Photo Essay: Food in our Backyard

Food has become an extremely important topic for me in the past couple years. I’ve made it a priority to learn more about ethical ways of food production as well as the culturally specific methods of production and consumption within my family. For my photo essay, I decided to focus on images that demonstrate the ways in which my family produces their own food and some of the dishes made by my grandmother over the weekend. The first few photos show my mother, Kay Saeyang, and the chickens in the backyard that she plans to use for their eggs. The second set of images begin with a portrait of my grandmother, Toutcho Saeyang, also in her backyard where she grows the vegetables she cooks with including cilantro, squash, basil, and pumpkin leaves. My grandmother is originally from the Northern mountains of Laos and prepares her dishes in the Mien style.

On Friday, June 11, 2021, I spent the day at my parent’s home in Concord, California and interviewed my mother about her newly built chicken coop. The interview will be released later on in the next assignment.

Kay Saeyang, 43, of Pinole, Calif., smiles for the camera next to the chicken coop that she and her husband built from scratch at their home in Concord, Calif., on Friday, June 11, 2021. Saeyang, unimpressed by the flimsy structures being sold in nearby hardware and pet supply stores, decided to build her own coop for the chickens. (Miyah Saeyang/J110)

Kay Saeyang’s chickens walk around and eat the food scraps thrown on the floor, including pieces of lettuce and cooked rice, in their newly built coop in Concord, Calif., on Friday, June 11, 2021. One of the chickens noticed the photographer’s presence and curiously came closer to the camera. (Miyah Saeyang/J110)

The next day, on Saturday, June 12, 2021, my family and I traveled to El Sobrante, California to have dinner with my grandmother and my younger cousin. There we shared a meal of rice, chicken, shrimp, pig feet, and greens that she had grown in her garden in the back.

Toutcho Saeyang, age unknown, of Laos, stands in front of the vegetables and herbs she has grown in her garden in El Sobrante, Calif., on Saturday, June 12, 2021. In this garden, she grows many different types of plants to eat including Thai basil, cilantro, squash, and pumpkin leaves that she will later use in a dish depicted below. (Miyah Saeyang/J110)

Toutcho checks in on her plants that she is growing in her backyard in El Sobrante, Calif., on Saturday, June 12, 2021. (Miyah Saeyang/J110)

A pot of soup made from chicken legs and feet sits on the stove waiting to be eaten at Toutcho’s home in El Sobrante, Calif., on Saturday, June 12, 2021. (Miyah Saeyang/J110)

A bowl of shrimp cooked in oil, chili flakes, and garnished with cilantro sits on the table in the sunlight beaming through Toutcho’s living room window in El Sobrante, Calif., on Saturday, June 12, 2021.

A meal of rice, pumpkin leaves, shrimp, chicken soup, and pig feet is set on the table in preparation for dinner among 8 people in Toutcho’s home in El Sobrante, Calif., on Saturday, June 12, 2021. Toutcho’s close friend prayed over and blessed the food before the family sat down to eat. (Miyah Saeyang/J110)