My mom had always been an avid gardener. It’s a required skill, having to live off the land in a developing country like Laos for the majority of her life until she immigrated to the United States in the late 1980s. During the summers, she especially loved growing Hmong cucumbers, dib Hmoob, also known as Hmong Red cucumbers.
“This cucumber hails from Muang Xay, a city in northern Laos. In Laos, the Hmong people prized this cucumber for its complex flavors (very sweet with a hint of sourness) and its desirable consistency (fibrous and fleshy). When in season, this cucumber was a staple at every meal. Upon immigrating to the United States and under the war torn conditions they fled, Hmong people did not bring Muang Xay cucumbers with them and many yearned to taste that sweet and refreshing vegetable again.
Due to economic barriers, it was not until the late 1990s that many Hmong Americans were able to afford travel costs to visit Laos. This time, when they returned to the United States, they brought back with them the cherished cucumber seeds with hopes to plant them in the U.S. It was in this way that the Muang Xay [or Hmong] cucumber was reintroduced to Hmong Americans. In the U.S., the seeds continue to be saved and shared among Hmong farmers to preserve the vegetable’s place in our culture.”1
While my sisters and I were cleaning out my mother’s belongings shortly after her passing in 2023, I came across a large bag of “Hmoob dib noob.” She’d harvested the seeds over the years from her personal garden in Coon Rapids, Minnesota so that she could keeping growing them annually. A slice of the motherland in this country. To keep her spirit alive, I’ve decided to sell her seeds on my Etsy shop, everchicstudio21.
Below are pictures of her garden in Zone 5A during summer 2022, and again in summer 2023.
♥️ The Babbling Bee