Portland Press Herald, Maine, Soup to Nuts column.

Byline: Meredith Goad

Aug. 03--FALMOUTH -- Boulis Kodi treads lightly through a thriving garden patch, showing off a summer's worth of hard work by Nuba Mountain refugees from Sudan.

"This is the sweet corn, and this is the tomatoes over here," said Kodi, who is the farm manager for the Center for African Heritage garden project at Tidewater Farm, just down the road from the University of Maine Regional Learning Center.

He points to some greens that look as if they could be thrown right into a salad.

"This one that you see here, it's an African (herb) just like spinach, but we use it for the soup," Kodi said. "The taste is very good, and it's (high in iron.)"

These plots, on nearly three acres, are being leased from the Tidewater Conservation Foundation by nonprofit groups representing African immigrants and refugees so families can grow their own food and become more self-sufficient.

The project also is growing food for the Portland public schools in gardens that are filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, Swiss chard and zucchini. Another garden will provide produce for food banks. …