- PHOTO BY CLAUDIA GARDNER
Hyacinth Myrie tends to lettuce on her small farm in Bulls Bay, Hanover.
Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer
LUCEA:
HYACINTH MYRIE of Bulls Bay in Hanover has been cultivating a wide variety of vegetables for 10 years now because of her love for the soil.
Ms. Myrie cultivates organic pak choi, corn, lettuce, okra, tomato, sweet pepper, pumpkin and callaloo on an expanse of land on the fringes of the Bulls Bay wetlands.
"I like planting very much because it is good exercise," Ms. Myrie told Farmers Weekly in an interview earlier this week. "I like to wake up in the mornings and tend to my plants. It gives me a good feeling."
She said she cultivates mainly for domestic purposes but, when there is a surplus, she sells some of her harvest and gives the remainder to friends and to the less fortunate.
ORGANIC FARMING
But integral to her practice is the use of organic material to manure her crops. She uses compost comprising fruit and vegetable peels, dried leaves, goat or cow manure and onion and pepper juice as pesticide.
She said organic farming reduces the need for consistent irrigation as the mulch retains the moisture in the soil, at the same time boosting quality of the produce. "Farming is good, because you feel a sense of achievement at the end of the day," she said.
