Teamwork

Edith, a farmer from Nimba County, Liberia, comes from a family of farmers. She moved to Providence in 1994 and loves the sense of community that working at the Broad Street Farmers Market has given her. She is a member of the Southside Community Land Trust, which manages community gardens and farms in the Providence area. 

I started farming here 2005 with Southside Community. I came here with my kids. First I was doing city gardening. I was doing the gardening project in the city. But I keep seeing people here selling and I came in and asked a question. ‘How can I be part of the market?’ Then they said, ‘oh, you have to go register. You will be on the list.’ There's a list. Waiting list. When your name reaches the time, then they look for area for you. Then they will ask you which area is best for you. I said Broad Street, because I live four houses down. So they gave me this place. And I've been sitting here ever since. 

West African groups are many. [In the Southside Community Land Trust], we got Liberians, we got Nigerians, we got Algerians, we got Togolese, we got Cameroon. There's a lot of people. From Congo. 

I’m always happy when I come here. You meet friends. You meet different people. And people you have not seen for a long time, you meet them. And there's something you guys can exchange. Like, right now I have bitter ball; they want squash. I don't have the squash. Somebody that doesn't have it, ‘oh, you can have a bad one,’ and then they will take the seed out, keep it for the next season. That's how we do, we exchange. Like, I don't have pepper here, but I've been selling for that lady (she gestures to another vendor) because she has pepper. Specifically the pepper that she has, they call it ghost pepper. So the ghost pepper, most customers want it. So they will come and call me, ‘oh, we want a little from you, but we want special pepper from that woman’ and I will go to her and take the pepper. So when they come, they pay me for the pepper and I take her money back to her. It’s teamwork.