It’s harvest time in central New Hampshire. On a farm in Dunbarton, farmers balance large crates filled with vegetables on their heads. They chat in Somali and other languages. 

These workers are refugees. They escaped wars and persecution in Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, and the Congo. They pick American staples like corn and tomatoes. But they also grow crops they grew up with, like okra and sorrel. The farmers sell their crops to local markets and friends.

A nonprofit called the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success owns the farm. It lets the farmers use plots of land. The organization runs similar farms in nearby towns Concord and Boscawen.

In all, 36 people from five African countries and Nepal work on the farms. Many farmed in their home countries too.

Sylvain Bukasa says he escaped from the Congo in 2000. Millions of people have died because of fighting there. He spent six years with his wife and son in a refugee camp in Tanzania. They were accepted into the United States in 2006.

Mr. Bukasa missed the foods he grew up eating. He could find them in only a few markets. But they were expensive. And they didn’t taste as good. So he started growing crops on the farm in 2011.

For most of the farmers, this is a side job. Mr. Bukasa works for a rental car company. He comes to the farm whenever he can. There are two big challenges. He must make sure his crops are watered. And he must stop weeds from taking over.

On a recent Monday, Mr. Bukasa harvested his produce. It includes tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, kale, corn, okra, and pumpkin and sorrel leaves.

He hopes to one day buy a couple of acres of land for his own farm. Another idea is to buy a van, so he can deliver more produce himself.

“It’s a hard job, but hard work is good work,” Mr. Bukasa says. “I like when I satisfy people with the food that they eat.”

While the Earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. — Genesis 8:22