Set on a Hill: Hilltop Farms Hovers Large in North Eleuthera

By Tyrone L. E. Fitzgerald

North Eleuthera has an open secret.

Celebrity sightings are many at Hilltop Farms, an otherworldly dreamscape that is both an animal farm and petting zoo, in Gregory Town, Eleuthera.

Speaking of dreams and fantasies, on any given day, you may find singer, songwriter, guitarist, and “Bahamian son of the soil”, Lenny Kravitz, or his beautiful, multi-talented daughter, actress Zoë Kravitz, trekking up the steep, rocky trail to Hilltop Farms for their week’s supply of organic eggs. And it does not hurt that Hilltop Farms and the Kravitzes are friendly neighbours as well.

Or you may “accidently” bump into Pauletta and Denzel Washington admiring the confident gait of a friendly but flightless emu or extolling the virtues of duck eggs, chicken eggs, and goose eggs as part of a healthy island breakfast of Bahamian fruit, exotic teas, and freshly baked bread.

Originally named, “Red Fork Ranch”, Hilltop Farms started as a personal hobby and “passion project” for then-owner, the late Rudolph Fitzgerald, in 1996.

Starting with a few chickens, ducks, and turkeys, then expanding to include more exotic animals like the Polish chickens, quails, peacocks, and a family of emus, Red Fork Ranch metamorphosized from a small farm which gave out eggs for free to the Gregory Town community, as both a food security mission and neighbourly outreach, to a successful, thriving family-owned business in 2011, known as Hilltop Farms Eleuthera, the brainchild and vision of Rudolph Fitzgerald and his son, Cherokee (named after the many Western films that were Rudolph’s passion).

From 2011, Hilltop Farms has since grown to include poultry farming, egg harvesting, organic fertilizers, Bahamian “bush medicine” (health aids, “sexual enhancers”, other medicinal remedies), and Bahamian beekeeping and honey-making (the expertise and operation of Deandra Fitzgerald, Rudolph’s daughter).

Hilltop Farms also hosts daily tours for local teachers, schoolchildren, and visiting tourists, teaching them about plant and animal care, climate change, and environmental protection, thereby fulfilling its purpose-driven educational mandate which was created and is currently promoted by Rudolph’s wife, Mary Fitzgerald, a former schoolteacher, and the farm’s operations manager.

Described by his son, Cherokee, as an honest, hardworking, and passionate man, Rudolph Fitzgerald was a deeply creative visionary and a natural leader, who, along with his best friend, Philip Bethel Jr., in 1994, explored the entire island of Eleuthera in search of land to create his vision of Hilltop Farms and also finding inspiration for his dream by working with plants and animals with his best friend’s father, Philip Bethel Sr.

The mission of Hilltop Farms has always been one of creating unique educational, environmental, nutritional, and cultural experiences for its clients and visitors, and leaving a sound legacy of hard work, passion, focus, integrity, and a strong sense of community.

Cherokee, his mother, Mary, and sister, Deandra, are intentional and purposeful in continuing Rudolph’s legacy and mission. As a family business, Cherokee notes that Hilltop Farms operates privately without any government assistance or subsidies and faces the same supply chain issues such as a more consistent supply of inexpensive animal feed from government suppliers and a more reliable source of water and electricity, as many farmers on Eleuthera.

Additionally, he believes that more access to Crown land for existing and future farmers is another challenge that needs to be addressed if the country is to continue to encourage farmers to produce more locally grown food for its citizens and create more locally sourced food security programmes, to eliminate an overdependence on foreign import of food supply.

There are many lessons of salt and light that are told through the voices of countless authors and inspired writers of the Gospel throughout history. However, the moral of the city set on a hill in the Book of Matthew is both illuminating and cautionary.

The mountain a hill bears cannot be hidden, which means it can be seen by everyone. Hilltop Farms is that city set high on a hill as a beacon of hope, vision, and the power of a dream.

The fruit of Rudolph Fitzgerald’s labour and the work of his hands have become both blessing and bounty and will continue to be for many who trek that steep, rocky road to an oasis of freedom and passion, in pursuit of discovering the open secret. UA