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Bringing greens to the desert: refugee farmers sell ethnic crops, celebrate roots at Millcreek farmers market

Five bunches, actually — all packed up and handed to her as she shopped at the Sunnyvale Farmers Market Saturday afternoon. “Lega lega,” Swahili for amaranth, is one of the crops that remind Abakaki of home.

Born in Congo and raised in Uganda, Abakaki moved to Michigan six years ago as a refugee, a status for which her mother had fought for a decade. Now living in Utah and a first-timer shopper at the farmers market, she was excited to find cheap and fresh African greens.

The vegetables on sale were all grown by African refugees — a unique feature of the Sunnyvale Farmers Market in Millcreek.