This fall, I was in southwest India on a Christian mission trip to distribute and custom-fit used, refurbished wheelchairs for individuals in need. But while I was there for humanitarian purposes, the ag writer in me was also curious about local farming practices. I couldn’t help noticing that the rehab center was adjacent to a field of some crop, growing in what looked to be good, black soil.

When I ventured into the field one evening, a young women at the center noticed my interest. “The farmer will be here tomorrow,” she said.

The next morning, as I was doing my wheelchair mechanic thing, someone said, “The farmer is here!” Vini, an Indian physical therapist, graciously gave me permission to sneak off to check it out.

I love wheelchair mission trips, but to get a glimpse of how another country does agriculture was a totally unexpected double blessing.

Things changed in the pepper field when the folks realized I farmed a small acreage myself. I became one of them! One worker gave me a pepper plant. Another brought over some type of beans that grow in a long pod. Yet another gave me a flower.

Someone else motioned that I should eat some beans. I signaled that my hands were full, so he gestured for me to eat them out of his hand. In a country where the American mantra is “Don’t drink the water,” I had a split-second decision to make.

I had no idea what his hand had been up to, but they had all been very gracious and enthusiastic hosts. I certainly didn’t want to offend them.

So, I ate the beans from his hand. Thankfully, I suffered no ill effects. It was all about “from one farmer to another.”

Here’s a video from that day. Check out the slideshow to see what else I found when I visited the field. It was agriculture, but not what I am used to seeing in fields at home.

For any readers wondering what my T-shirt means, I am married to a native Minnesotan of Swedish ancestry, and “Uff Da” is a Scandinavian term meaning whatever you want it to mean when you can’t think what to say. On this day, I think it meant, “I can’t believe I’m doing this!”