The South Asian Produce project began in the summer of 2020. Bashira Chowdhury, trained researcher, noticed a lack of infrastructure for Alabama’s small farmers. Many of the farmers she spoke to expressed the same dilemma-- they wanted to work full-time on their farm but farming wasn’t providing a sustainable income.
Bashira realized Alabama farmers could flourish by looking beyond traditional commodities to serve the state’s growing South Asian community. She reached out to Caylor Rolling, farm manager of EAT South, to discuss vegetables and community building. The two decided it would be great to start a vegetable trial to find the right vegetable cultivars that would grow in Alabama.
Fabia Hossain, a South-Asian marketing intern, joined the project. Immediately, Bashira and Fabia connected through their heritage of being second generation Bangladeshis and reminisced on their childhoods eating their parents' cultural dishes. They started to focus on the South Asian community-- a vegetable eating community and a growing community in Alabama.
Through this collaboration, the team hopes to help Alabama’s vegetable farmers flourish while bringing a slice of South Asian culture to Alabama.
