Vancouver Hua Foundation and Megan Lau

Chinese Vegetables: They're holding a workshop this weekend to highlight the history and how-to of growing choi in the Lower Mainland, according to CBC. Photos: Chinese vegetable guide offered by Vancouver Hua Foundation Long local history of Chinese farming Many of the railroad workers who came to Vancouver in the 1800s came from Southern China, where there was a strong and vibrant agricultural tradition, said Megan Lau, author of Sprouting Choi: A Beginner Guide to Growing Chinese Vegetables. The organization represents a group of young Chinese-Canadians who want to bring sustainable food practices to diverse communities. Megan Lau is the author of "Sprouting Choi: A Beginner Guide to Growing Chinese Vegetables," and is the driving force behind this weekend Hua Foundation workshop. "After the work was done on the railroad, there were very limited jobs to the Chinese immigrants. Despite this, Chinese immigrants continued to farm locally, and today supply the majority of family grocers in South Vancouver and Chinatown, Lau said. "If you go across the Lower Mainland ... a lot of the farmers you'll see are from diverse communities." Lau quick tips for growing your own choi 1. One thing they could do was farm." Those immigrants planted not only conventional crops for grocers and markets throughout the province, but also traditional choi for their families and community members, Lau said. "By 1921, Chinese farmers were growing 90 per cent of locally consumed produce." Tradition continues today despite racial discrimination "What happened was, along with a suite of racist legislation, the Vegetable Marketing Act was introduced, which meant that regulators could essentially arbitrarily decide who could sell and grow vegetables. "There are cases and stories of people being beaten, fined and imprisoned, even, for selling cherries, for example," said Lau. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.