IGI and Ethnic Crops Program at UMass Amherst

Island Grown Initiative, a local food, culture and agriculture organization, joins local growers, the local Brazilian community and island restaurants in an effort to connect agriculture and local culture.

Island Grown is working with the Ethnic Crops Program of the University of Massachusetts. to promote locally-grown Brazilian vegetables on Martha’s Vineyard, both for the Brazilian market but also to introduce these vegetables to the non-Brazilian community. There are three vegetable crops that are being grown by local farmers on the Island this season:

Taioba is the leaf of an important family of root crops known as aroids. This includes two of the most important food crops in the tropics; taro and tannia. These root crops, also known as poi, malanga and yautia, are grown in tropical regions of the word. In some countries, the leaves of these root crops are also consumed. In particular this is common in West Africa and parts of Brazil, where it is known as taioba.

Maxixe is a type of cucumber that was brought to Brazil with the slave trade and is popular in the Northeastern part of the country. Research undertaken at the University of Massachusetts has shown that this crop grows well in our climate and that non-Brazilian consumers find the taste (slightly lemony) interesting when offered samples.

Abóbora japonesa (.pdf) (Japanese squash in Portuguese) was introduced by Japanese farmers in Brazil (Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan), where it is now the mpots popular hard squah in the country. It has a yellow flesh, similar to butternut squash, but sweeter.

These crops are being grown by three farmers on the Vineyard – Norton Farm, Whippoorwill Farm and Morning Glory Farm.

In addition, UMass is working with local entrepreneur Elio Silva to sell taioba transplants to Brazilians interested in producing these crops in their gardens or patios. Over 50 transplants were sold in June of this year.

This work is part of a doctoral thesis of Zoraia Barros, a native of Brazil doing her doctorate in the Department of Plant, Soil & Insect Sciences at UMass on the production and marketing of taioba in Massachusetts.

More Links:
Island Grown Initiative
Video of Zoraia Barros describing how to grow taioba in a garden or patio in Portuguese.
Information on ethnic crops that can be grown in the Northeastern US, including the three being gown on the cape.
The UMass Department of Plant, Soil & Insect Sciences
The Northeast Network of Immigrant Farming Projects