Permaculture and cash-crops

I’ve tried to eat healthy for most of my life. I don’t always succeed especially when I’m traveling and I’m forced to eat whatever is available. One of the keys to that is planning my meals carefully as I change location. In the same breath, I need to plan my farming. In my last season, I was only interested in ‘cash-crops’. Things that would produce quickly. Not anymore. For this thing to be successful, I need to have a plan. I’ve looked at my yard and I’ve decided that I want as many fruit trees as is possible.  A part of that planning process is in deciding where to plant them. They need to some safe distance from the house so that the roots do not cause problems to the structure of the house in the future. So far, I’ve acquired seedlings for apple, naseberry, cho-cho and avocado pear. Actually, I bought the cho-cho at the market when I saw that it already had started growing.

The permanent trees will of course be supplemented by the short-term produce; we all know the importance of low hanging fruits in any initiative like this. The corn and gungo peas have served to encourage that process. I’ve replanted some of the corn grain from the original corn that the work man planted. Some corns were left on a cob in a plastic bag. When I got back to my farming endeavours, the seeds had already began growing in the bag. It wasn’t hard to transfer them to the soil. I planted them and gave them a good watering that evening. Thankfully we had some rain that same week and I’ve left them to their own demise. Unfortunately, some other workmen went to the patch to mine stones and now I have no idea where the seeds are planted. I’ll just have to wait to see where they pop up.

In the meantime, my hairdresser has provided me with banana and plantain shoots (I really have no idea what they are called; maybe they are called suckers), as well as some passion fruit seedlings. I am looking for sour sop, sweet sop, custard apple, star fruit, jackfruit (my hfh is not too keen on that one), breadfruit and ackee. I’m thinking about a June plum tree but I haven’t figured out where to put it as yet.

In the meantime, I’ve once again planted some cantaloupe and watermelon seeds. Time will tell. Let’s see how this hands-off posh farming turns out.

 

I miss my farm

I went to lunch today at a restaurant that I probably would have missed if I was not invited there. The population in this high-end establishment was quite interesting since there were no local persons working at that time. The staff all spoke Spanish and no one (patron or staff) looked like me. In fact, I was meeting persons who were caucasian and I was the only black face in the place.

As I looked at the menu, I wondered what fraction of the items on the menu was produced locally. This country is not like Jamaica, with its many rivers to feed farms, (even though we still don’t seem to know what we’re doing), but it does have the resources to produce some of what it eats…. yet it doesn’t. The people have sold themselves the lie that their land is not ideal for food production, and so I’ve not seen a single fruit tree in a yard so far and this is my third visit – not even a banana or an apple tree. Everything is imprted and this makes food prices very high (I paid US$6 for a box of milk yesterday). They can’t plant fruit trees but you do see many ornamentals. It’s spring, so right now it’s all about being pretty with blooming flowers. And yes, there are permanent trees. Many palm trees….which can’t eat!

And then I wondered, since it is rich country, could it be that the people are too rich to plant their own food?

And so, I started thinking about my posh farm again (I think about it maybe every week). Last year, my many absences coupled with the drought (I’m sure the drought was the culprit) frustrated my ad-hoc efforts to maintain my farm…. and so I gave up…. for a season. I actually enjoyed planting and watching the things grow and being able to literally eat the fruits of my labour…. and so I’ve been itching to go back. The problem I thought I had was that I would not be able to give it the attention it needs……at least, that’s what I thought……

….Until the men working at my house showed me by example, that apart from watering and the occasional weeding, the plants don’t really need my help to grow (I’m sure the workmen don’t even know that they did that).

Last year, one of the men planted some corn grains and pigeon (gungo) peas in the rocky patch by the house. To my surprise, when we arrived in our home in December, we had corn ready to eat at Christmas. Since then, I’ve eaten from the pea patch and I’ve shared peas with family and friends. The work man did not tend the corn or the peas in any way; he simply planted the seeds and left them to grow. Apparently, the seeds had gotten a good shower of rain for a few days after they were put in the ground and that’s all they needed. The gungo trees continue to blossom and produce, even after the man has gone; and I continue to be amazed since I’ve not tended them in any way.

And so I’m encouraged. When I get back home, I will certainly try again….after all, flowers are pretty to look at….but dem caan eat!