Although Amalia Velasquez never uses any specialized plant food or expensive tools in her front-yard garden, every year she grows enough tomatoes to make her pollo entomatado, or chicken with tomatoes, and much more.
"In Guatemala, that's what we used to do, you grow what you eat," said Mrs. Velasquez, 34, who started helping in the fields when she was 5.
As immigrants from South and Central America moved into the Chattanooga area, they brought with them the skills they learned as children, including growing as much of their own food as they could.
PDF: Ochs Center food report
"That was one of the first things I noticed when I came back to Chattanooga in 2000," said Mike Feely, director of the St. Andrews Center, an organization in the Highland Park neighborhood that works with recent immigrants. "I was fascinated by the number of gardens, all these houses, not every family but a majority, had corn, chickens, squash in well-kept little plots."
And living in areas considered food deserts for their lack of affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, Hispanic immigrants are ahead of the movement to grow locally, Mr. Feely said.
Driving through the neighborhoods one easily may miss the gardens, which usually are hidden by wildflowers and weeds. Most are simple plots with regular soil that the gardeners spend days tilling at least a month before any seed is planted. Gardeners don't use any type of fertilizer or buy special planting soil, they said.
"You simply have to work the land with a pick until you know it's ready," said Olegario Perez, who has a small garden with corn, tomato, beans, onions and hot peppers spread out in no particular order.
GROCERY STORES* Bakewell: 0* Bushtown/Highland Park: 0* East Chattanooga: 0* Harrison: 0* South Chattanooga: 1Source: Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies
Antoinette Pereira, who teaches a gardening class to Hispanics through Chattanooga State Community College and the Mexican government, has been surprised by the knowledge and skills of her students.
"(During one of the classes) I mentioned that you plant corn, beans, squash together, that's a traditional way in North and South America to plant crops, and they were familiar with that," she said.
Mr. Perez said one of the greatest benefits of growing his own food is that he doesn't have to buy everything at the store.
"If you want a tomato, you simply go outside and get it, and it's better quality because you are getting it directly from the plant," he said.
"These are families who are self-sustainable ... and that's what's gardening is really about," Mr. Feely said. "I think they're going to be a critical part of the solution for the food desert."
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