First time Farming

After two and a half years of living in Jamaica, I went farming this morning. My neighbor is a farmer and I’ve always wanted to try. I did. It’s exhausting. But in a good way.

Early start to the day: View from farmland

I woke up at 5:30 to get ready and out the door by 6:00. Georgie and I drove in his truck to his farm in Blue Mountain District, just a short drive away. His farm is on a hill! I wore some Levi’s and my croc rainboots (haha!) to keep away the ticks. He is currently growing sweet potato, sweet pepper, scotch bonnet, watermelon and tomatoes. Currently there is a dry spell happening and no water is falling. He must works with the elements because he doesn’t have an irrigation system. So you know, what I am telling you is what he told me. I am sharing you my experience and am in no way an expert on any farming. All I know is if you water it and give it sunlight it should grow. 

Too much sun for these tomatoes

pulling dried grass for mulch

Georgie told me irrigation works well in Clarendon and St. Elizabeth, two neighboring parishes that are flatter than Manchester. Plus he farms on a hill, I said that right? The view from his farm is beautiful. Anyway, he shared that all farmers know the Seven Star Rain. I make it a pronoun because it sounded really important. This is where, from June 7 to June 10 it rains; it didn’t rain this week. The leaves of the green pepper are yearning for some water! I hope we get water soon! He sounded disheartened, because this is his occupation.  And he works hard!!

We worked from 6-9:30am. I pulled out weeds around the tomatoes, I pulled out old scotch bonnet pepper plants- that took an hour. There was plenty. Then we took a break. I got banana chips and juice, ah, refreshing. We continued our morning by taking dry tall grass, after Georgie chopped it I took it, and spread it around the tomatoes to cover the soil. The soil was very dry. We did that for a good long while, because he has a lotta tomato plants. The sun was really warming up by this point. I’m a natural heavy sweater so this was just adding to more sweat. I was reapplying spf 50 on my arms and neck frequently. He then showed me another plot where the sweet potato grew and took out some sweet potato.

The farmer and his sweet peppers

Then we went to where the sweet pepper was and took some of those too!  Georgie said to me, as we were working his fields “See how much can be accomplished when you start early?”

We did a bit more mulching and decided to head back to Bellefield. I was tired! The moment I got in the truck my body just sighed in thanks for shade and rest. As gratitude for working on his farm, Georgie gave me the sweet potato he picked and the sweet pepper! OMG, I’m the one who is thankful! I’ll be filling up my belly with both. Nyam.

Here’s my letter of appreciation to all farmers:

Dear Farmers,

I appreciate you so much. Thank you for growing food. I love food. So, I love you too. And I pray your crops get the rain they need.

Food Lover Always,

Chantal