Farm Living is the Life For Me!
“The farmer has to be an optimist or he won’t still be a farmer” quote of Will Rogers, a noted homespun philosopher.
In 2020, we took the plunge and bought a finca (farm). Why? Simple, Russ and I thought our warm Puerto Rico climate meant year-round veggies grown at home. We tried to turn our Old San Juan rooftop into a mini garden, complete with five containers of dirt and seeds, (thanks Tony!), but the sun and salt air killed everything. Discouraged? Nah. We just upped our game and decided to to purchase a small farm.
Our specifications were; not too large, no more than forty minutes from Old San Juan, and there had to be a small house. During a dinner with our friends, Ken and Olga, we mentioned our dream. The next day Ken, called, “Hallee, I found your farm on Clasificados. It is located in Caguas. Call the realtor.” I did, and despite a language barrier, we scored a viewing. The farm was wild, overgrown and had a spooky small house. I was ready to leave, but Russ said he wanted to walk the grounds. I said, “I am going to wait in the car.” Jose, the realtor’s husband, suggested walking up the hill. I begrudgingly agreed, grateful for the long pants and gym shoes I chose to wear that day because the weeds were waist high. As I was trudging up, I had a flash, I’m in my 70s, falling would be a disaster. I told Jose I was going to return to the car, as I turned back, I looked up and the view took my breath away. Caguas is located in a valley and it sprawled below the farm which is located 1500 feet above sea level.
Russ wanted to purchase the farm on the spot, but I said “Lets keep looking. This is our first property that we have seen. There has to be something better.” We looked at two other fincas, but they didn’t check our boxes. Not getting any younger, Russ called the realtor and we put in our offer. Of course, there were complications. Moe, the owner, had five adult children, all agreed except one. It took two months to finalize the paperwork. But it was worth it!
Moe, felt responsible for us and wanted to be our mentor. He came over often and even mowed the lawn. He told us that his wife who had passed away was the owner of the farm. She liked to grow Recao, or in English, Cilantro. This is a popular condiment in Puerto Rico used for cooking. However, almost all of the Recoa which was planted in pots was dead. The rest of the farm was overgrown and looked dismal. There were banana, plantain, avocado, lemon, grapefruit, sour oranges, jobo’s, and guava trees all in different stages of demise because of climbing weeds choking them. At the side of the farm there were tall pink, red and white tropical flowers called Torches. Throughout the farm there were different types of tropical flowers that I still do not remember the names of. We had our work cut out for us
Moe realized we were totally clueless in how to care for a farm and he suggested to Russ that he should take agriculture classes. He introduced us to Anna, who taught a zoom class once a week for three hours in Spanish. Russ signed up for the class and every Tuesday at 9:00 am he was seated in front of his computer with a pencil, paper and his phone to help him translate words. This class also had field trips and on one of these excursions we saw Berto, who worked for Anna. When we were leaving Berto, picked up a rama of bananas and placed them in her car with a huge smile on his face. At that moment I knew Berto was going to work for us. Russ asked Anna about Berto and she was happy to give us his number as he only worked part time for her. Thinking he would work for us on his days off, she agreed to share him. However, when Berto came to work for us he no longer wanted to work for Anna. Berto, left her and came to work for us five days a week. Anna, is no longer speaking to us.
Berto, Tony, Russ and I were working the farm. But we really needed more help. Berto realized this and asked if his friend Juan could come to help us.
“Yes! When can he start?” I replied.
Now we had Berto and Juan coming to the farm five days a week. We saw major changes. Berto, is really a magician as a landscape designer. He took it upon himself to remold our mountain. He started with making channels for the water to run off. Juan, liked to cut trees. He set his task in clearing the land of all the dead and dying banana and plantain trees and replanting the living ones. Juan taught me how to replant banana and plantains. He showed me that each tree has hijos (children) surrounding it. The mother tree grows the fruit. When the fruit matures, he cuts down the mother, leaves the largest hijo and removes the remaining hijos to plant in other areas. He waits for a menguante (first quarter) moon to plant the (hijos) semillas (a bulb like seed) . Our farm started to shine.
One day while I was cutting the tropical flowers, I saw a man triming the grass across the street. I asked him if he would like to work for us and he agreed. Harry now comes five days a week in the mornings. Harry asked if his brother Noel, could work for us too. Of course.
We now had four men working our farm. Each man brought with him a skill. Berto, liked to landscape and plant, Juan, liked to take care of the bananas and plantains. He also notice my difficulty in climbing the mountain so he built paso manos (handrails and stairs). Harry, liked to trim the grass and cut down trees, and Noel took care of the chickens and helped where ever anyone needed him.
With all the workers we needed a bathroom and a storage shed. Moe found us a contractor to do this simple job. The original house was built between 1935 and 1940 of reinforced concrete. We decided the farm house needed a better bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, new doors and windows. Russ, got to work redesigning the farm house.
When the addition was completed we started inviting friends to see the changes. Many of our friends came when we first purchased the farm. I am sure they thought we were crazy. Two old people that knew really nothing of farming nor could communicate efficiently with their help. Yet, with Tony, we were able to do fine. Our farm started to resemble a Martha Stewart garden! I even have a rose garden. Martha would be impressed.
I had been busy playing around with seeds in the raised garden area. Nothing seemed to grow. And what did grow was eaten by insects! I did have some success with calabaza (a pumpkin), parcha (passion fruit) and papaya. The seeds of these three plants grow very fast. After opening them up all I need do is throw them in the ground and in about five days the plant sprouts. The calabazas are slow growers, taking about 9-10 months to mature. While they grow, their vines spread everywhere. When I see an orange flower I know that the seed is going to produce a pumpkin. The parchas are vines as well, but they grow up and need to be attached to a fence or wall. The plant gives off a beautiful purple and white flower. Parchas are yellow and sometimes red in color. Then there is the papaya. I was given a papaya tree as a gift. From this one tree I now have over forty. Again, the seeds of the papaya are easy to grow. I just removed them from the papaya, dry them for one day then throw them in dirt and give them a light covering.
I grow okra, too. Okra works the same way with the seeds, just open the pod and plant. Tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, and eggplant also did well. Once again I could reproduce them by using their seeds, but as always many were eaten by bugs. This is why Russ decided to look into changing the focus of the farm to hydroponics.
Russ visited a store in Caguas call Allponics and purchased a small rack system and was successful growing lettuce and bok choy. We had lost our BonaFida designation (farm tax deduction) and decided this was going to be the way back.
We learned about a unique store in Santurce that used to house the Corona Beer factory. The owner of the store gave us a tour, showcasing their hydroponic farming setup. It’s fascinating how farming requires a grasp of chemistry. As we were trying to figure out what to buy I noticed a calling card taped onto their register. The card read ‘Kike Torres, I specialize in hydroponic towers.’ I asked the owners about Kike and they suggested I call. As soon as I returned to the farm I called and he answered on the first ring!
“Hello,” he had the most pleasant happy voice.”Yes, I can help you. In fact, I am near your farm right now. I can stop by within the hour, would that be ok?”
Wow, never in the ten years that we lived here was anyone so accommodating. Sure enough, in the hour Kike was at our door. To describe him, he is an eighty -year old with more energy than anyone I have ever met! A fashionable dresser, he wore a colorful bandana tied around his neck with matching glasses. His car was his office. He drove a Honda and the trunk was fixed to hold shelves of starter plants. On the roof of the car he attached large bags of dirt. He looked at our farm and decided on the spot that he would become the BOK CHOY KING of PUERTO RICO. He had us purchase a vertical tower and we started to plant bok choy, lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. Everything grew! and no Bugs! We were encourage.
Russ contracted with a hydroponic company and we had built in the area of the raised beds an area that housed over 1,800 plants! However, as with everything here nothing comes without problems. When the contractor finished the work, the pipes where the plants are to be placed needed to be sandpapered because the edges were sharp. That took our employees 2 weeks to accomplish. Then the floor that we thought was going to have cement done by the company was not happening and we needed to purchase stones. This is back breaking work, hauling stones in a wheel-barrel up a hill to dump on top of plastic. The plastic is used to stop the growth of weeds, which grow no matter what. Now we needed to purchase the nutrients and learn the correct amount to pour into the cisterns, and then plant the tubes. This is where we are right now in the project. The big question is who do we sell too?