Yerba Buena Farm Jamaica

Robins Bay Bee Club Members Draw BEES! (two years ago…)

Robins Bay Bee Club draws bees at Yerba Buena Farm with Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Tom Hebert When Tom Hebert came two summers ago summer, as a Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer, he led a session with the Robins Bay Bee Club. He presented a slide show of Beekeeping Around the World”, and asked all of the Bee Club kids to…

Goodbye, Intern LaToya!

Goodbye to Yerba Buena Farm Intern LaToya Hey, LaToya, just to let you know – you were a fantastic intern. You love eating meat, but you signed up to live with a vegan Rasta family, and had no problem adapting to our life. You are open, warm, funny and so sweet. Older and wiser than…

Thank you to Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Clare Licher!

Thank you to Farmer to Farmer volunteer Clare Licher Jamaica is blessed with an abundance of essential oil-bearing trees and plants, but the once-thriving local distillation industry died off decades ago. The distillation of essential oils offers local farmers the chance to make use of plant material that is currently unused or wasted, such as…

Mushrooms!

We’re looking forward to growing some white and blue oyster mushrooms with our friend Marjorie. She is so persistent and has put such good energy into making this happen. We’re looking forward to many good meals enriched with delicious oyster mushrooms. Thank you, Marjorie!

Kwamen Falls

Thank you, Guy and Viv, for this beautiful picture of Kwamen Falls near Black Sand Beach.

Ann!

Ann Narukawa, a fall 2014 intern, came from Japan to learn about top bar hives and sustainable beekeeping. Ann was dedicated to learning and was so motivated, she was an inspiration. Poised, warm, funny and intelligent – Ann quickly won over everyone here at the farm. She worked hard without complaint and was always ready…

Making Soap Again!

(Please click on one of the above photos to see them all magnified!) We finally broke down and started making soap again. It’s so exciting to mix the batches and pour them into the molds, with the smell of the essential oils making the kitchen smell like an herbal paradise. Once the soap is cured, and…

Robins Bay Bee Club’s First Hive Donation

Former Peace Corps Volunteer Ann Bruce, Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Tom Hebert and Yerba Buena Farm collaborated to start this natural beekeeping club in 2012. The training apiary was made possible through a grant from the USAID/Peace Corps Small Project Assistance program. This is the only sustainable top bar beekeeping cub in Jamaica. It has been wonderful…

Trainer Sam Comfort

This is a long-overdue blog post. Trainer Sam Comfort, a top bar beekeeper from America, came to Jamaica in September 2013. We had a month of learning from this really interesting man – Sam has such a unique perspective, it is refreshing and inspirational. If anyone can inspire people to color outside the lines of…