Jamaican gardeners sowing new seeds - Red maize, cho cho, callaloo, dasheen and eddoe are just a few

Mary Isokariari, Voice Writer

A MASTER gardener whose farming methods have produced tropical vegetables and tubers usually grown in places like Jamaica on British soil is hoping to repeat his success doing the reverse in the Caribbean. Jamaican-born Robbie Samuda, 59, also known as the 'Rockstone Gardener', is involved in a food-growing project at the Harmony Gardens in Tottenham.

The urban oasis is located among the many tower blocks of the Broadwater Farm housing estate - one of Britain's most diverse neighbourhoods, and also notorious for the 1985 riots that broke out there.

Concerns over pesticides and rising food costs have led to a huge surge in the demand for allotments as interest in growing organic produce escalates.

But Samuda has been gardening since his childhood. He would help his grandfather Isaac Watson convert local residential gardens into food growing spaces. Samuda, who has also been featured by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), said: "I got myself an allotment, but my grandfather didn't live long enough to see it, so what he started I continued, and I'm here because of him. I've had it for 30 years and started growing normal things, but after gaining experience, I started experimenting."

Having studied horticulture in 2010 at Enfield's Capel Manor College, a leading education provider for those interested in plants, animals, flowers, trees and the environment, Samuda developed a talent for growing exotic fruits that flourish in the Caribbean. Among his achievements is the 'cho cho' - a green tropical squash-type fruit that has a pear or slightly oval shape and is a good source of vitamin C and amino acids. He also grows root vegetables like cocoyam, dasheen and eddoe, as well as red strawberry corn and white maize, Scotch bonnet peppers, and aloe vera.

"Growing your own produce is not a novelty now, which is why I started to grow broadleaf Jamaican callaloo [a vegetable plant grown and cultivated for its leaves] and Jamaican tomatoes. The stuff is completely different from what you buy in the shops as it's fresh and organic," said Samuda, who holds classes with long-term employed parents and local schoolchildren.

In 2010, he set up a project on Shires Estate in Edmonton to teach local residents about self-sustainability. His future goal is to replicate this in local communities in Jamaica to encourage them to become self-sustainable by using land at their disposable.

He added: "I want to set up a charity called 'Let's Get Jamaica' and ask the High Commission for their assistance to help send back equipment and tools. "I've introduced plants of Jamaica over here and I want to introduce British plants to Jamaica, what they don't have."

In the West Midlands, Eunice McGhie-Belgrave, 79, launched a similar project called Shades of Black in 1989, which is now based at Francis Road Allotments in Birmingham.

She said: "We are now in eight schools and teach 30 kids and their teachers who come down to the site. It's important to have this because a lot of the kids don't know where fresh food originates from - they think it comes from tin cans. So we teach them everything from fermentation, to planting and growing seeds."

McGhie-Belgrave learnt her food growing skills when she was growing up in the Jamaican parish of St James. "A lot of the older generation are interested in gardening, but we need to get the younger people interested, so when we're gone, they can take over." Shades of Black is also working with Ryton Organic Gardens in Coventry to grow exotic produce.