Who would have told that with moving to Faial I would become a manger turned into a farmer? Even though most of the land belonging to our house is leased out to a banana producer, we still have almost 1000m2 of garden and banana plants which need to be maintained. Due to the humid warm climate and the fertile volcanic soil everything grows at an incredible speed, crops and weeds equally. When visiting in November and January it was great stepping out into the back yard and picking some fresh oranges for your breakfast juice. Now being permanently here, it means that you must invest quite some time in keeping the greens at a check to avoid ending up quickly with a jungle. Banana in principle grows without too much need for care, but what do you do if you are looking ahead of harvesting soon a couple of hundred kilos of them? Leaving them to rot is not really a solution, soon you will be faced with an increasing number of rat colonies feeding happily on them. For the garden part, you can leave it to its faith, but within weeks it will be overgrown by all kind of weeds and the occasional potato, yam or other vegetable left from previous harvests. In conclusion, one must take things in hand and start working the fields. Last week the postman delivered my registration card as vegetable and tropical fruit producer. This will allow me in the future to sell some of the excess products on the local market. Luckily there was no big administration in getting it, I just had to apply at the local office of the agricultural ministry, no need to prove that I am actually capable of being a farmer. In the past, I was not particularly known for having a green thumb, it took me years to grow a halfway acceptable lawn. Honestly speaking, I have more experience managing a company than tending plants. Now it is time to experiment, learning by doing is not so difficult here. You just sow something, and a couple of days later green sprouts come out of the earth. So far, experiments are ongoing with potatoes, radish and carrots. As for banana, YouTube is a big help, as there are full scale industrial banana growing tutorials available. I still must find out how to properly cut the bunches from the stem to avoid premature and uneven ripening. Once solved, I will be able to rent a stall at Horta’s municipal market and sell them together with the first batch of potato. And the manager turned into a subsistence farmer.
