The Betty Black Blog » Plants & Flowers

The King is Dead

BettyB — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:00:48 +0000

Jamaica has been for centuries one of the wealthiest countries in the region. Correction: make that “had been” as, over the last forty years or so, we have been losing that distinction. The world recession has made the situation even more obvious. Now I’m no economist, nor would I want to be, but it seems to me that one of our problems is that we spend too much time on the past and its traditions. “That’s an odd statement,” you will say “Coming from someone who writes almost exclusively about Jamaica’s history.” Not at all; Jamaica, and indeed every country, should celebrate and remember the past but not live in it.

In my opinion we hold on too much to “traditional exports.” We fight for a place on the world market for our bananas when the market seems to want bananas from Costa Rica. We then accept a lower price. Our bauxite industry has all but died a long and painful death. Recycling aluminium is a lot cheaper than mining and producing it from scratch. Good riddance I say to the deep red gouges in our green landscape. Sugar is no longer King. The King is dead, bury him! Jamaica is a small country; if there is a demand for something we produce we would never be able to produce enough of it to satisfy the market, the old “supply and demand” of basic business. Case in point: coffee. Blue Mountain CoffeeJamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is in great demand worldwide. Unlike bananas, we set the price for our coffee and the market pays it. In the middle of a recession, income from coffee has increased by 30%. The same is true of chocolatecocoa. There is a limited area where these crops grow so we can’t put thousands of acres more into coffee and cocoa. We therefore need other products. We have hundreds of thousands of acres of sugar cane. Every year we accept lower prices on this crop which used to be the backbone of our economy. We will need some cane fields for domestic consumption and the production of another star export, rum. Some of our existing fields can be turned to the production of ethanol. This takes retooling and a fairly heavy financial outlay but isn’t that better in the long run than accepting half price for sugar?

Take a drive outside the cities. Wherever you go you are almost guaranteed to pass stands of bamboo on the roadside. In the countryside we use bamboo for fences, for scaffolding, even for homes. On small farms bamboo “pipes” are used for irrigation, small rivers are crossed on bamboo bridges and large ones navigated on bamboo rafts. Children fish with bamboo poles and, unfortunately, some are disciplined with bamboo switches. In China and Japan, bamboo scaffolding is commonly used in construction.

There are many old wives’ tales about harvesting bamboo. But often those old wives were smart. The sugar content of bamboo rises and falls. The more sugar there is in the bamboo is the more attractive it is to insects. Sugar content is at its highest during the hottest time of the day. Harvesting bamboo at dawn during the full moon is actually the best time as the sugar content is lowest at that time! Bamboo also starts to rot from fungus after five to seven years. Bamboo is therefore best harvested between three to five and five to seven years, depending on the variety.

Bamboo grows at an incredible rate; it is the fastest growing plant on earth and can grow 24 inches (60 cm) per day. Bamboo plants reach maturity in three years. Because of this it is cheap and it is sustainable. Lumber and textiles made from bamboo are no longer niche products but are in incredibly high demand worldwide. In the U. S. one can buy bamboo flooringbamboo flooring at any hardware store and bamboo sheetsbamboo sheets at your nearest department store. The bamboo products industry is anticipated to reach sales of twelve billion U S. dollars within two years. Why can’t Jamaica get a piece of that pie? Certainly with such an unbelievably high demand, the market would absorb as much bamboo lumber as we could produce. I can see it in my mind quite clearly: Acres and acres of former cane fields, already laid out, with irrigation in place, turned to bamboo and the huge sugar mills gutted and refitted to cure and laminate the lumber. Sugar cane and bamboo are both grasses, for all I know they could be planted and reaped using the same equipment. Maybe it’s time King Sugar was deposed in favour of the Big Bamboo!

Bamboo Avenue, St. Elizabeth

Don’t Throw Out The Bone!

BettyB — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:55:01 +0000

So the Holidays are over. The leftovers, though for many of us not as much as usual, are all gone. There’s nothing left but a pathetic looking ham bone. If you’re Jamaican you know exactly where that bone is going and it definitely is not in the garbage!

Traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day, Gungo Peas Soup is a highly nutritious follow up to the over indulgence of the Christmas Season. Gungo PeasGungo Peas, Cajanus cajan, are also called Pigeon Peas or Congo Peas. They are popular all over the Caribbean from Trinidad and Tobago to Barbados to Puerto Rico and, of course, Jamaica. Gungo peas have been cultivated for millennia; supposedly travelling from the Indian sub-continent to East Africa and then to the West Indies. A true legume, the gungo bush can sometimes grow up to ten feet tall and different varieties will bear annually or biannually. The plants generally live for three to five years but are often rooted out after two years as the yield falls off. The plants are then shredded and tilled back into the soil as, like all legumes, they are an excellent green manure and will enrich the poorest soil. They are also very drought tolerant and will grow in the driest areas. They are an excellent source of protein, amino acids, vitamins and minerals and in the herbal medicine of some cultures, tea made from the leaves is used to treat swelling of internal organs and some cancers. Though dried peasdried peas are available throughout the year, in Jamaica, gungo usually bears in December and January and fresh green gungo are a must for Christmas Dinner rice and peasrice and peas and of course: Ham Bone Soup Ham bone ½-1 lb pigstail or salt pork (optional) 1 qt (4 cups) fresh green gungo (or 3 tins Green Gungogreen gungo) 2 tsp allspice berries or 1 tsp ground allspice 2 sprigs thyme 3 stalks scallion, chopped 1 med onion, chopped Salt & black pepper to taste 1 whole unbroken green Scotch Bonnet pepper 2 cups coconut milk (or 1 tin) 1 lb yellow yam, peeled and cut into chunks Flour for dumplings If bone is large, saw into 2 or 3 pieces, the bone from a picnic ham can usually be left in one piece. If the meat remaining on the bone appears to be less than 2 cups add pig’s tail or salt pork and use less salt. Place all ingredients except coconut, yam and dumplings in a 5-6 quart pot and cover with water to about 2 inches from the top. Bring to boil then cover and lower heat and simmer for about 1 hour until peas are tender (20 minutes in pressure cooker). Take out pepper and discard. Remove bone and cut off meat. Return meat to pot along with yam and dumplings, adding more water if necessary, and cook for a further 30 minutes (10 minutes in pressure cooker). Add coconut milk and adjust seasoning. Return to stove and simmer for a further 5-10 minutes. Happy New Year!

For more about Jamaica visit Jamaica-Allspice.com

Death of a Garden

BettyB — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:13:05 +0000

From I was the tiniest thing, I would follow behind my grandmother as she sprinkled her magic dust in the garden. My grandmother had ten green fingers and every plant she touched would thrive. I have inherited only a tiny bit of that special touch but all of the love. When life becomes overpowering I disappear into pruning the roses or fighting white flies and nothing else matters…..until now!

I see from my back door rain clouds sitting over the hills and I would swear it’s raining there. Friends tell me that the Hope River looks very healthy, virtually overflowing its banks. Yet the Mona Dam (reservoir) is half empty and the No Water Conspiracy tells us we’re having the worst drought in twenty years and have reduced our supply to a mere trickle six hours a day. We appear lucky as places like Red Hills now get random supplies from a water truck no less!


	The Suffering

My garden is dying a horrible, painful death. My tomatoes and peppers have fallen to slugs, searching for some moisture. The roses have picked up the dreaded mealy bugs. The June roses, which tend to get scraggly at this time of year anyway, have all picked up what looks like a fungus. All diseases known and unknown are attacking on all fronts and I can’t spray or fertilise anything for it is so dry, they would be burned by the treatment, whether chemical or natural. At lease the oleander, plumbago and Chinese privet survive with little water and fall prey to no bug or disease so my hedges are fine.


	The Night Bloomers

Here’s a little advice to those in the same position: MULCH. Pack mulch around the roots of all your precious plants, leaving just an inch or two around the stems. Be very careful to use clean mulch as some things, like roses, might develop disease. Don’t give shrubs planted in the ground a cup of water a day, you’re wasting the water, that won’t feed the roots. Rather give them a bucketful once a week poured on slowly in the early morning. Do not water at night as the slugs and other creepy crawlies searching for moisture will spend the night feasting on them. Prune all the dead and diseased branches off everything so that the healthy limbs get all the precious moisture. Things will still die but most will survive until they can be tended properly again.

Meanwhile, I look at pictures to remind me of what my garden looked like just a few short months ago and go through catalogues to decide what to fill the empty spaces with. The No Water Conspiracy will not win this fight!


	The Survivors

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The Suffering


The Night Bloomers