Picking up after the winter frost
Published:Saturday | April 2, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Nedburn Thaffe, Gleaner Writer
ALBION, Manchester;
THE WINTER season has come and gone, leaving behind a band of wailing cash-crop farmers in rural Manchester.
"Mi a 59 years old. A right yah so mi born and grow, and this a the wickedest frost me ever see," Anthony 'Freddy' Channer told The Gleaner.
Farmers in this rural parish are no strangers to cold weather, but when the temperature drops too low, the condition often leaves many weeping.
The heavy frost that often accompanies the cold season usually leads to a situation where young plants are drained of moisture, causing them to dry up, much like what happens during periods of extreme drought.
Channer is one out of hundreds of farmers whose agricultural crops took a battering during the season. Up until the fallout in bauxite, Channer managed to carve out a living as an established welder in his birth parish. Trading his spray torch for hoe stick seemed the more attractive choice when the economy started moving at a snail's pace, leading to a fallout in the bauxite industry, which was once the lifeblood of the parish.
"Mi a trademan, but when Alpart lock dung, mi did have to pick up the hoe 'tick because nothin' never did a gwaan," Channer said. According to Channer, planting carrots, tomatoes, and other cash crops on his farm in Albion was proving to pay off until the onslaught of the winter frost.
"Yeah man, things did a gwaan good. Mi have a daughter a go a school and a $600 a day it used to cost, and mi could a see mi way out most days. Mi grung use to pretty, too, until the frost drop inna it. Every farmer a bawl; it mash wi up bad," he lamented, picking up a handful of carrots to illustrate his point.
"Bwoy, mi did a look fi eat a decent piece a food out a the carrot, but it mash mi up bad."
But despite the setback, with the winter season behind them, Channer, like many others, has his mind set on greener days.
"Right yah now mi a clean up back the plot fi plant some more carrot now that the winter over. Mi waan drop some carrot and tomatis inna it fi see if me can catch the market when the price climb," Channer said.