Edible Food Find: Hannan Healthy Foods
Photos by Joyelle West
Mohammed Hannan grew up on a family farm in Bangladesh, where his family kept animals and grew vegetables and rice. Since then, he has studied subjects as wide-ranging as wildlife biology, marine biodiversity, sea turtles and biotechnology, from Bangladesh to North Carolina to Massachusetts. He’s now come full circle, returning to farming. He still has a day job that keeps him busy enough—Hannan recently transitioned from working as a lab manager at Harvard Medical School to a biotech start-up—but on weekends he grows vegetables.
Hannan moved to the U.S. with his wife, Kaniz Fouzia, and young son in 2008. (Their daughter was born here in 2013.) About four years ago he participated in the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, a three-year farmer training program through Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition. With assistance he received from the program, Hannan initially farmed a small plot of land in Dracut, then for two years in Beverly (where the farm was known as Hannan Agro Farms). He now leases seven acres from the Town of Lincoln.
For seasonal and specialized help, Hannan relies on the local collaborative farming community as well as WWOOFers (volunteers with Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms). With one full-time assistant farm manager and a half-dozen or so volunteers, he’s been able to install necessary infrastructure this spring, including a greenhouse and deer fencing.
During his first year farming in Massachusetts, Hannan realized that the Southeast Asian vegetables he grew up eating weren’t readily available. He knew that area families from Bangladesh, Vietnam and Malaysia would appreciate having some of their native varieties to cook with. “The season for growing these is short, but the vegetables grow really well here,” he says. On his farm, Hannan Healthy Foods, he grows various kinds of gourds, including bottle, snake and bitter gourds. These need to be harvested when small and tender and then they are similar to summer squashes, he says. Other specialty produce includes hyacinth and long beans; gongura (leafy greens with a sour taste like sorrel); okra; Malaysian and Cambodian eggplant varieties; Egyptian spinach (molokhia); and hot peppers. Other, more familiar vegetables he grows include tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant, onions, zucchini, radishes and all kinds of greens. “People from here really like all the new vegetables too,” he says.
This year, he plans to grow at least 50 different types of vegetables, fruits and herbs, some from Southeast Asia. And while all vegetables are healthful, Hannan says they’re not as good for you when pesticides are used. “We follow organic and sustainable practices,” he says, adding that he’s in the process of working on the farm’s organic certification. The produce from Hannan Healthy Foods is available at the farm’s stand in Lincoln, through its CSA and at the East Somerville farmers market. Growing Bangladeshi crops, he says, “brings back my memories of foods from Southeast Asia.” And he likes sharing these with local communities, particularly the neighborhoods with high levels of food insecurity. “Thousands of people like me when I first came here are not getting healthy produce,” he says. “I believe healthy food should not be a privilege. Everyone should have access to healthy food.”
Hannan’s commitment to food and environmental justice runs deep and informs both his farming practice and way of life. “We need to build our own local ecosystem and grow our own produce. We can’t depend on other countries for food,” he says, referring to the risks of climate change, the war in Ukraine, the COVID pandemic and more. He knows working seven days a week is too much. “My family is important, but this is important, too,” he says. “Society needs to value the farmers around the country. We have to keep the engine running.”
