Page 42 - The Valley Table - January/February 2021

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traditional
rice farming
takes root
FARMING TODAY IS OFTEN DISCUSSED IN terms of how far it has advanced. The industry literature
is inundated with tech buzzwords: Hydroponics. Vertical farming. Biodynamics. Yet, farming methods carry a history of the people that developed them and represent traditions that have persevered for generations.
In the Hudson Valley, for example, apples and grapes represent centuries of cultivation. The region is also no stranger to new projects, like budding hemp or hops farms. And then, there’s rice. Not a crop you often hear about
in New York — and for good reason. Typically, grown in
consistently warm, wet climates, it’s not thought to be adaptable to New York’s much shorter season.
But when Nfamara Badjie, born in The Gambia, and his wife, Dawn Hoyte, bought six-acre Ever-Growing Family Farm in Ulster Park in 2013, “I noticed that the soil was really wet,” says Hoyte. “My husband said, ‘This would be really good for growing rice,’ and I told him it was crazy. You can’t grow rice in New York.”
Before moving to the United States in 2005, Badjie had spent his whole life in Gambian rice fields. Like his distant cousin, Moustapha Diedhou (above), who also works
40 THE VALLEY TABLE JAN – FEB 2021
PHOTOS BY KATIE SCOTT-CHILDRESS
by jonathan ortiz