Robert Lalah, Assistant Editor - Features

His pineapples aren't the best looking, but Bredda Joe claims they are the sweetest.

I first met Bredda Joe by the side of a winding, hillside road in St Mary. It was somewhere near Castleton. He was sitting near a shed made of zinc and wood with seven pineapples on a makeshift table in front of him.

"Sugar loaf right yah so!" he yelled. "Sugar loaf, man, right yah so!"

He was a skinny fellow who was wearing a pair of pink and white sandals. I walked up to him.

"Marning, sar! Sell yuh a sugar loaf?"

Selling produce

I declined the offer but asked him why he was out in the middle of nowhere trying to sell the fruit. There was nobody around for miles.

"Mi have mi ground up inna di hill part deh so," he pointed to a steep hill behind him. "Mi just a come from ground, so mi just a try sell off dem yah, so mi can mek two shilling and go cool out."

He adjusted the cap on his head as he spoke, gave his name as Bredda Joe but added that some people just called him black man. I asked Bredda Joe if he lived nearby.

"No man! Mi live up a Brandon Hill but yuh know how it go. Mi have mi ground up yah, so mi haffi come yah everyday," he said.

A car whizzed by. "Sugar loaf, man, right here!" Bredda Joe shouted. The car continued on. I asked Bredda Joe if he only grew pineapples.

"No, man! Mi have pitato and yam up deh, man," said he. "Mi a farm from mi a lilly pickney, so mi know bout dem ting yah. Mi go weh pan farm work programme five different time. Yes, man! Ah five time mi travel, yuh know. Mi go Florida go chop cane and come back. Yes, man!"

Bredda Joe was proud.

"Mi a go back up a ground yah now. Yuh fi come wid mi mek mi show yuh what mi have," he said.

I looked across at the mammoth hill on which he had earlier told me he grew his crops.

I swallowed hard and asked him if it would be a long walk. "No, man! It nuh fur. Two twos and we reach."

Climbing desperately

Bredda Joe on the look out for his next customer in the hills of Castleton, st Mary. - Photos by Robert Lalah

Against my better judgement, I agreed, and we headed off to the hill.

"Yuh go first," said Bredda Joe, and I started the climb.

At first, it seemed like a walk in the park and I might have let it get to my head. I started walking quickly and at times, even jogging.

Then, it all changed. I felt like I was walking up a vertical line and my vision started to get blurry. To keep from falling backwards, I had, from time to time, to get on my hands and knees.

Bredda Joe, however, did not take kindly to this at all. "Gwap!" he shouted every time I slowed or tried to take a rest. It was his own way of telling me to go up.

From behind me, his squeaky voice was like that of a mosquito. "Gwap!" I desperately tried to keep going without taking a break, but we had been climbing through knee-high bushes and fallen tree branches for what felt like 30 minutes. I could take it no longer, so I leaned against a tree for only a second.

"Gwap!" came the shout of the man climbing behind me. I somehow mustered enough energy to go a bit further and like music to my ears, I heard Bredda Joe say: "Ah it dis now." Just in time, too, for I was beginning to see stars.

The area was small but there were many plants all around. There were several more pineapples and a few pepper trees.

"Ah me dis now man. Is up yah so mi grow what mi sell," said he, smiling.

Still panting, I asked the 69-year-old Bredda Joe how he survived that climb day after day.

He chuckled. "It nuh fur to mi, yuh know. Mi used to it, so it nuh come like nothing to me," said he.

I asked him if he was able to make a living from selling just what he grew there.

Stick to farming

"Yes, man. It nuh good like one time, but it alright. Mi have pickney and grand pickney and is di farming mi use fi grow all a dem. Mi all get one great grand yah now, so mi a gwaan good!" he said, proudly. "More a di young one dem fi tek up di farming. It more better fi di stomach. Di buy food dem gi yuh ulcer stomach and dem ting deh. Mi stick to di farming and mi alright. More people fi do like mi!"

robert.lalah@gleanerjm.com.