Bahamian Farms

March 5, 2016

We have recently had the opportunity to visit two Bahamian farms; one in Abaco and one in Eleuthera.

When people think of farms they think of images like the following:

American Corn Field

American Tomato Field

This is NOT how a Bahamian farm looks.  The soil here is sparse and very rocky.  Typically they can not plant in nice straight rows, but rather they plant in the best available soil, which is often scattered between rocks.

A few pictures of a Bahamian Farm:

Tomato Field
Note the tree trunks left after clearing for tomato supports

We were given a quantity of these tomatoes and although they were somewhat small, they were sweet like only a 'home-grown' tomato can be!

Despite the looks, these farms produce substantial amounts of produce.  The tomato crop was weak this year, but last year this farm 'bottled' 4 75-gallon drums of tomatoes.  As a side note, the tomatoes are traditionally canned in recycled beer bottles here - hence the term 'bottled tomatoes'.  

Some bottled tomatoes given to us a few years ago on Cat Island (along with some green beans)

Green Beans - filling out nicely!

Lime trees -sweet and juicy!

 

Potato Field.

I grew up in the country working on farms and have done a fair amount of gardening.  I know that you want to plant any root crop in the cleanest, rock-free soil, so the roots can grow smoothly.  As you can see, this is not possible in this field.  I have dug potatoes before, but digging from this field is hard!  The potatoes grow around rocks they encounter and you must dig and pry, dig and pry until they surrender.

Hot peppers - being made into a 'seasoning salt'

Seasoning salt

These farms are typically located at the end of a series of progressively smaller and smaller 'roads'; at the end of the trip there, the vehicle is pushing through the foliage that lines the road.  This is necessary to reach available land, but also to protect the farm from 'unauthorized harvesters'.

The generosity of our Bahamian friends is amazing.  We were given more produce than we could use - I was constantly saying "Thank you so much, but we don't have a lot of storage room on the boat" to keep the gifts manageable.   Everything we received, however, was delicious - much better than what you buy in the store!

The two farms and their generous owners shall remain anonymous here - but much thanks to both of them!

Tom
Anchored New Bight, Cat Island

As a postscript, one of my favorite signs from Eleuthera
The logo says it all!