Bitter Lemonade to Fine Wine

Back in 1991 I returned to Mississippi after a 3 year stint in the Caribbean. I was a peace corps volunteer on the island of Grenada. During that time I spent time on most of the islands in the eastern Caribbean conducting educational seminars for small scale farmers about growing non traditional crops. The agency that I worked for offered ideas to farmers who weren’t making it in the highly competitive world of bananas in that region. Together we developed varieties of papaya, Carambola (star fruit), and passion fruit that would be suitable for shipping. Suitable for shipping meant smaller fruit than what grows wild, tougher rinds so they would show up on the European markets cosmetically nice and at a price that the farmers could make some money and the fruit could still be sold at a wholesale level that would work. Once we developed those fruits with those characteristics after 2 years of working in the fields it was time for us to begin introducing the idea of trying something new. The selling point was easy, farmers could grow on smaller plots of land with way less laborious efforts than growing and harvesting Bananas for a much faster and larger profit. We had great success getting some brave farmers to begin the research and development phase of our program at no cost to them with all the profits flowing in their direction until they were able to take it on their own which was after the first crop was harvested for all of them. We had Carambola being processed for Hi-C company in Guyana.

There are hundreds of canals throughout the countries jungles that allowed the farmers to transport their thin rind fruits to Georgetown where it was being processed for the sweet fruity drink that we all grew up with. A large amount  of the fruit was ruined by the time it floated down those hot canals and had to be discarded upon arrival. We spent a month in Guyana developing a floating processing deck. The deck would make regular stops along the way so that farmers from deep in the interior of the jungle country could safely send their harvest to the capital with 0 waste. By the time these slow moving platforms would make it to Georgetown the fruit had been separated from it rind and seeds and was a juice that was ready to be unloaded into their vats and mixed the ingredients that would get them further up the chain until it reached its final destination in our grocery stores. On Dominica there was enough altitude to grow some fantastic passion fruit crops which are grown grape orchard style. The purple passion fruit doesn’t grow as well at sea level so we found some of the higher ground that we could and convinced some of those land owners in Dominica to give it a try. I set up camp there for a while conducting trading seminars on cultivation and trellising this lucrative crop. Passion fruit is served in most of the hotels restaurants in the islands, used for making juices and coveted in the European markets. Slowly but surely some small and large scale farmers committed some of their land to the cultivation and marketing of passion fruit. We had great success with that project and to my knowledge passion fruit on that island is now not thought nor as a non traditional crop, mission accomplished.

My biggest focus was getting our newly developed papaya in as many fields as possible. I knew it was going to be a big hit and I knew it was going to change some lives for generations to come. It didn’t take long for the word to get out on Grenada that we had developed the perfect size and density papaya for shipping to Holland and the deal had been struck for transportation of the fruit. We lined up processing sheds all over the island where the fruit could be delivered, cleaned, graded with a nice little sticker and put into nice boxes that protected them during shipping. We had regular scheduled days that the boxes would get picked up and delivered to the airport. We had a certain amount of space on hold for our fruit in the baggage area on all American airline flights headed to Holland. We were shipping tons of fruit every week and the farmers were getting paid for it to the point that they were working independently from their own profits. After our success on Grenada we used that template for 6 other islands down there. Each of them were getting on their feet by the time it was time for me to come home. I slowly weened off from being there for every step of the process until it became evident that they had it, that was the true test for me. I wanted to have trained them and their families well enough that they wouldn’t have lean on anyone for assistance. The farmers were very proud and had a great distrust for the government. When the day came that they didn’t need anything more from the agency I was working for or from the government I declared success and slowly started packing my bags.

During that 3 years I had a lot of time to think about my future. I had some pretty cool job opportunities down in that region. The climate offered perfect conditions for insectaries sites to be built. Insectaries are used throughout the world for obtaining biological controls for agricultural crops. Farmers everywhere are waking up to the benefits of suppressing pest populations using living organisms instead of the chemicals that do a lot of damage to the land they are farming on. Natural enemies of insects play an important role in limiting the densities of potential pests. The natural enemies include predators, parasitoids and pathogens. I was offered a position to develop lab-like facilities that would focus on the production of beneficial insects that could be shipped worldwide while the predators were at a stage that they could be safely shipped great distances, usually still in the egg stage so they could hatch in the fields they were headed for. That was a very tempting offer and something I would love to sink my teeth into. I was about to interview with Rodale Institute after they approached me for the organic farming methods I had used in the Caribbean while working with the farming Rastafarian community. Everything had to be strictly organically produced for the Rastas due to their healthy lifestyles and their religious beliefs. Organically farming in a tropical setting is very challenging with the constant warm temperatures and pests coming at you from every angle. They taught me a lot and we learned a lot together through trial and error.

After we got into the groove of it we discovered that our greatest asset in fighting pests was consistency in our methods (really the answer to just about anything in life) and patience ( the other virtue that always wins). It takes time for organic methods to fit into a farmers life and to begin showing the benefits reaped for letting life take back over and allowing natural defenses to be built back up. Getting the Rasta community to show up at my seminars ( I actually had to build a nursery, plant thousands of papaya seeds,while showing up regularly to offer education to prove to them that I was serious and to gain their trust) and later to convince them to give up 1/4 acre plots of their precious land was my biggest challenge I’ve ever experienced. I made friends with the right leaders of the Rasta community and the rest fell into place. I knew they were going to be my best and most intense farmers in the program so I focused hard on the success of these crops. Luckily our crops were absolutely what we were hoping they would be and more since we also found a market for the cover crops we used for weed and insect control. We used Scotch Bonnet peppers with their low, 5 foot wide wing span to shade the ground underneath the Papaya trees, shady enough that we needed less water for the trees, had very few weeds and the peppers were so hot that they ran off most of the insects trying to cause problems by carrying and passing on some diseases that otherwise would have devastated the crops. The reports that I wrote about our shenanigans in these fields were picked up by The Rodale Institute. I was very tempted to become an inspector for them to declare certified organic farms as ones that had met the very strict guidelines to be able to fit the criteria  of a certified organic production facility in America.

I had a way bigger temptation that was pulling me homeward, bigger than any of those offers. I missed Mimi more than I wanted to flush out those offers. We had been keeping in touch through letter writing the whole time I was gone. We became closer than ever through our correspondence with each other. We wrote to each other about our successes and failures and adventures that we continued on while living 100’s of miles apart. We both love writing letters especially to each other but also for just about any occasion. Hand written letters have a magic about them that can’t be experienced through an E-mail or a text. Letters are a  great way to thank someone, apologize for a gaff, profess your love or just to remind someone that you are thinking about them, magic that lasts. I will always be a letter writer.

I was ready to see Mimi and I had been in talks with my parents about our family business and how I could fit in to their wonderful business they had created over their lifetime. We had decided that with my experience that I would come home and join the family business by building a greenhouse facility that would allow us to produce our own annuals, perrenials and herbs. I would be the grower for the next 15 years while waiting on my parents to sell the business to me and Mimi. We had a lot to learn about the business end of our families  conglomerate that they, along with my sisters and husbands had created. We were all patient with this process while our roles unfolded. My first move was to work as an apprentice for the best grower we knew of who happened to be in Gulfport, Mississippi. I spent one year gleaning everything I could so I could begin buying and building greenhouses so we could be in control of our flower destinies. Mimi was finishing up with her last year of college at the College Of The Ozarks so we both kinda needed this year apart before we got our hooks into each other for life. During that year I rented a house in Long Beach and rode my bike to work in Gulfport . I mostly worked as a grower which means long and fascinating hours and days, there is an endless supply of learning in that world that I still love to this day. That year went fast. I was on the coast in 1991, pre Katrina, the coastal life was fun and had a pace similar to the one I had grown accustomed to in Grenada. The vibe down there was very relaxed but at the same time it just never really grabbed me, I couldn’t stop thinking that it just looked like they never really recovered or completely got cleaned up after Camille in 1969. The presence of casinos didn’t help with that vibe much for me, I scooted on out of there for familiar territory and to start building my yellow brick road towards my Mimi.

Having said all of that, Mimi and I returned from a quick visit of the coast yesterday,. We spent 3 days with some friends down there who know their way around there. We couldn’t get over how in a quick and easy 3 hour drive we were in another world. With the BP money and Katrina money and investors and people who care so much about the Mississippi coast the coast is truly a treasure for this state. Each little town along the coastline has it’s own personality with great restaurants and places to visit. We went to the Walter Anderson store (bought some gifts), a wonderful farmers market Saturday morning (bought some pies and treats for my sweet tooth) boated out to ship island (watched so many dolphins feeding I lost count)and had a sunset cruise on some gorgeous waters. We saw where they are building new reefs for a healthy oyster population, more progress was being made for the already thriving restaurant industry through buildings going up under very strict guidelines. Those guidelines have everything looking neat and uniform which gives it a very clean look. The beaches looked great, not crowded at all, and the businesses were lively with locals and tourists coming and going. I saw jet ski rentals, offshore fishing tours were easily obtainable and the roads were in wonderful shape with traffic moving easily along. I can honestly say we ate one of the finest meals I’ve experienced at a restaurant called White Pillar in Biloxi. The good news is that the chef and owner was standing by the door thanking us, told us that they are finishing with their second location offering a different menu opening before November.  It was hard for me to get my bearings because it looked and felt like a totally different place than pre-Katrina. We loved our time down there and have plans to go back to hopefully take in the aquarium and the George Ohr museum  and the Walter Anderson Museum and of course, some more boating in our beautiful gulf.

If you haven’t made any time to visit our coast for a bit more relaxed and quiet experience than the Alabama and Florida beaches (which we also love) you should give it a whirl , I believe you will be surprised at what our coast has developed into through some very forward thinking folks with some well spent money from some of the disasters that have occurred. The folks on the Mississippi coast have turned some very bitter lemonade into a fine wine.