinner.
Most of the refugees come from Bhutan and Myanmar, another country in Southeast Asia, Seyler said. Some also are from Congo and Eritrea in Africa, as well Laos in Southeast Asia. Working the soil gives them a way to connect with their previous lives.
“They’re in here as soon as there’s a sunny day in January,” she said.
"Wild Edibles"
Those first winters can freeze expectations, especially for refugees from warm locations. At the first frost, some tell Seyler, “it all died.” Gently she will respond, “That’s what happens here.”
Part of her job is suggesting vegetables like garlic, which they can plant in the fall and harvest in the spring.
Plants growing in the refugees’ gardens are ones Chicagoans might not expect. A man from Bhutan had planted zucchini alongside lamb’s quarters and pokeweed, which Seyler said most consider “wild edibles.” Another plot supports bitter melon, to Seyler’s surprise. “I always thought of that as a real tropical thing, but it grows nicely here in Chicago,” she said.
A Universal Language
Ma Tun Nyint arrived as a refugee from Myanmar six years ago and found the farm a year later. While generously watering her plot, she pointed out the radishes and cucumbers.
“My country, this long garden,” she said, motioning her hands wider to show the land she farmed in Myanmar. “Chicago, small.” Here at the garden, she said, “I’m happy.”
In fact, Seyler said the refugees often call the farm "home." After arriving in a brand-new city with a different climate and foreign language, gardening can seem like a universal language that everyone understands. "There's a lot of mental health healing involved," Seyler said.
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Harvest And Share
Some farmers are older, often grandparents who might otherwise struggle to find things to fill time. “It gives them an active role in their family,” Seyler said.
For Mishra, gardening in this corner of Chicago is a way to connect to the homeland that she fled with her family because of persecution. Her plot is full of mustard greens alongside garlic, cucumber, and tomatoes. The family harvested enough last year to share with neighbors. They froze so many tomatoes that they still have some left.
“In Bhutan, we had a large area of land,” she said, estimating about 15 to 20 acres. “Here, we have a small plot, but we can grow so many things.”

short answer
Why do the refugees call this garden home? Use text evidence and the R. A.C. E strategy to answer the question.