Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer
Leroy Dela Haye shows off exotic vegetables from his farm in Bushy Park, St. Catherine. - PHOTO BY RASBERT TURNER
SPANISH TOWN, St. Catherine:
FIFTY-FOUR-YEAR-old Leroy Dela Haye is a farmer with a difference.
Instead of the usual vegetables, he cultivates Chinese squash, a multi-coloured variety of callaloo, raddish, hairy melon, onions, winter melon, grape and pear, tomatoes, chinese okra, egg plant and other exotic vegetables on 10 acres of land in Bushy Park, St. Catherine.
"I could be planting the normal everyday cabbage, carrots and yam, but I realised that the market is flooded with those products. So I choose something different."
These he sells on the local market to customers whom he said "want something different."
He told Farmers Weekly that he was enjoying the fruits of his labour, which started entirely out of curiosity. "I was a farm mechanic and since I work on the machinery I had to come in to check and see how they operate on the farm. I got caught up 15 years ago and have not looked back since."
Mr. Dela Haye said he will continue tilling the soil and make an impact on farming in Jamaica.
He said he currently employs three persons who assist him in the day-to-day running of the farm.
