We have three farms, one on the seaside and two up in the hills. The seaside farm has been worked by this family for two generations now. In true permaculture tradition, there are fruit trees, smaller banana and plantain trees, soft vegetables and herbs and wild medicinal herbs (weeds!). We don’t do monoculture.
We experiment with all sorts of ways to make our farm more productive, less wasteful, and less in need of inputs from outside of the farm. Presently, we are giving some energy to the issues of rain harvesting and sand/charcoal water filtering, crop rotation, composting (not yet humanure!), companion planting, general soil improvement, strengthening our vegetable seedling nursery, seed saving, introducing useful niche crops like mushrooms and natural protection from pests. We are aiming for a healthy ecosystem here that supports our family.
Along the way, we want to make the lessons we learn from our experiences available to anyone who can benefit. Please visit our Natural Plant Protection page to read some effective natural farming tips that we tested with the help of our Summer 2011 interns. On our Top Bar Beekeeping page, you can read about how we are doing our best to give information about natural beekeeping to bee farmers around the island.
Please visit our Blog page to get a sense of daily life on our farm, including first-hand accounts written by our farm interns.
Yerba Buena Farm Jamaica 