NORTHAMPTON — From flooding to fires, few people are as resilient as farmers.

So it’s only fitting that Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture’s annual “Field Notes” event earlier this month included a host of local farmers sharing stories of their lives and work that centered around the common theme of “resilience.”

The event, which was first held in 2019, celebrates the ways local food and farming impact the community and individual lives. Eight storytellers across a range of backgrounds were featured this year, including an immigrant from Nepal and a literature expert who left the nonprofit world to work on a farm.

Emcee Christopher “Monte” Belmonte, radio host and executive producer of NEPM’s “The Fabulous 413,” opened the March 10 event by praising the resilience of farmers. He cited their struggles over the past year, including unwelcome frost, flooding and other forms of natural disasters experienced in western Massachusetts, including the recent loss of a 100-year-old barn at Red Fire Farm in Granby.

“Their (the farmers’) resilience keeps us fed,” Belmonte said. “They keep us sustained. ... We need to sustain them.”

The featured stories included more than simply narratives of gritty farm life, with the dirt and manual labor that defines the industry, but also personal testimonies of overcoming setbacks with the vigor of the human spirit.

Hem Bhujel is one such farmer who shared his winding journey to farming. Born in Bhutan, Bhujel was introduced to the industry by his parents, who grew crops and kept livestock. After completing his secondary education in Bhutan, Bhujel spent 20 years as a refugee in Nepal, where he taught high school, completed his bachelor’s degree and grew vegetables in his backyard.

Bhujel left the southern Asia continent in the wake of political conflict that led to the arrest of his father.

He settled in Westfield in 2012, where he went to work at Dollar Tree and started tending to a small backyard garden his landlord let him cultivate. Seven years later, Bhujel bought his own house, which included a spacious backyard, a portion of which became a garden where he grows seasonal crops for consumption and for sale.

All the while he learned the English language, developed American habits (which include running on Dunkin) and studied the farming industry. Today, he uses his agricultural IQ to teach modern farming techniques to younger generations of farmers as a peer teacher for All Farmers, a Springfield nonprofit connecting immigrants and refugees with arable land.

While Bhujel was raised as a farming prodigy of sorts, others were less instilled with the gifts of the trade, and decided to pursue it regardless.

Leslie Harris, who graduated college with a literature degree and worked most of her career both with animals and in the nonprofit sector, decided to leave it all behind to get a piece of the action on the farm: driving tractors, mowing fields and pruning apple trees, just to name a few of her daily occupations nowadays at Quonquont Farm in Whately.

She is driven by the puzzle-like complexity of agrarian life, and considers herself “fortunate to be one of the stewards of this land.”

For Darwin Cruz, a native of Puerto Rico, farming is a way to spread a healthy lifestyle. That was the main message during his “Field Notes” story, during which he said he came to the United States to pursue the “American dream” — a dream that farming is helping him fulfill.

Cruz teaches courses about personal health with Nuestras Raices, a Holyoke group that works in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts and Holyoke Health Center, with the goal of lowering the high rates of diabetes within the city.

Turkish-born Suna Turgay proved to the audience that the world of farming isn’t a trade exclusively enjoyed by adults and professionals. Her narrative revolved around the struggles of her emotionally challenged daughter, who found a place participating in farmer co-ops. After struggling behaviorally in schools, it was through farming that her daughter was able to find guidance, purpose and acceptance.​​​​​​

Donations welcome to support farmers

CISA is roughly $64,000 away from its fundraising goal of $1.8 million. Online donations can be gifted at buylocalfood.org/donate or via venmo @CISA01373.