BACKYARD FARMING In The Bahamas By Khashan Poitier Photographs courtesy of Khashan Poitier, Don Poitier and Gail Smith
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ith the uncertainly of a global pandemic looming, many Bahamians, like others around the world, took to gardening as a way to resist boredom, make the most of being shut-in and prepare for a possible food shortage. If we’ve learned anything from apocalyptic films and television shows, we know that food security is a real concern at the end of the world. Hunting and farming quickly become a required skill for survival. Not a fan of zombie movies? Yeah, me neither, but at the beginning of this pandemic, if you spent as much time as I did on social media, you’d become a conspiracy theorist too. So, to keep our sanity and to lessen our trips to Club Corona, otherwise known as the grocery store, our family made a vow to start a garden. Collectively, we’d reached the end of Netflix and I needed a positive distraction. I grabbed a gardening set—a wedding gift I’d never opened—and bought a raised bed that fit perfectly in my small backyard. My brother and his family started a garden within a 10-by-10-foot space; they grew bell peppers, beets, red leaf lettuce, potatoes and okra. For Ray-Don Poitier and his wife, growing their own food made sense given the fear that COVID-19 might bring a food shortage. “We always figured that there could be a food shortage, and for healthy eating, it made sense that now that we have to stay indoors it would be beneficial to grow our food and we knew where the food came from,” Poitier said. Beets
Backyard Garden He used natural remedies for pests, rather than manufactured pesticides. He harvested all that he planted, except for the potatoes. Although that plant looked promising, when he dug into the earth there were no potatoes underneath. For Poitier and his two-year-old son, connecting with nature was the most rewarding aspect of having a home garden. He said, “He loves it—getting your hands dirty and getting your clothes dirty, digging in the ground. People tend to wear gloves but I take the gloves off because I wanted to feel the dirt. I just wanted to be close to nature.” Poitier said that of all the vegetables they harvested, the only unsuccessful harvest was the potatoes. “We got excited when we saw the shoot came up and we thought, ‘This is great!’ Then, all of a sudden, the shoot died and we couldn’t figure out why, and when we dug up the dirt, there were no potatoes in there,” he said, adding that they’re not discouraged, but instead eager to try again. Due to his love of gardening, Poitier has joined a farmer’s co-op group which strives for a self-sustaining Bahamas and teaches Bahamians how easy and cost-efficient it is to have a backyard farm. “Anyone concerned about food security or recycling, you can replant most of the things that we eat and buy from the store. You can replant those and grow more food. Instead of you spending that money at the store for a one-time [purchase], a lot of those veggies—like cucumber, bell pepper and tomatoes—can re-grow,” he said. Following his lead, I started a modest garden in a partly sunny area in my yard. After a bit of research, I decided that a small raised bed and a few pots would be the best way to garden. I started with tomato slices and bell pepper seeds, planting them in small compostable pots. As they sprouted, so did my
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