Enjoying the fruits of his labour
Published:Wednesday | August 11, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator
HE HAS been a humble and hard-working farmer for the past 32 years, tilling the soil in the rural community of McKenzie district, St Ann, where he cultivates mostly ground provisions and vegetables.
But it has not been an easy road for 45-year-old farmer Lumbswell Simpson, who had to quit school at age 13 to fend for himself in the field. Today, he has no regrets.
His partially completed five-bedroom house in the district is evidence of his hard work.
His daily routine starts at 6:30 in the morning, with a break at lunchtime before he continues up to late evening in the field, either planting or cleaning cabbage fields, which can be a painful task.
"Sometimes I bend down in the cabbage field for hours and, when mi fi get up, is like me nuh have nuh back lef'. It painful, but me go through still though," said a smiling Simpson, who had just returned from his banana field in the midday sun.
He either sells his produce wholesale to higglers or travels to Coronation Market in downtown Kingston to peddle his goods.
"I love the farming, but the young people dem don't because dem a look fi di quick cash. In farming, you have to wait fi months fi one crop ready," Simpson stressed.
McKenzie district is famous for cabbage, carrots and other cash crops.