Non-profit group to offer community farming, cooking instruction

Diana Garcia-Padilla has a healthy food obsession.

Over the years, the former chef has worked at restaurants like Nick’s Fishmarket in Chicago, and for people like Rick Bayless, an award-winning chef and restaurateur. She also literally planted the first seeds in the well-known Yahweh’s All Natural Farm and Garden in Harlingen.

“(Bayless) was doing grass-fed before grass-fed was even popular,” Diana, 48, said. “He did everything from scratch — or does, because he’s still cooking. So his way of cooking is what I think that (everyone) should be doing — everything from scratch.”

Diana and her husband Saul grow an abundance of fresh produce, from root vegetables like carrots and beets to squash and herbs. At first, it was only for their personal use.

In 2009, shortly after the Brownsville farmer’s market was established, Diana and Saul drove a truck full of vegetables to the market and sold out in mere minutes, Diana said.

Yahweh’s produce can also be purchased at the farmer’s market at Alhambra in McAllen.

Now the couple wants to help Rio Grande Valley people learn how to grow their own organic food and teach them what to do with it once it’s been harvested.

“(Others offer) a lot of training and classes, but people need a lot more hands-on when it comes to farming than they do classroom,” Diana said.

H.O.P.E. for Small Farming Sustainability, which stands for holistic practices, outreach, practical training and education, is in the infant stages of becoming a nonprofit organization. Diana has applied for the group’s nonprofit status, and until then, H.O.P.E. is getting help from other organizations and the community.

The Texas Chefs Association will present a “Harvest Dinner” fundraiser at 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, hosted at Yahweh’s in Harlingen.

Chefs from house.wine, Alhambra and Sahadi have volunteered to donate pork, lamb and beef dishes, using meat from local sources.

CC’s Sweet and Tweets will be donating a dessert made with farm fresh milk, eggs and organic flour.

Ninety-five percent of the proceeds will benefit the H.O.P.E. community garden and kitchen projects.

The project has a lot of meaning for Diana, who was once a single mother who had to learn how to make ends meet for her family on her income alone.

“Part of budgeting your money is cooking your own food,” she said. “And so, I saw that here we don’t have a lot of young girls who know how to cook. They would come up to the table to buy vegetables and they’d ask me, ‘So how do you make it?’”

She noticed the same farmers showing up each week at the farmer’s markets. The markets in Austin and San Antonio are always huge and full of a variety of farmers, she said.

“If we taught people how to grow their own stuff, and show them that they can make some money, I bet we’d have more growers,” Diana said.

Most people in the Valley live miles away from grocery stores, and farmer’s markets are few and far between, Diana said.

“If we don’t start thinking about growing our own food locally, I mean, right now … a lot of people can’t afford to eat vegetables,” Diana said. “We need to start thinking about self-sustaining our communities and growing local.”

For more information about H.O.P.E., or to purchase tickets for the “Harvest Dinner” ($100 per person, seating is limited), call Diana Garcia-Padilla at (956) 412-4916.