God helps him who helps himself

THE EDITOR: Necessity is upon me to write. Topic: The high cost of food in our country. Dasheen $8 a lb, sweet potatoes $6, chive $3, celery $2, carrots $6 a bag and Mr Lettuce $6 and $8 a head. There’s no sense in our just crying over the cost of food. What can we do about it? I remember thirty-eight years meeting a 98 year-old woman in the Blanchisseuse area who found that her food bill was too high, and she did something about it. On visiting her, the twelve steps leading up to her porch were filled with a variety of large plastic containers leaving just enough space for visitors to venture up. Each container filled with edibles for her kitchen.

On reaching the porch I was greeted by two large half oil drums with the largest lettuce and patchoi I had ever seen. Seeing my amazement, she chuckled. “I can eat these, I can’t eat flowers. With the cost of food I can’t just sit back”. Today she is no more, but I haven’t forgotten her words. My suggestion to you readers, poor people like myself who live in a concrete jungle, do something, get some apple crates, get some salt meat buckets, get some manure and soil. Start small, when you buy chive cut the bottom off, plant it, shadow beni too.

I bought pimentos and tomatoes put the seeds to dry. I have pimentos and tomatoes too. Just seasoning my chicken and fish with what I have grown makes me feel good. If you have soil in your yard and around the house even better, plant a fig tree, plantain, dasheen, ochroes, try bodi, sweet peppers, paw-paw too. Your kids might even enjoy the assignment of watering them before going to school. You might even go to the bank smiling. Come on people, God help those who help themselves and we are not 98 years old. So instead of crying start planting.

P NILES-REYES
Belmont