Roosevelt Roberts Farm

Thursday, April 30, 2009

I've been telling our landlord that I would come visit his farm on break sometime, but today was the first day that it worked out to go....had to give up a beach trip, but it was well worth it! It is quite interesting how Dominica changes just a few blocks off the beaten trail. Roosevelt and Leona Roberts, our landlords here in Glanvillia, own a piece of property inland from the main campus of Ross University. You leave the main paved road onto a dirt/gravel trail, pass the supply barns that Ross has, then into the jungle on the trail. Just a few hundred feet into the jungle and you can feel the difference. Sounds of buses on the main road fade and your just left with the dull roar of the river as it races over the rocks. It's flat walking at first and unfortunately people use this trail side as an illegal dump. Further in, the trail becomes much steeper and is cut into the side of the mountain. In some places, the river rages nearly 200 feet below the trail. The trail side is strewn with ferns, palms, flowers, citrus, lemon grass, dasheen, and the like. The lemon grass exudes a rich, almost sickenly sweet scent in the damp, cool jungle breeze. Roosevelt's first cousin, Felix I believe he said, is building a guest house/bar/restaurant about a half mile in. The scenery is beautiful there; it overlooks the Caribbean some 2 miles distance down the valley. The structure is being built on concrete stilts about 5 feet off the ground. Below, the valley levels into a banana plantation before falling into the rocky river. The timber, 6 inch by 6 inch by maybe 12 feet long is rough hewn from trees harvested higher up the mountain above the estate. Felix was telling me that they sell some of their bananas to the Shacks at Ross, but most go for export to Montserrat and Antigua.

Further up the mountain trail is the Roberts Farm. There are only 2 buildings there. One has "current" (electricity) and is used for storage of fertilizer and tools. The other is the livestock barn which houses approximately 300 laying hens in 4 pens and further in, 12 pigs that he is growing out for slaughter. These are the last pigs he's planning to raise, but is keeping the layers active. He gets 2 day old peeps from Trinidad, keeps them through their laying life then sells the old hens and starts over again. I looked at the feed bags he had there and wondered if some of that corn may have come from Iowa, too! Nutrimix Feeds out of Catana, Puerto Rico was the label on the bag.

We hiked a short distance up a small valley into Roosevelt's vegetable farm. This area is so steep that you barely have to bend over to do the work! There are green beans, cucumber, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, celery, yams, dasheen and a few other vegetables that I'd barely heard of. The stream at the base of the farm formed the boundary with the neighbor and served as a water source for the livestock below. Roosevelt had dammed the stream and piped water to the livestock. Above the dam was where he took his water can to get water for the vegetables when the rain didn't provide enough. Lizards scurried everywhere...help in keeping the bugs under control. There is quite a bit of land, higher up the side of the mountain, that has been cleared but not used for farming now. High overhead, Jaco parrots circle on the mountain updrafts. They apparently do some damage to the grapefruit, so not entirely a welcome guest.

Roosevelt drove me in his little 4x4 Nissan pickup higher up beyond his brothers farm to the water supply reservoir. This structure supplies water to Picard, Glanvillia, and Portsmouth. He told me that sometimes the river is much higher and roars over the top of the dam!! The road ends at the dam and miles of steep jungle lie inland from there. It's amazing the feeling there. At 4:30 in the afternoon, it is dark in the jungle. It's not pitch black, but it is a darkness you feel. The air weighs damp and heavy which contributes to the feeling.

We wiggled the pickup around and headed back down the trail. I thanked him for the tour and walked further down the trail to the bustle of the streets below, thankful to see another piece of lifes puzzle.