Welcome to The Esther Manor Farm, a place where food, like language, is a vehicle for expressing culture. We grow vegetables and fresh produce that tap into our pleasure, memories, desires, attachment and/or alienation from our African heritage. These foods give that feeling of a soul being soothed. The produce and vegetables at the Farm have fed and sustained families and communities in Africa and the Diaspora for generations.
For Africans living in the Diaspora, food has an almost magical ability to comfort us, soothe us, and bring us together in so many ways. We celebrate special occasions with traditional foods — and we also turn to our traditional food for comfort on not-so-happy occasions: a delivery of pepper soup to a family member who’s under the weather or fufu and njama for a friend having a rough time. Food is so much more than simple sustenance; it is the associations we make, the sense of belonging we crave, and the memories we make.
The Esther Manor Farm hopes to grow these foods to express our multi-faceted African cultures, create a sense of belonging, forge new friendships, build critical relationships, and share experiences with our neighbors and communities in Virginia, Washington D.C, and the United States.
