Producer Profile.

Highlighting Beyond Bok Choy:

One of HAFM's Asian Vegies Stars.

Beyond Bok Choy Farm

(formerly named Lacha Her Farm)

of Fresno bring their

Asian vegetables & fruits

to HAFM's

Thursday market in Long Beach Uptown,
Friday market in Long Beach Downtown,
and Saturday market in Cerritos.

Thursdays and Fridays from April thru December,
but for the Saturday Market they are trying to participate year-round.

Some Herstory:
   The Her family had lived in the northern highlands of what is now called Laos for a long long time, as part of the proud and independent Hmong culture which quietly and peaceably tended their hillside monsoon-agriculture subsistence gardens. Political instability, cajoling by outside forces and unspeakable atrocities forced the majority of Hmong peoples to flee to neighboring lands, many to Thailand resettlement camps, as the Hers did in 1979. There, the horrid life as refugees spurred the Hers on to a new life in faraway America, and an arduous odyssey in many parts began, as much of the extended Her family came over to California in bits and pieces, under many different sponsorships, eventually able to offer such to other family members. And so Lacha Her and his wife Tong Vue (then 22 and 20 respectively) and one-year-old son Nha came to Fresno in 1988, as did his parents separately.
   Because they quite naturally missed their homeland and its cuisine, and the Fresno area at the time offered very little of the sustenance they sought, the Her family in 1989 began sharing in the rental of a 1/10 acre community garden along with other families, raising their vegetables carefully with a minimum of pesticides or none at all. Each of the next several years, the community garden moved to different properties, and by 1995 the Hers made a decision to lease a half-acre for farming cherry tomatoes, and to sell some of the harvest mainly for funding educational expenses for their growing family, such as books, paper, pencils and school field trips.
   In 1996 they tried the lease of a 5-acre plot and lost $7,000, but the Hers, knowing not the meaning of giving up, continued to farm. In 2000, Lacha Her partnered for six months with a friend and began selling their produce at the Northridge Farmers' Market. While the partnership dissolved, the Her relationship with farmers' markets blossomed and they joined HAFM's Thursday market in Signal Hill in mid-2000 (which closed at end of Oct. '04 and re-opened as Long Beach East on Apr. 7, 2005 and relocated to Bixby Knolls area as Long Beach Uptown in Aug '07), the Long Beach Downtown market in 2001, and the Cerritos market in 2003.
   Currently, beside himself, the Lacha Her Family Farm (renamed Beyond Bok Choy Farm in April '06) involves the labors of his wife, four of their six sons, his mother-in-law, one of his three brothers (and his wife), one of his wife's sisters (and two of her four sons). In all of HAFM's markets they attend, the Her marketstand is consistently at or near the top of participating farms in sales.
   It is clear that we all can learn a lot from the Her example of communal perseverance.

Surf lots of info on the Hmong culture in Asia and America...

Lacha Her hoes rows at dusk.
(Lacha Her hoes Chinese broccoli rows)

Lacha's wife Tong Vue hoes rows at dusk.
(Lacha Her's wife Tong Vue hoes Italian sweet pepper rows)
Leafy vine.

Throughout the Hers' farming season, their HAFM marketstand is laden seasonally with the following: A pair of taro leaves.

Amaranth / Chinese spinach;
Basil (Italian, lemon, Thai, Thai Bai Ka Pao);
Beans (green snap);
Beets;
Bok choy (baby, Shanghai);
Broccoli;
Cabbage (Chinese, white leaf);
Chayote (fruit & leaf);
Choy sum / Chinese flowering cabbage;
Cilantro (leaf & flower);
Collard greens;
Corn (sweet yellow);
Cucumber (Asian, Japanese, pickling);
Daikon;
Dill;
Dong qua / Wintermelon;
Dow gok / Long Bean (green, purple, white);
Eggplant (Chinese, Filipino, globe, Hawaiian, Indian, Japanese, round purple, Thai green, Thai round)/
Foo qua / Bittermelon leaf;
Foo qua / Bittermelon (green, Indian, white);
Gai choy;
Gai lan / Chinese broccoli;
Garlic;
Gourd (long snake);
Joy choy;
Jujube;
Lemongrass;
Mint;
Moqua / Fuzzy melon;
Mora (nightshade);
Mustard Greens;
Mustard (curly leaf);
Napa cabbage (long);
Okra leaf (saluyot);
Onion (Asian, green, sweet red);
Opo (fruit & leaf);
Papadi / Indian pea;
Parsley root;
Parsley (Italian);
Pat (eemow, siang/Asian mustard, thum blurn);
Pea (sugar snap);
Pepper leaf (hot, sweet);
Pepper (habanero, jalapeño, serrano, sweet Italian, Thai chili);
Pigeon pea;
Pumpkin leaf;
Pumpkin (Asian);
Rapini;
Sin qua leaf;
Sin qua / Loofah gourd (ribbed, smooth);
Snow pea (fruit & leaf);
Sour leaf (herb);
Spinach (malabar red & green);
Squash (Asian, kabocha);
Sugar cane;
Su qua;
Swiss chard (red, green);
Taro leaf;
Tomato (cherry, roma);
Tong sum choy;
Tree bean (guar gum);
Turnip (root & greens);
Yam leaf;
You choy;
Zucchini.

The wintry chills of California's San Joaquin Valley send their icy fingers well into spring, and require the temporary greenhousing of many leafy row crops:

Greenhouse rows.
(Greenhouse rows, from left to right: Japanese cucumber, Italian sweet pepper, Japanese cucumber, & 2 rows of pickling cucumber)

Greenhouse rows.
(Greenhouse rows, from left to right: amaranth/Chinese spinach, green malabar spinach, red malabar spinach, pat thum blurn, & pat eemow)
Leafy vine.

LINK to
a Slideshow of More
Beyond Bok Choy Farm
Photos

Recipe: KAB YOB (Hmong eggrolls)
Leafy vine.

Other eminently noteworthy growers

of Asian produce

participating in HAFM markets:

Oriental Farms (Long Beach Uptown and Cerritos);
Baniaga Farm (Cerritos);
Vang Farm (Cerritos);
Bih Shan Mushrooms (Cerritos and Long Beach Southeast);
Chu's Family - backyard farmer (Cerritos and Long Beach Southeast).

Link to HAFM's Melons Feature Page
(including Asian melons)

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