Newland, once a tailor but now a full-time farmer, doesn't mind the hard work.

"I've been a farmer all my days," said Newland, 45, who lives in Sunrise but whose farm is in Davie. "My father was a farmer. I was born to be a farmer."

He's also the vice president of the Southwest Broward Growers Association, which supplies South Florida's Caribbean community with vegetables hard to find in mainstream supermarkets, such as calaloo, sorrel, laloo and bok choy.

The group includes 24 members, mostly Jamaicans, one Nigerian and one Haitian. Most met through churches and say farming provides self-sufficiency while allowing them to continue the lifestyle of their homeland.

Leslie Wallace, the association's president, is a carpenter, but said farming allows him to do something he loves.

"While I work harder, I enjoy it more," said Wallace, 47, also of Sunrise, standing in the middle of rows of calaloo on one of two farms he owns in western Davie.

Koye Ojurongbe, of Fort Lauderdale, subleases from Newland. He used to work in a warehouse, selling art on eBay, but said he fell in love with ethnic farming while visiting a friend on Newland's farm.

"This is more relaxing," said Ojurongbe, now a farmer for two years. He said farming is less stressful and he doesn't have to work on a fixed schedule.

The farmers don't own the land. They lease clusters from landowners in different subdivisions in Davie, Plantation, Southwest Ranches and in Miami-Dade County.

They mostly grow calaloo, a spinach resembling young tobacco leaves. Once it grows 15 to 25 inches tall, they cut it with steak knives and pack it into banana boxes for delivery to local supermarkets and suppliers. Some of the boxes are shipped to businesses as far as New York and Chicago.

Calaloo can be steamed and eaten in salad, but Jamaicans often cook it with codfish and serve it with rice, yams and plantains. Haitians, who call calaloo zepina, use it in legim (a stewed meat and vegetable dish) and bouyon (a soup made with fresh and smoked meat and various vegetables).

They also grow collard greens, papaya, sugar cane, banana plants, Scotch bonnet pepper -- so hot it turns eyes red -- laloo, a tiny gluey leaf, and sorrel, which produces a tiny fruit used in sweet drinks.

The farmers won't identify their customers, fearing that doing so would make them vulnerable to wealthy farmers who might drive them out of business.

They used to be a loose group until 1996, when they met with Samuel Scott, director of the North-South Institute, a Davie-based organization giving them technical assistance.

Scott said the farmers began leasing land in 1984 in Davie, but the movement quickly spread to Sunshine Ranches, Southwest Ranches, Plantation and "wherever land is available."

Two years ago, he helped them organize into the Southwest Broward Growers Association and taught them risk management, pest control, marketing skills and farming techniques. As a group, members say, they support each other and no longer compete for the same customers.

In March, they participated in a three-day conference in Davie for farmers from as far as North Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas.

"These guys need the support, and they're getting it now," said Scott, who grew up on a small farm in Jamaica.

The farming movement, however, fears extinction as developers pay big bucks for land in Davie, said Marcie Scott, Samuel Scott's wife.

She noted that Wallace, the association's president, has lost his farms at least twice to residential development the past five years. Wallace now grows calaloo on two plots he's leasing on Orange Drive between 95th Avenue and Pine Island Road.

"The risk is after they install their irrigation, a developer comes in and offers money for the land," Marcie Scott said. "There is nothing we can do."

Newland, who moved to Broward County in 2000, started farming on a 3-acre site at Orange Drive and Flamingo Road. Now he's leasing 9 acres on the property and subleases some of the plots.

He's concerned he might be forced to leave because his lease is renewed annually.

"We're watching the developers; we're watching how close they're coming," Newland said.

Thomas Monnay can be reached at tmonnay@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7924.