At an altitude of 3000 meters, Khamje is a tiny village with a handful of houses in the Solukhumbu region of north-eastern Nepal. The mountains in Nepal are not considered hospitable to a variety of food, and most of the country’s food production is centered in the hilly region and the Terai (Southern Nepal). Dawa Phuti Sherpa (woman pictured here) is seasoned in mountain farming and animal husbandry, and has spent most of her life in Khamje. The red tomatoes, and the large pumpkin shown here are grown in her recently-built greenhouse. Greenhouse farming is getting more popular in the area for the production of food that would not normally grow under harsh mountain conditions. For Khamje residents, the nearest large market is a 3 hour-walk away, where Sherpa would (for the most part of life) travel to for fruits and vegetables. Another interesting point to make here is that the man next to Sherpa is a family friend and farmer from South Korea visiting the mountains in Nepal. The two engaged in knowledge-exchange about edible plants and agriculture, despite not having a shared language between them.

By Chhime Namdol Sherpa as part of the LUC project "Decolonising the Plate" led by Dr. Maja Vodopivec