January to date

January has been surprisingly wet, we have had a lot of rain that has
enabled us to keep planting when we may have been spending a lot
of time with irrigation , however, a main drain required re digging.
Dasheen and tannia, sweet potato, saffron, (turmeric) ginger, cocoa,
nutmeg and the first mangoes, are all ready.
A bountiful if busy month lies ahead.

We picked the cocoa that was ripe and put the beans to dry in the sun,
on a piece of galvanise that we put back in the shed if a rain falls.
I try to limit myself to one turmeric plant per day, wash off the soil in
the river, before bringing the tubers home, to scrub, chip and dry on a tray
in the sun. When they are totally dry I will grind them, a little at a time.
The dwarf beans, either from weeding or virus, have developed a similar
mildew as sometimes afflicts the pumpkin and cucumber, but we had a
good crop and they were delicious.
We have started to weed those beds now, to plant corn and


















T has planted carrots were the sweet potato were and we began cutlassing below
the remaining 8 nutmeg trees.
The seed tray behind the house is full of cabbage, tomato, more lettuce, eggplant,
basil and oregano seedlings, I wonder if it matters that they are bedded together?
They should be ready for transplanting next week. The cauliflower that were
planted the other week are doing well, those that have not been eaten by a night
time visitor, and the celery and okra are fine. T went to town today and sold 50
lettuce and a box full of basil, which is really becoming popular now that people know
who he and what it is .
Now if we could just resolve the access road situation and maybe,
just maybe, buy a donkey.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, especially to all small farmers,
may it be a bountiful one. Today found us restoring some order
to the bamboo that T cut last week by the river
where it was barring the light and the breeze.

Caution has to be exercised when cutting bamboo.

It likes to cut you back.

We also weeded the basil

Which will be moled and given pen manure this week.
The weather was very kind to us today, misty with drizzle and cool.

Busy

This has been a very busy week, the weather was very kind and helped us by sending much needed rain. T forked the land just below the beans, for new okra. He made the holes which I wet before sowing, 3 seeds to a hole, following something I read somewhere recently

"rain or wet,
wet when you set"

The basil sold well in town, T walking and selling, in the build up to Christmas, also the beans which we sold at $3e.c. per pound. The bottles of sorrel that I made were not so popular but would have sold had I made wine, something to remember for next year, however, we enjoyed drinking them and sharing with
family.




Sunday saw us weeding and clearing close by the river, where the cive, rocket and big thyme are, we also dug up the first of the 'saffron' (turmeric) and put it to dry and T cut back the big bamboo by the river to allow more light and air to pass through.

Team work

Trev cut grass for the cow and I wet the lettuce, Trev forked, made holes and wet them while I sowed, 3 seeds to a hole, we both covered them. I weeded beans and we picked them together.

Dry Season

There is a change in the air
since the previous post and
the rainy seasons' grand finale.
Now the days are shorter,
the nights are cooler
and there is less humidity. T makes
preparations by putting a pipe
in the ravine that marks the boundary
at the top of Corn Buck. Using a series
of Heath Robinson pipe and hose
connections, we will be able to water
the hundreds of lettuce that we planted
in the beds that T made on the top.
Meanwhile, the dwarf beans
are bearing so I weed, mole , mulch
and pick them









together with more sorrel
and give thanks for nature's bounty.

This week

This week we continued
picking sorrel and cutlassing
the land at the top, picked
limes, citronella, ripe fig
and okra, dasheen, sweet
potato weeded and 'bombed'
the basil, sowed some purple
okra and cleaned drains.











We don't know what this
vine is but it has a tuber
that looks a little like a
yam only smaller, so it
was spared.














The grapefruit are almost full,
first time this tree
has born fruit.
















T forked new beds for
cabbage above the
mango trees which we
dressed with the pen
manure from the old
cow pen by the ravine.
The land is still very wet
from all the rain we have had.
The basil was not happy.

Sales

T leaves for town to sell basil, parsley, big thyme,
common pork, seasoning peppers and okro.
Town is full of people selling. Cabbage, yam, sweet potato,
green fig, banana. We sell herbs. By the bag. No scale,
a lighter load and, for now, no competition.