Kristyn Leach taps her roots to farm
Most have been immigrants who brought the seeds of home with them, or sent back for what they couldn't find here.
[...] Leach discovered Korean cuisine on her own and found a connection with her birthplace by cultivating its crops for an innovative San Francisco restaurant.
Leach, who is enthusiastic but focused, took a roundabout route to farming.
Fighting Mayor Rudy Giuliani's attempts to sell off garden sites, she was "inspired by how important these spaces were to the whole community."
Leach uses ancient and New Age holistic cultivation techniques there, inspired in part by a book called "Farmers of Forty Centuries" by F. H. King, about historic East Asian organic practices.
Chef Dennis Lee uses Leach's shiso in a tempura dish with uni (sea urchin roe), as a garnish for meat or fish, in shoju drinks and iced tea.
Worldwide tiesMeanwhile, she's formed alliances with activists in South Korea, where small farmers and their unique crops are being displaced by globalized corporate agriculture.
Others are fighting a new naval base on Seju Island, "Korea's Hawaii," which threatens citrus groves and a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
At Leach's Namu Farm, visiting Korean Americans can revitalize their own roots: "More than when a fancy restaurant really likes the stuff you're growing, when you see people's eyes light up at the sight of your peppers, it feels important."