Above: The hotel juice bar uses more than 50 per cent farm fresh greens grown
on-site while between 15 to 30 per cent of the Rockhouse’s two restaurants food
supply is derived directly from the farm. Right: The farm cultivates between 12 to
20 crops including cilantro, thyme, mint, basil, dill, and oregano, as well as calaloo,
Scotch bonnet peppers, arugula, and lettuce. Bottom: The farm is irrigated through
a network of drip headers fed from 13 thousand-gallon, UV-treated rain drums.
“
JAMAICA LACKS THE SAME ACCESS TO COMMERCIALLY
MANUFACTURED AMENDMENTS, SUPPLEMENTS, LIQUID
FERTILIZERS, AND OTHER PLANT PRODUCTS THAT NORTH
AMERICAN FARMERS AND GROWERS TAKE FOR GRANTED.”
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The farm is across the street from the main hotel and restaurant prop-
erty, and occupies roughly one-third of an acre. It is built upon the prin-
ciple of organic raised beds and planter boxes, which are thoroughly irri-
gated in the hot Jamaican sun via pressure compensating drip tape. Drip
tape is commonly found on small to midsize fruit and vegetable farms,
and is a great water saving approach to irrigation. The farm’s crops are
utilized in both the hotel’s restaurants, and at any given time the farm
cultivates between 12 to 20 crops depending on the time of year and crop
succession plan. Main crops include common culinary herbs like cilantro,
thyme, mint, basil, dill, and oregano, as well as calaloo (a spinach-type
relative of the invasive pig weed farmers deal with in North America),
Scotch bonnet peppers, arugula, and lettuce.
Bolly enthusiastically describes the farm as “only natural Ital, and all
organic,” referring to traditional Jamaican cuisine, and proudly goes into
detail describing the formation of the original wooden planter boxes and
subsequent future raised beds. The original planter boxes provided a
framework to explore growing basic crops like herbs and leafy greens,
while giving the growers a palette for experimenting with soil and
compost fertility inputs. In a span of just over two years, Bolly and his crew
have expanded to employ more than 40 raised beds, growing a wide array
of food and medicinal crops. With severely rocky ground, a large initial
load of topsoil had to be trucked in to establish the first crops. The ground
was manually leveled and evened out with picks and shovels, with the
spent rocks and boulders used to construct the raised beds. On average,
the beds are about 15 inches high, four feet wide, and 25 feet long.
The farm is intelligently irrigated through a network of drip headers fed
from 13 thousand-gallon, UV-treated rain drums. The drums are propped
up roughly 10 feet above the level of the garden beds to negate the need
for a pump in the garden area by feeding water or nutrient solution
through gravity. The property was designed to maximize collection and
storage of rain water to minimize its footprint on the environment while
remaining profitable. All additional rainwater from the rest of the hotel’s
property is collected in a main underground reservoir and periodically
pumped to the farm every month. The sustainable approach to water
preservation and irrigation was diligently planned from the start.