Farmers find opportunity in immigrant vegetables

This is a good way to understand how so many of our vegetables that are considered American by most people, started as an ethnic food for the local immigrants. The same way the people become American. - - Donna Poisl

By STEPHEN SINGER (AP)

SOUTH DEERFIELD, Mass. — Maxixe, a Brazilian relative of the cucumber, is relatively unknown in the U.S., but it may one day be as common as cilantro as farmers and consumers embrace more so-called ethnic vegetables.

Agriculture experts at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and elsewhere are teaching farmers to grow non-native vegetables that appeal to a growing market of African, Asian and Latin American immigrants. These immigrants and their children already account for more than one-third of produce sales in supermarkets, said Frank Mangan, a plant and soil sciences professor at UMass. And as other customers become more familiar with ethnic foods, experts expect sales to grow even more.
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