Two farmers find good fortune in Bussue Gate

Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

MACHETE IN hand with bag slung over his shoulder, farmer Ali Simpson is returning from trimming and bagging some scallion destined for Coronation Market in Kingston when The Gleaner encounters him in Bussue Gate. Scallion, sweet pepper, tomato and cabbage are the crops he farms in concert with his cousin and he says he has come a long way since the days when they used to drive a truck through the area, en route to Kingston, where they would sell melon on the street.

"Me an' mi cousin used to drive one truck, so wi stop along the way and find girls pon di road. So mi married and live up here 20 years now," the St Elizabeth native proudly declares. "We collect letter at Pratville PA, but the little district is Pillar, a Bussue property," he explains.

Back in the car, we are talking about Ali's good fortune when we spot a woman in a field and stop to chat with her.

Ilene Brooks is plucking corn when we catch up with her and explains that she was making a school uniform for her niece when she decided to take a break to pick some corn which she plans to boil with chicken noodle.

The corn plants are intercropped with gungo and sorrel with some sweet potato, plantain and banana to one side. Nearby is an older stand of gungo in need of clearing which also belongs to Ilene.

Growing enough to eat

Even though she is not able to go into farming on a large scale because of financial constraints, Brooks is content to grow enough so she doesn't have to buy some of her favourite crops like corn, gungo, sweet potato, banana and plantain.

Life is much easier for Ilene now than when she used to be a higgler, having to go all around in neighbouring districts to buy produce to sell at Coronation Market in Kingston. She remembers well the long, unpredictable hours spent awaiting the truck from St Elizabeth which would take her and other higglers to market.

When the backbreaking work became too much for her, Ilene decided to take a break, declaring that she was now an old woman.

"A weh yu a seh? Mi a 55? No, 57! Yuh neva know?" she responds to a suggestion that she could seriously be describing herself as old.

Ilene explains that she is now able to take life easy, thanks mainly to her eldest child, Shernette, who lives overseas and helps to provide for her. Having schooled three children from her income as a higgler, she was proud to say her son is 23 and the last daughter is going to be 19 in December. Though her farm is located at Bussue Gate, Ilene lives in nearby Buckup, where she is, for the most part, taking it easy these days.