Shop Local, Eat Global: Experience the World at Fargo's Global Harvest International Farmer’s Market

This summer, Fargo offers a unique opportunity to experience a world of flavors right in your backyard. The Global Harvest International Farmer’s Market, launching its soft opening in July 2024, brings locally-grown, globally-known vegetable varieties directly to our community. Initiated in 2023 through a grant from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Global Harvest provides refugees with the necessary resources to cultivate food for personal consumption or for sale.

Many refugees arrive in Fargo with rich agricultural backgrounds, yet find themselves without a space to continue their traditional farming practices. Additionally, culturally significant crops are often hard to come by or are prohibitively expensive in our landlocked state. Many older refugees have dedicated their entire adult lives to growing food for their families and communities. As a farmer, you might be able to empathize with the pain of being separated from your land and your calling. Our response? A dynamic, multi-faceted approach that includes a one-acre urban garden right in the heart of the city.

The urban garden has taken root on an unused hockey rink in Village West Park just north of 13th Avenue in Fargo. The rink has been gone since 2008, but the soil compaction it left behind remains. I have never encountered such awful compaction in my life. After doing some research, I learned that the weight of a 3-inch hockey rink is the equivalent of 10 full-sized school buses. Just imagine the damage created by a fleet of 10 school buses driving across your growing beds! Nonetheless, this location was absolutely perfect. It is in a densely populated area which allows many participants to walk to the garden and the market.

This garden isn’t just a plot of land; it has grown into a vibrant meeting place where the love of growing food connects us all. Here, a melting pot of languages and cultures converge, each sharing their favorite planting techniques and crops. For instance, Syrian and Iraqi gardeners utilize dugout troughs for their peppers and melons. This practice is essential when growing in the desert as it directs the sparse rainfall directly toward the root systems of the thirsty plants. If our summers continue to be as hot and dry as 2023, we might start planting all our vegetables using this method!

Conversely, our Central African participants prefer elevated rows and mounds for their white eggplants and okra, as this keeps the young seedlings out of the water during the downpours of the rainy season. In our garden, every method is valued; there's no single "right" way to grow. We all gather to learn from each other. This exchange of knowledge not only enriches our gardening community but also equips everyone to better handle shifting growing conditions. While we may not be growing in a desert or a rainforest, recent weather patterns associated with climate change might make it necessary to employ alternate growing practices in the not-so-distant future.

Visiting our urban garden in July is like taking a culinary tour around the world. As you stroll through the garden, you'll encounter exotic varieties like Aleppo peppers from the Levant, Aswad eggplants from Iraq, and perhaps even the fiery Dalle Khursani, a cherry sized pepper from the Himalayas.

The Dalle Khursani is our hottest pepper, coming in at around 350,000 SHU. It is also one of my favorite peppers due to the beauty of the plant and its foliage. The leaves are broad, wavy, and deep, dark green. The stem is woody and strong making it a great plant for high wind areas. The pepper itself is an unassuming fruit no bigger than a cherry. This pepper is valued for its culinary uses as well as traditional medicinal use. Many Bhutanese gardeners believe that consuming one pepper daily will prevent cancer, improve circulation, and prevent colds in the winter months. One thing is certain, this hot pepper will definitely make you sweat!

We go to great lengths to help the Dalle Khursani grow in this place 8,000 miles away from its native land. The seeds are purchased from Truelove Seeds— the only source I could find in America. We start them in January, and we don’t risk field planting until after June 1st. In September, before the first frost, we dig up the plants and distribute them among our Bhutanese gardeners. The gardeners then “foster” the perennial pepper plant over winter in their apartments. To facilitate success, the pepper plants are stored in a cooler area to slow growth. Only 4 leaves are allowed on the plant during the winter months, and it is closely monitored for signs of illness and pests. In our first year of overwintering, we achieved a survival rate of 57%. After carefully acclimating and hardening off the peppers, the 1.5-year-old plants will be returned to their new growing bed!

At the Global Harvest Program, we’re not just growing vegetables—we're cultivating connections and fostering a deeper understanding through the universal language of agriculture. Join us to shop local and eat global, discovering the rich tapestry of our community's diverse agricultural heritage!