Gardener from Sri Lanka rescued baby elephants, snakes in homeland
Saranga Dissanayak may be known for growing the many types of organic vegetables that he sells each week at the North End Community Improvement Collaborative North End Farmers Market.
But Dissanayak, who is from Sri Lanka, is also a talented chef, baby elephant rescuer and lover of all animals.
He is among the Beautification Award winners being recognized for his garden by the Mansfield Men's Garden Club Tuesday night during a dinner at Kingwood Center Gardens. This is the 43rd annual corn roast dinner.
"He has every kind of vegetable in his garden," Doug Versaw, president of the club, said. "I was told he had a beautiful garden and I went out and saw it. It's got to be close to an acre. It's beautiful. He loves what he's doing and loves to take care of each one of these plants. You can hear it in his voice, he loves planting. He's a real asset to the community."
Customers ask for tips on cooking
Dissanayak does not know a stranger and his welcoming personality invites customers to ask questions about cooking and use of his produce, whether it be about finding the perfect okra in the grocery store to using the end of lemon grass to ward off mosquitos.
Dissanayak, 31, greeted everyone who passed by his tent at the farmer's market at 311 Bowman St.
He said he is not a certified organic grower but does not use chemicals, only manure.
Dissanayak, who came to the United States in July of 2021, said he came to Lexington, Ohio, to marry a woman but they divorced. It was his first time on a plane.
He is a popular vegetable grower at the market, which is held Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m. He grows everything imaginable, from tomatoes, onions and beans to super hot peppers. He also sells beets, okra, lemon grass and mung beans.
An employee of local pest control business owner and beekeeper Dave Duncan, Dissanayak has a large garden in rural Bellville where he works every evening after work.
Dissanayak and Duncan made 2,400 bars of soap from beeswax, coconut oil and tallo in February. The Sri Lankan man is learning the pest control business although he said he has a love for all creatures and hates to even kill a mosquito because he wants to do what is best for the planet.
Life in Sri Lanka as a farmer
In Sri Lanka, he was called many a time to remove snakes from peoples' houses or businesses.
His parents are farmers in Sri Lanka and have a four-acre rice field. His mother grows 1.5 acres of chili peppers to make into powder after it is dried.
The NECIC farmer's market is just one of the sites Dissanayak sells his produce. He also is popular at the Bellville Farmers Market and sells his goods at auctions.
He loves the United States but misses his family back home. He talks to them regularly on his cell phone. At home he was a wildlife ranger and worked with a crew to put some 32 baby elephants in an orphanage after their mothers died or were killed. And he rescued poisonous snakes, a free service.
He talked to a friend from his homeland this past week about a famous elephant, Narmal, who is missing a leg. The Sri Lanka Army makes a new leg for him every six months as he grows.
Dissanayak said his family are farmers in Sri Lanka and the occupation does not provide very much income, but his two sisters are doing well. His older sister is a metallurgical science major who studied on a scholarship in China but returned during the COVID pandemic, and a younger sister is studying engineering. He is very proud of his family, who all work hard.
"Farming is completely different over there. There are not rich people doing farming," he said.
Served as a guide for Animal Planet cable network
In Sri Lanka, he served as a guide for groups including Animal Planet producers who were making a documentary on a bird, a common rock thrush he found. Nobody had seen the rare bird before in Sri Lanka, he said.
On Thursday, Sept. 8, he will be cooking curry and rice at the North End Farmer's Market. He loves to talk with his customers about how to use his vegetables in cooking. Duncan makes a hot honey which people love to cook with too.
Dissanayak speaks great English but said his native language is Sighala, which is only spoken in Sri Lanka.
His lifelong goals include becoming a physical therapist or a wildlife ranger but said it is probably not realistic because he can't afford college.
"I like to help people, that's good karma because sometimes I have to do killing something, like bats," he said. "Only thing I want to do is be a good person for everybody."
Duncan echoed, "You already are."
"He has taken gardening to the next level around here, beyond my imagination," Duncan said. "He grows a lot of interesting crops, like mung beans and egg plant. He has super hot peppers, chilis, that he grows at home. This is his first year growing this garden here."
lwhitmir@gannett.com
419-521-7223
Twitter: @lwhitmir
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Saranga Dissanayak, 31, of Sri Lanka, loves gardening and animals
