Gambia to Ulster Park

Out of Africa: A Family Brings African Rice Cultivation to Ulster County

By Eve Fox / Photography By Meredith Heuer | December 21, 2018

Rice is growing the Hudson Valley at Eve-growing Family Farm in Ulster Park, New York.

“I told him, ‘You’re crazy, we can’t grow rice here!’” says farmer Dawn Hoyte. She’s standing next to Ever-Growing Farm’s rice paddies, the sun beating down while the slender green rice plants reach up from the water. Hoyte has since conceded that her husband, Nfamara Badjie, was right. The evidence surrounds her.

The couple purchased the property in 2013 with the intention of farming it. “But it was so wet—like a swamp,” says Hoyte. Fortunately, Badjie, who grew up growing rice in a tiny village in Gambia, was far from discouraged. Although most farmers would eye the marshy, clay-laden soil with doubt, Badjie knew it was a perfect place for rice.

Badjie, his sons, and his friend and farming partner Moustapha Diedhiou began digging down into the heavy soil to create the paddies. The work was demanding, but it was work they knew and loved. The Badjies and Diedhiou are members of the Jola, a tribe of master rice growers in the Casamance region of West Africa.

It’s impossible to overstate how important rice is to the Jola, an egalitarian tribe whose people believe they were born to cultivate rice. They view their labors in the fields as their half of the bargain they’ve made with their primary deity, Ata Emit, who rewards their work with rain. Rice defines every aspect of Jola life: culinary, social, economic and religious.

The adults also work full time off the farm; Hoyte is a rehabilitation coordinator in a prison, working four 10-hour days in order to devote three days to the farm. Badjie works at the Woodstock Day School, and Diedhiou is a house painter and drum teacher. Weeding, digging and harvesting after a 10-hour workday is clearly a labor of love. For Badjie and Diedhiou, it’s also an essential link to a heritage they hold dear.