Checking in with nature

I’ve been thinking about what the workman said about the few days of rain that followed his planting of the seeds and the many other rationales why the corn and gungo did well in the rocky patch. I find myself thinking about those farmers in the early days when they had no meteorologist to tell them when to do what and what they should plant when. How did they know when and what to plant?

It is an established fact that there is an important positive correlation between weather and farming. When the weather is good, farms do well. But since farmers in Jamaica back then didn’t have the weather channel, how did they do what they did?

If I should consider my own experience, in Jamaica, I’ve learnt to tell if it’s going to rain by the ants that live around my house (I’ve not tried to test this theory outside of Jamaica). Even on a bright and sunny day, if I see a lot of ants in my house (they are not usually in the house) and they are not following something sweet or something dead, it’s going to rain nicely (a good soaking). The ants can somehow tell and they come into the house for shelter. Interestingly, I learnt that from my grandmother. I didn’t even know I had committed it to memory until I started managing my own household and the ants evidence became difficult to ignore, (it’s funny how you remember things that your parents or grandparents said when you were growing up that you didn’t even know had taken root). Anyway, based on my own observation, I’ve decided that they (farmers back then) must have had their own way of translating nature.

First of all, most farmers in Jamaica lived primarily in the same community their entire lives. This made them very familiar with the local growing conditions, (such as knowing when the rainy season starts, what crop does best in what soil, and which crops grow well together).

Reflecting on my very early past (I’ve been doing that a lot lately) I remember that March and April were the primary farm preparation time. That was in preparation for the rains in May. Farmers also had a farmers Almanac that I could never understand. They wouldn’t plant sweet potato or beans when the days were ‘long’ because they would take too long to produce. I remember that farming was also a community affair. Farmers took turns preparing each other’s farm…and when it was planting time, it was no different. Every farm had their ‘workdays’ where everyone participated. While the men worked the land, the women prepared the meals. Women who were not cooking were also busy planting. I remember on weekends, us kids walking and putting seeds in the holes that were already prepared. I guess these days they call it child labour, but we had fun doing it. We had to put two seeds in each hole; I didn’t know why, but I now figure it was to increase the probability of success (the same reason why octomom had twelve embryos transferred).

They also watched the moon and the sun for signs of rain (a circle around the moon). I can’t remember everything (I cant’t believe I remember so much) since I didn’t pay much attention to these things growing up. But I do remember that things like corn and peas were planted when the moon was becoming full and ‘ground produce’ like yam planted after the full moon had passed. Mi nuh have a clue why! (For the non-Jamaicans, I do not know why they did those things).

Whatever the logic back then, it worked. And even though we now have the weather channel, last year, I still got it wrong.

 

 

 

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!

 

One week after

Six days (May 16) after I planted the seeds I visited my patch before going to work and got the highlight of the week. It had rained almost every day since planting and I could see the little green leaves pushing back the mighty soil; I felt like a proud parent. I was so excited I left work at the stroke of 4 p.m., the end of the official work day on a Friday, and rushed home to do some more ‘farming’. I wanted to extend the patch now that I could see that everything was growing and I wanted to do so before it got dark. I had put many seeds in each hole which resulted in many ‘clusters’ of shoots, and I am foreseeing that this may be a problem. Additionally, the last set of seeds that I threw into the forked area were not separated and so what seems to look like pumpkin is growing with what looks like cantaloupes and water melons.

I donned my ‘farm clothes’, including my Wellies (water boots) and extended  my ‘farm’ patch to 10 feet by 15 feet. It was two hours of hard work, being bitten by mosquitoes but I persevered. By 6:30 p.m. when I was called in for dinner, I felt like I was on the brink of starvation. I concluded that if I was going to be a farmer, I couldn’t do so on an empty stomach.

Over the weekend I thought constantly about the growing clusters in the backyard and the fact that I had no clue about how I was going to deal with the ‘success’ of my planting efforts. I needed help. Now that they were all growing in clusters, what should I do? Am I supposed to move them, and if so, when?  What is adequate spacing? Based on the visible shoots, is the 10×15 enough space? All questions that I have not yet been able to answer.