La Perouse Heritage Market Gardens under threat again
Posted by: admin in Environmental Action, History
Link to YouTube - item produced 6 August 2010
Link to Petition - posted 1 August 2010
The Eastern Suburbs Cemetery Trust are proposing resumption of 60% of the Gardens, major engineering works(this is a floodplain area) with special Aboriginal and Asian cemetery areas.Previous postings in 2008 at link 1 and link 2. Notes of the meeting provided by Daphne Lowe Kelley President of the Chinese HeritageAssociation of Australia Inc. appear below.
The ESCT comprise the following: John Morrison, Rod Neville, Jack Walker, Elizabeth Fitzsimmons, Ron Greenstein, Stelios Coudounaris, Russell McLay .
The CEO is George Passas.
Two years ago CHAA led a campaign for the retentionof these 7 hectares of Heritage-listed Chinese Market Gardens. There was media interest including letters to the Sydney Morning Herald (at left) and articles below from Herald and Southern Courier.
Dan Cross, a Senior Environmental Officer of the Department of Lands assessed the land and published his findings in May 2008 - see this link His assessment was that it was unsuitable for cemetery use (page 35-36)
Owing to the constraints of the subject land, any changes in use would require major undertakings to address these constraints, for example flood mitigation works. The current heritage listing over the subject land has significant legal implications for changing the current use, that being Chinese market gardens ……………………………….
Crown land is a resource of the state, and as such its use must benefit the wider NSW Community in general. The land is currently servicing the wider community by providing produce for a significant number of grocery outlets. Any other proposed use of the subject land would need to justify its benefit or availability to the wider community by the provision of facilities, services or revenue that could be applied to public benefit of the state………..
As previously mentioned, this Land Assessment has been undertaken in response to representations by Botany Cemetery and Eastern Suburbs Crematorium Trusts to have the subject lands incorporated into Botany Cemetery. This stems from the impending shortage of burial sites, and the subject land is viewed as the only remaining Crown land in close proximity. A cemetery proposal would be subject to an approval process whereby socio-economic factors, environmental constraints, all relevant legislation would be considered. The site in its current state would most likely require significant engineering works to overcome the current constraints such as a high water table and flooding issues. Given the current environmental constraints and current state of the subject land, the site is considered not suitable for the establishment of a cemetery. As per the Australasian Cemeteries and Crematoria Association (2004) Guidelines for the establishment of a Cemetery if the water table is too high burials may not be possible. The other significant factor to be considered in any preliminary investigation to the establishment of a cemetery is the heritage significance of the Chinese Market Gardens which are listed on the State Heritage Register.
- this was his conclusion (page 36)
Conclusion
In conclusion the three land uses set out in Table 12 have been assessed as suitable uses for
the study area. A preferred land use has not been identified. Public authority and community
response during the public display of this land assessment will provide opinion as to whether
there is one or more preferred land uses for the study area or conversely whether one or more
of the identified suitable uses are not supported.
Table No 12: Suitable uses determined for study area
Environmental Protection
Agriculture
Nature Conservation
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Report on Chinese Community Consultations with Community Relations Commission, Land Property Management Authority and Eastern Suburbs Cemetery Trust
Monday night 26 July 2010
ESCT representatives stated that:
Gardeners suddenly at centre of a plot,
Contested space … Gordon Ha picks Chinese vegetables from the Tiy War market gardens at La Perouse. He has tended the patch for more than 20 years.
Photo: Dallas Kilponen
Following representations from the Botany Cemetery and Eastern Suburbs Crematorium trusts, which want the land for graves, the NSW Department of Lands is conducting a review of the seven-hectare site.
“I have been gardening here since I left high school, about 23 years, and before that, my father was here for 40 years,” said one gardener, Terry Ha, who grows Chinese vegetables there to sell at Flemington Markets. “I think it’s important it stays as growing land because there’s not much left in Sydney now.”
The heritage-listed market gardens are leased to the farmers by the State Government, which is under pressure to solve the problem of dwindling burial space.
“We estimate that we will run out of space within 20 years and death rates will spike soon because of the baby boom,” said George Passas, from the Botany Cemetery Trust. “The Chinese market gardeners do not own that land. The State Government owns that asset and they need to be cognisant of all the community needs, not just the needs of the Chinese market gardeners.”
Mr Passas said many migrant and religious communities felt strongly about wanting to be buried near relatives at Botany Cemetery but a review paper by the Department of Lands found the water table there may be too high. “Given the current environmental constraints and current state of the subject land, the site is considered not suitable for the establishment of a cemetery,” the report said.
The Lands Minister, Tony Kelly, said he would wait for the completion of the review before deciding the fate of the site.
More than 40 submissions have been received as part of the review and the upper house MP Henry Tsang has tabled a petition in Parliament from 203 residents calling for a guarantee of long-term tenure for the current gardeners.
Space a grave concern, Southern Courier
21 Jul 08 @ 11:58am by Jessica Baird
Gordon Ha has grown vegetables at the Chinese Market Gardens for 15 years. Photo: Erin Byrne
Botany cemetery has “no particular plans” to expand into the Chinese Market Gardens at La Perouse, but more space must be found for culturally appropriate burials, its chief executive officer George Passas said.
“Everyone is under pressure in this situation,” Mr Passas said. “Communities are clamouring for more space for interments. Let’s not overlook those communities.”
Greek Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish and Chinese communities require burials and have specific requirements.
The Courier reported last week that an evaluation had been undertaken by the Department of Lands to determine appropriate uses for the Chinese Market Gardens site.
The assessment of the land is part of a government initiative, following the release of two discussion papers relating to burial space in the Sydney area. Submissions in response to the assessment have closed.
“We are not initiating this, but we are pleased that the State Government has elevated the importance of these issues,” Mr Passas said.
“There needs to be a long consultative process, and anything to do with heritage listing needs to be dealt with sympathetically. Obviously there was a basis for heritage listing in the first place.”
Gordon Ha is one of three farmers who occupy the heritage-listed Chinese Market Gardens site. He has been farming Chinese vegetables for 15 years on the Crown land his family has occupied for nearly 50 years under permissive occupancy.
Mr Ha said growing vegetables locally and selling them direct to fruit shops in the area, rather than going through markets and agents, kept the cost to consumers at a minimum.
While the farmers depend on the land for their “income and freedom of work”, Mr Ha said the Department of Lands indicated that it did not plan to take over the land for “a few years at least”.
The assurance had helped farmers to feel better about the situation, he said.
“They were nervous; now they feel more settled, but they still want a contract stating that they can have a long lease,” he said.
Mr Ha said the farmers had “no problem at all” with the cemetery management.
Mr Passas said that any decisions would be the result of a “long consultative process” and he called for a “balanced and sympathetic discussion”.
Entries (RSS)
July 28th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Media Release
Resumption of Heritage-listed Market Gardens alarms community
Chinese community leaders were shocked to learn about a plan to resume 60% of the heritage-listed Chinese Market Gardens at La Perouse, which was presented by representatives from the adjacent Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park Botany Cemetery, at a Chinese Community Consultations meeting on 26 July 2010, organised by the Community Relations Commission and the Land and Property Management Authority.
The cemetery and the market gardens are on Crown land. Two years ago, in response to representations to acquire this land by the Botany Cemetery and Eastern Suburbs Crematorium Trusts, the Department of Lands, prepared a Draft Assessment of Crown Land - Chinese Market Gardens, Phillip Bay and called for submissions. Many submissions (including ones from the National Trust and Randwick Council) were lodged in July 2008 for the retention of these seven (7) hectares to remain as heritage-listed Chinese market gardens.
The Draft Assessment identified three (3) suitable uses for this land:
• Environmental Protection
• Agriculture
• Nature Conservation
It stated that the site currently has a very high capability for agriculture and is functioning very successfully in this purpose. (p35)
It further states in relation to the cemetery proposal -The site in its current state would most likely require significant engineering works to overcome the current constraints such as a high water table and flooding issues. Given the current environmental constraints and current state of the subject land, the site is considered not suitable for the establishment of a cemetery. As per the Australasian Cemeteries and Crematoria Association (2004) “Guidelines for the establishment of a Cemetery” if the water table is too high burials may not be possible. (p36)
Daphne Lowe Kelley, president of the Chinese Heritage Association of Australia says, “The community recognises that with a growing population, there is increased demand for burial space but urges the State government not to acquiesce to this demand to turn unsuitable land into burial plots. I am sure that no one wants to have their dearly departed spending their afterlife in a former swamp.”
Contact: Daphne Lowe Kelley 0417 655 233 lowekelley@bigpond.com
28 July 2010
July 28th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
MEDIA RELEASE
From Andrew Woodhouse
President, Australian Heritage Institute, an Australia-wide group of local heritage societies
Suite 12, 3 McDonald Street Potts Point NSW 2011
Ph 0415 949 506
Wednesday 28th July, 2010
State Government moves to evict Chinese market gardeners at historic La Perouse site and downgrade heritage based on hidden report. Calls for Kristina Keneally to intervene.
“NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally, should intervene to provide Sydney with more sustainable food sources and stop her Land Property Management Authority from evicting second–generation Chinese market gardeners from their Bunnerong Road, La Perouse, Crown Lease, just to increase profits and plots for a nearby cemetery,” Andrew Woodhouse, said today.
Mr Woodhouse was invited with about 50-60 members of the Chinese Community to a meeting yesterday called by NSW Community Relations Commission to discuss land use changes at the controversial market gardens site.
The scheme, supported by the authority and promoted by the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Cemetery Trust, calls for eviction by 2013 of two of three lease holders, and resumption of 60% of the current market gardens, according to information provided at the meeting (agenda available).
However, no guarantee is provided of any future site for two leaseholders and no guarantee the remaining 40% will be not be resumed at a later date.
Former Labor Party Minister-turned paid lobbyist, Gary Punch, spoke for his clients, the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Trust [ESMT], who aim to purloin public land for their commercial benefit.
The ESMT is owned by the NSW state government and has been the subject of previous public concerns about conflicts of interest.
See SMH: “State Buys into Funeral Service”, by Paul Bibby 27 November 2009, p9 -
see text below*
“The whole rationale of this proposal is a house of cards, with the area’s heritage, dating back to land use by Count La Perouse in 1788 according to the NSW Heritage Council,** to be handed over to fill state government coffers depleted by financial mismanagement,” Woodhouse says.
[** go to http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_01_2.cfm?itemid=5044696
“According to Glen Blaxland, a local historian and once a member of the local historical society in the Municipality, Count de La Perouse cleared a piece of land and established a vegetable garden in Phillip Bay to prepare vegetables for his return journey back to France.
The first known name of this suburb area was the Frenchman’s Gardens. It is believed that this vegetable garden was Australia’s first primary industry site and the site was more or less the same site as the Chinese Market Gardens.
According to Randwick - A Social History, published by Randwick Council in 1985 … until 1859, the market gardens were owned and tended by Europeans …”]
“Clearly, the ESMT is guilty of re-writing history to suit itself, claiming in their heritage report there has been no market gardening on the site until after 1904.
“Show us your evidence,” Woodhouse says.
“Claims that heritage plaques or other interpretation will be installed on the site post-resumption are tokenism,” Woodhouse said.
In yesterday’s one-sided meeting conflicting claims from Gary Punch and George Passas [ESMT]about whether work will begin in 3 or 7 years, the actual costs, perhaps up to $40 million in five $8 million stages, and information contained in a heritage report by an architect, Paul Rappaport, which the ESMT refuses to release, all point to a lack of transparency and accountability.
“The meeting was presentation, not consultation,” Woodhouse says. “It lacked credibility.”
“This is not a ‘public good versus private interests’ battle, as Gary Punch claims,” Woodhouse says; “it’s a 7-hectare land grab based on unknown heritage evidence to remove private, profitable, sustainable businesses to make profits from the dead for the government.”
“Offers to set aside 20% of new burial plots for Chinese community and a temple are simply bribes,” Woodhouse says with further comments by Gary Punch that “Quite frankly, if you were not Chinese but English Australians there would be no problem with all this” being not only factually incorrect but prejudiced, perhaps even racist.
Mr Woodhouse has applied under FOI laws for the disputed heritage report.
“This whole dodgy project should be referred to an Independent Commission of Enquiry,” Woodhouse says.
For further comments please also phone:
Ms Daphne Lowe-Kelly, President
Chinese Heritage Association of Australia Inc. ph 0417 655 233
email lowekelley@bigpond.com
Mr Terry Ha, Chinese market gardener & leaseholder
President, Australian Chinese Growers’ Association of NSW
ph 0419 218 794
email terry8ha@hotmail.com
*SMH Nov 2009:
THE State Government has quietly entered the funeral business, giving Crown land cemeteries permission to set up funeral homes that will compete with private operators.
This week the Lands Minister, Tony Kelly, officially opened the first funeral home on state-owned land at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park in Maroubra. Public cemeteries at Frenchs Forest and Macquarie Park are expected to follow.
The service will provide packages from about $7000, allowing families to arrange everything from documentation and coffin to burial or cremation at one location. Previously the Crown land trusts which run state-owned cemeteries charged private operators for the use of burial and cremation facilities.
Now, with the encouragement and permission of the Government, these trusts can offer services directly to families, potentially removing the middle man, the private funeral director.
Mr Kelly said the trusts would retain the profits to fund long-term maintenance of the cemetery and “preserve important public assets”.
The Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association said it was concerned about a conflict of interest because the Government was also responsible for regulating the industry.
“The 2005 inquiry into the funeral industry said there needed to be greater regulation and transparency of pricing so that low-income earners can afford a funeral. But the Government still hasn’t done that,” said the policy co-ordinator, Charmaine Crowe.
The chief executive of Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, George Passas, said the new service would offer lower prices. “We will not be charging the same huge margins that private operators charge on coffins and other costs,” he said.
July 29th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Heritage takes its place behind the baby bok choy; [Late Edition]
JACKIE DENT. Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, N.S.W.: Aug 7, 1999. pg. 5
Sparrows flit back and forth over neat rows of Chinese broccoli and English spinach. Workers in gumboots dig ditches in the sandy soil.
The smell of leeks permeates an old tin shed, as they are washed in an enormous concrete bath.
Mr Terry Ha and his brother, Gordon, are not fussed their market garden has been listed as having significant heritage values to Sydney’s Chinese community. They are more concerned with fixing a water pump and packing baby bok choy for the markets.
Their garden is one of three in La Perouse which sit in Botany cemetery. The site was originally farmed by Europeans but, for the past 100 years, Chinese Australians have worked this land. Some have gone on to open their own restaurants and grocery businesses.
In 1997, the NSW Heritage Office set up a program to encourage ethnic communities to nominate sites of heritage value in NSW. The State Heritage Register was seen to be far too Anglocentric.
While, at different stages, the Chinese, Italian and Ukranian task forces have nominated, Indian and Greek groups are soon to begin their own investigations. The Ha brothers’ site was on a list compiled by a Chinese task force, that included former deputy mayor, Mr Henry Tsang.
They inherited the farm from their father, who inherited it from his uncle 45 years ago. Terry wakes at 2.30 am, six days a week, to drive the vegetables to Flemington markets.
The heritage listing preserves the lease on the land - which is zoned residential - and thus the jobs of the brothers’ five workers, none of whom speak English.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
29 July 2010
Media Release - Pauline Curby, professional historian and author of Randwick, Randwick Council, 2009
Proposed resumption of heritage-listed market gardens
I am appalled at the suggestion that 60 per cent of the state heritage-listed Chinese market gardens at La Perouse/Phillip Bay are to be resumed to allow for the expansion of the neighbouring cemetery.
Market gardens have been a feature of the Randwick local government area since the 1840s. In fact the first mayor of the Municipality of Randwick was an English migrant market gardener. In view of their location, within easy reach of central Sydney, gardens at Randwick and Coogee continued to be cultivated throughout the 19th century. It was essential for Sydneysiders to be able to source fresh vegetables close to where they lived, something that is still most desirable, especially in view of the environmental impact of ‘food miles’.
Chinese market gardeners have been a highly visible group in Sydney for more than 100 years and have had a presence in Randwick since at least the 1890s. The remaining gardens at La Perouse are a remnant of what was once a widespread phenomenon across the Sydney basin. In the interwar years their presence increased markedly, albeit temporarily, in places such as Ryde where Chinese men often farmed agricultural land abandoned by ‘Anglo’ cultivators.
The presence of Chinese market gardeners in the southern part of the Randwick local government area has long been noted. In the 1920s, for example, one family harvested flax that Chinese market gardeners had planted years before. Unemployed people who lived in shanties in the La Perouse area during the 1930s depression bartered fish for vegetables with Chinese gardeners. Many of the children recalled their kindness. The extensive network of gardens almost disappeared in the post-war years as suburban development encroached. Large Chinese market gardens located in Wassell Street Matraville, for example, ceased operations in the late 1950s.
It is important that the gardens at La Perouse be retained, not only for the vegetables produced there, but also because they represent a long tradition of intensive agriculture in the Sydney basin practised by a community whose contribution to Australian culture has only begun to be acknowledged over the last two decades.
For further information concerning the criteria under which these gardens are listed in the State Heritage Inventory go to http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_01_2.cfm?itemid=5044696
July 31st, 2010 at 12:24 pm
LEAD LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 30 July 2010
Fatal flaw in digging up gardens that feed the living
July 31, 2010
I am appalled at the suggestion that 60 per cent of the state heritage-listed Chinese market gardens at Phillip Bay is to be resumed to allow for the expansion of the neighbouring cemetery (”Endangered species of farmer could be pushing up daisies”, July 30).
Chinese market gardeners, highly visible in Sydney for more than 100 years, almost disappeared in the postwar years to make way for suburban development. It is important the remnant gardens at Phillip Bay be retained, not only for the vegetables produced but also because they represent a long tradition of intensive agriculture in the Sydney basin practised by a community whose contribution to Australian culture we are only just beginning to acknowledge.
Pauline Curby Cronulla
Getting rid of market gardens that feed living people to make way for digging holes for dead people? That doesn’t make sense. The former Labor MP Gary Punch pushing this preposterous proposal? That does.
Anne Wagstaff Oatley
A state heritage-listed area producing food for the living or a resting place for the dead? These are the alternatives the Minister for Planning, Tony Kelly, faces when determining whether to give Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park 60 per cent of this precious Crown land - land highly unsuitable for burial plots, which would require extensive engineering work to raise the ground level above the water table.
We all know a larger population means increased demand for burial space, and all cemeteries have a limited capacity. We need plans for suitable locations to meet this demand. Turning land which has been producing food for more than 160 years into a resting place for the dead is not the way to go.
Daphne Lowe Kelley Drummoyne
Each day I ride my bike past the people working the fields of the Chinese market gardens at Phillip Bay. I always marvel that this way of life still exists. These gardens are heritage-listed and of immense importance to Chinese history in Australia. To lose them would be an act of cultural vandalism.
William Yang Arncliffe
So the NSW Labor government is considering a submission from a trust that has employed a former Labor MP to destroy some of the last food-producing areas in Sydney to expand a cemetery. Have these people not heard of food miles? Do they think the Chinese community will tolerate this insult to their heritage? Not to mention the waste of money involved.
There is plenty of land around Sydney for cemeteries. I respect my ancestors but I am sure even they would be turning in their graves if this happened.
Chris Reynolds Warrimoo
August 6th, 2010 at 11:08 am
6th August 2010 7:45 am
Australian Greens Deputy Leader Senator Christine Milne and Greens NSW senate candidate Lee Rhiannon today met with market gardeners in Botany whose lease is to be terminated to make way for a cemetery.
The land was listed on the State Heritage Register in 1999 for significance to the Sydney Chinese community.
“The families on these market gardens have been there for 78 years. Land that has been successfully producing food for decades is precious and needs to be kept productive,” Senator Milne said.
“Of course we need cemeteries and housing, but we need smarter planning policies for Sydney, and around the whole country, to meet these needs and protect our farmers, market gardeners and food security at the same time.
“Many other cities and countries have developed specific strategies for securing future food production and access to food, but Australia is lagging far behind.
“The London Food Strategy, Toronto Food Charter, and Scottish Food Policy all show that food security is a vital issue. Safeguarding food growing land is central to these policies. Urban residents want to be able to access city gardens.”
“The Greens are calling on all levels of government to work together to safeguard food producing land and ensure food security in the Sydney Basin,” Senator Milne said.
“The increasing numbers of farmers’ markets starting up in urban areas shows how people are enthusiastic about fresh food grown close to home. We should be aiming to retain market gardens close to the city,”Greens senate candidate for NSW Lee Rhiannon said
Taking over this land to increase the size of a cemetery, not only destroys the heritage value of the site for the Chinese community, it is a waste of a valuable resource and source of food, and destroys the livelihoods of these market gardeners.
“It is wrong to build cemeteries – or suburbs – on increasingly valuable farmland, when there are alternatives.
“Peak oil, the impacts of climate change, uncertain water supply and unsustainable farming practices are all factors that threaten a steady food supply for NSW and this is a microcosm of the bigger picture,” Ms Rhiannon said.
Contact:
Tim Hollo for Christine Milne – 0437 587 562
Lee Rhiannon – 0427 861 568
BACKGROUND
‘The market gardens are of historical, agricultural and social
significance to NSW and to Sydney Metropolitan area in particular. The
place was supposed to be used as market gardens for more than 150
years, firstly used by Europeans and then by Chinese’.[1]
The farms in the Sydney region represent an important contributor to
Sydney’s food supply, especially perishable vegetables, poultry and
mushrooms.
This includes more than 50% of Sydney’s market gardens, 40% of poultry
production, and 40% of greenhouse production.
In the Sydney area we have comparatively more productive than land
elsewhere in NSW (returning $5,500 per ha compared to $136 in NSW as a
whole).
We should be working to keep this high-value, high yielding land for food.
Food security is a planning issue - we need strategies to ensure that
land is designated for its best use.
The fringe of Metropolitan Sydney is one of the State’s food bowls. It
produces $1 billion of agricultural produce each year - which
represents 12% of the total NSW production. It has a good climate,
good access to water and is close to the main population centre[2]
After the Murray Basin and the Murrumbidgee, which are more prone to
uncertain water supply, the Sydney Basin is the third most important
area for vegetable production in NSW.
According to NSW Agriculture, the region’s urban fringe agriculture
including market gardening, orcharding, poultry, cut flowers and
glasshouse and hydroponic cultivation is worth around $1 billion with
flow-on benefits to the state economy of between $2-$3 billion.[3]
· Sydney has 91% of NSW Asian Vegetable production, 90% of parsley,
82% of Mushrooms, 76% of capsicum and chillies, 70% of cucumbers 63%
of basil and coriander and 61% of cabbages
· Market gardeners in the Sydney Basin farm two geographically
distinct pockets: the Hills to Liverpool area on the south-west urban
fringe and the outer Blacktown to Hawkesbury region to the north.
· Both of these areas are experiencing rapid residential and
commercial development as Sydney’s population expands by up to 1000 a
week.
· About 30% of Sydney farmers are from culturally and
linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD) across all sectors.
August 8th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
THIS COMMENTS FROM DOUGLAS LAM AT A CHINESE HERITAGE BLOG:
Re: Chinese market gardens in Sydney under threat
« Reply #1 on Aug 2, 2010, 5:39am »
I visited this market garden about this time last year. I was appearing in a local TV drama as an extra. The shooting was done in the shed whuch was set up as a gambling den in Thailand, with people betting on a thingyroach race.
The market garden is a peaceful retreat in a shallow valley under the flight path. It is simply a delightful place. I love it.
What is there to stop the extension to consume the whole place one day? The market garden is for the living, and providing food for the living. Where are the planners’ sense of priority?
I knew the Ha family, the owners, casually. They are a very prominent family from Gao Yiu. I saw the children ( all Australian born), the present owners matured before my eyes when I was working in Chinatown through the 1980s. They were my customers. And I bumped into them often.
Please sign the on line petition. It deserves our support.
Douglas
August 24th, 2010 at 10:33 am
I gladly support the market gardeners who are contributing in such an important way, literally, to the helth and well being of Sydneysiders .
I agree that it is an insult to the Australian community ( who generally, I have fond, are not racist ) as a whole and the Australian Chinese community in particular that this scheme should even be considered.
August 24th, 2010 at 10:48 am
P. S. We are fortunate that, whilst following in their family tradition, at the same time they continue the impotant task of feeding the community. Three Cheers for the Ha family and the other gardeners!