Day 2 in Dominica

Wednesday 19^th, 2011

My second day in Dominica started bright and early Monday morning as I woke up to attend a Faculty Directed Practica (FDP) titled: Small-Scale Fish and Agriculture in Dominica. For each class a student takes there are certain FDPs that professors either recommend or require their students to attend because they are field trips that correspond with the content being taught in class. This particular FDP was for my Geography and Economic Development class. The majority of the morning was spent driving from farm to farm observing the different techniques that they use to grow all different kinds of food and other plants. Since the island of Dominica is a volcanic island, the soil is very rich and fertile, but because there are so many hills the majority of farms are located on the sides of hills. The first farm we went to was very interesting because there was a lot of strategic thought that took place in order for these crops to grow, but I sure didn’t recognize this until the group I was with received further explanation. I could see the distinct rows that had been formed and I could walk in between each row, but each row had a smattering of different plants. The man, a local, had to point to each plant and tell us what it was in order for us to know what was growing. The strategy that I mentioned before takes place in deciding what plants to plant where. Placing certain plants next to each other not only helps to prevent pests, but some plants provide nutrients for the surrounding plants and other take nutrients from the surrounding plants.  Here we saw celery, pineapples, green onions, sweet potatoes, taro, bananas, and more.

Right up the hill from this farm was a building where they make organic compost. This was a very interesting process and if you’d like to know more about just email me and I’ll explain it later. Next, we stopped and talked with a family whose main focus was to preserve natural herbs by growing them on their farm. They also grew many other plants, but what I found most fascinating was when the father of this family told us that he has never been to a doctor in his entire life! The only form of medicine that he has ever received was through the mixture of herbs that his mother made. This was a very cool experience. The last farm we visited was Mrs. Pucket’s pineapple farm. One minor detail that I forgot to add earlier was that during this field trip I realized that I had never seen a wild pineapple in my life. Apparently I had assumed that since coconuts, mangoes, and bananas (all being tropical fruits) grow on trees that pineapples do too! WRONG!!!! They grow from the ground and each plant produces only one pineapple! I’m sure many of you already knew this and are probably making fun of my ignorance, but I was shocked! Another fun fruit that I had never seen before was nutmeg. I’m pretty sure most people don’t know how nutmeg is grown! How about this, if someone can tell me off the top of their head (without using google) how the grounded up version of nutmeg that you find in the grocery store is made, you’ll receive a special gift from me once I get back! Since I get to Manaus, Brazil tomorrow and won’t be able to check my email for a few days, I’ll give you until January 26^th to give me an answer! Good luck!!!