LimeTree Farm

Yallus River Trail Re-Conquered by Team From Lime Tree Farm!

admin — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:40:16 +0000

For many years I've wanted to find & hike the Yallus River Trail, this trail runs from below Hagley Gap high in the Blue Mountains to the town ofYallus on the south coast of Jamaica, it was constructed sometime around the 1950's as a donkey road to get coffee upriver to Mavis Bank Factory & produce from farms in the valley downstream to the coast & on to Kingston market, the trail may have been constructed in the 50's but these paths & trails were been used long before by Nanny & the Maroons(1700's) to evade the British Redcoats & wage a successful Guerrilla war which ended in a truce & autonomy for the Maroons.

Accompanied by a fellow adventurer & return Guest to LIme Tree Farm, Harry Monk, we set off at about 11am for what we thought would be a reasonably easy 5-10 mile hike upriver to Magans Coffee Farm. Undetterred by all local advice - "nobody been that way for years" - "road bush up bad" we found the trail & started moving up stream very slowly because,"road bush up bad" & nobody had been this way for years"!

After 5 hours we had only moved a couple of miles & started to realize that we would be lucky to reach before nightfall, going back was not an option, so we fought on against thorn bush & heavy grass alike( the views from 500-1000ft above the gorge were spectacular) - darkness started to descend - no cell phone reception - we had visions of a search party plunging 1000ft into the abyss as clearly they must if they came looking for us in the dark. Just as we had accepted defeat & started to contemplate a night huddled together in the bush we stepped out of a heavy thorn bush onto a well cleared farm road & a mile later arrived at Magans Farm in moonlit darkness.

The Yallus River Trail was one of the hardest hikes I've ever attempted(leg cramps for day afterwoods!). There was something strangely satisfying about rediscovering a trail which had been reclaimed by the bush & walking in the footprints of history. Harry Monk I salute you & look forward to your next visit & mission into the unknown!

For adventures & hikes in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica checkout Lime Tree Farm.

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New Coffee Season begins at Lime Tree Farm!

admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:21:50 +0000

The 08/09 coffee picking season began this week for Lime Tree Farm when the first box of coffee was picked by myself & farm manager Busher, the coffee was then sold to Mavis Bank Coffee factory who export it under the Jablum label.

After last years disappointing crop(250 boxes), due to Hurricane Dean hitting us in Sep 2007, the 08/09 crop is looking good we did sustain some damage from Huricane Gustav but the winds were not as terrible as Dean so the bulk of the crop survived.

We still have a month left of this hurricane season but farmers in the Blue Mountains are hopefull that we have received this years disaster already & will be spared further hardship. If all goes well Lime Tree Farm should be looking at a 1000 plus box reaping which will be more than welcome!

We are planning to acquire a pulper, huller & vacuum packer so that we can process some of our own coffee & sell to guests at Lime Tree Farm. More about this early next year.

Blog by Charlie

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Hurricane Season brings Hardship to the Blue Mountains

admin — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:39:37 +0000

Two weeks after "Tropical Storm GuStav" passed through the Blue Mountains we are still reeling from its effects, here at Lime Tree Farm & all over the Blue Mountains we are still cut off from the outside world with our roads blocked & no electricity, thankfully we have not been hit by 3 hurricanes in a row like Haiti & Cuba but we have felt the combined effects of these storms with constant rain for the past 3 weeks. 4 people lost their lives during Gustav in Gordon Town - the gateway to the Blue Mountains & our thoughts go out to their families.

We would like to send a message of regret out to our brethren in Haiti & Cuba who have suffered miserably with considerable loss of life - when will the worlds super powers realize that"Global Warming" is causing considerable damage & hardship to some of the poorer people on this planet & make some serious commitments to at least slow it down?

Blog by Charlie

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Hurricane Gustav Hits Jamaica

admin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:51:03 +0000

Just when we thought Jamaica had escaped Hurricane Gustav it turned back in Haiti to bite us on the bum. Sadly the hurricane tore off our own house roof and has lashed our Blue Mountain Coffee crop but thankfully so far no fatalities reported by our neighbours.

The worst thing is our road which appears to have been washed away. Hopefully the road has suffered less of a slide further down the mountain, then it would be affecting food crops too, but we'll be out there soon getting this repaired though so don't despair about not being able to get to Lime Tree Farm for your holiday! Just keep your fingers crossed for us, there is another storm building down by Barbados.

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ZULU - A SAD WEEK at LIME TREE FARM.

admin — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:44:32 +0000

This is a difficult blog for me to write but ZULU our 120lb mastiff was well loved by many visitors & friends to LIME TREE FARM.

ZULU died last week, a victim of circumstances beyond his control. In recent weeks livestock in our area have suffered attacks from a pack of dogs from outside of our community, in total about 7 Goats have been killed & a few more injured. As you can imagine this upset the owners greatly & many people set poison for the dogs - this may sound drastic but as a farmer I understand how important your livestock becomes to you, anyway to cut a long story short ZULU ate some poison & that was that.

Dog owners will understand how attached you can become to a dog , ZULU was one of our family & well loved he will be greatly missed & well remembered by our guests at Lime Tree Farm for his friendly early morning wake up calls & gentle nature.

Blog by Charlie

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Mountain Whitch sighted at Hollywell on a Excursion from Lime Tree Farm

admin — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:19:02 +0000

Jamaican birdwatching in the summertime is not quite up to the proliferation of Birds that are sighted in the spring, nevertheless, Doctorbirds(Red billed streamertails )are everywhere. In the early morning the cries of flocks of Yellow Billed parrots "going bush" to feed can be heard from LIme Tree Farm, as they return in the evening with full bellies they are even louder & can't be missed.

On a recent excursion to Hollywell National Park from Lime Tree Farm with some guests we spotted a "Mountain Whitch" - Crested Quail Dove. This bird with it's strange dancing walk is endemic to Jamaica & not seen everyday.

Blog by Charlie

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We’re in the Guardian - Caribbean Green!

admin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:59:47 +0000

Today Lime Tree Farm was the first resort featured in The Guardian's article about Green Jamaica. Written by Lesley Thomas who recently visited us with her young daughter, we thought you may like a quick snapshot of what she liked about her short stay with us at Lime Tree Farm.

"Heart-stopping views of the mountains and a shining example of the responsible attitude to tourism"

At Lime Tree Farm I ate some of the best home-style Jamaican food I have ever tasted: traditional breakfasts of breadfruit and fresh ackee - which you can only get in tins in the UK - spicy callaloo soup, fried fresh fish and desserts of mango or faultless, sticky coconut macaroons."

Do read the Caribbean Green article in full it's very interesting and gives a little more background to those considering a holiday in Jamaica., namely why the first 492 Windward migrants to the UK were so disappointed by the reception which they were greeted with in the UK - as Lesley states Jamaicans are hard-wired to embrace others!

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Cinchona Botannical Gardens

admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:35:44 +0000

We visited Cinchona last week with 2 guests from the UK - Ian & Ann Holmes, Ian has been working in the Caribbean with Erricson & his wife Ann had flown out to join him for a couple of weeks. It was a beautiful Sunday with plenty of sunshine & clear views of Port Royal & the South Coast of Jamaica.

Credit must be given to the gardeners at Cinchona, Stamp, Albert & "Broke Up" for maintaining the gardens, sadly the house & outbuildings are in a poor state & the much anticipated restoration has still not commenced 6 months after a grant was given by the Jamaica Tourist Board. "Broke Up" gave us a tour of this exceptional garden in full bloom, orchids & lillies combining together to keep us company as we ate another perfect picnic lunch provided by Suzie. Ann Holmes wrote in our visitors book:- Fantastic location, very friendly "feel" - lovely food, we hope to return.

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Blue Mountain Hiking

admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:33:35 +0000

We recently had some guests from ST Anns Bay on the north coast of Jamaica, Mica had planned a surprise birthday treat for he boyfriend Kevin which included a hike to the very top of Jamaica - Blue Mountain Peak.

An early start was made(4AM!) & it was a beautiful morning, we met a Swiss & a French couple at the start of the trail which gave a real feel of international cooporation to the expedition. Mica got off to a slow start, having some trouble with her right calf muscle, but being a real trooper she was determined to reach the summit, we reached the peak in a respectable 3 hours - Mica & Kevin were ecstatic.

The peak itself was bathed in sunlight but unfortunately all around swirled thick cloud & the Island was totally obscured. Undeterred we ate our picnic lunch expertly prepared by Suzie & soaked up the warm rays of the morning sun.As usual on our descent we stopped at our good friend & fellow highlander Jah B for probably the best cup of coffee in the universe!

Blue Mountain Peak by Ptinico

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Maximum Respect Janet & Gordon!

admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:06:03 +0000

When I arrived in Lime Tree nearly 20 years ago I was welcomed into the community, since it has become very much a part of Lime Tree Farm - our guides are local & know the terrain like only local people could, our help is all local, & I would like to believe that as our small guest house becomes more popular this will benefit the local community.

We support our 2 local schools with profits from our bar, but the truth is many of our guests leave considerable donations which amount to far more than our bar could ever raise - to all our former guests who've made donations, the people of Lime Tree & Tower Hill salute you!

A special mention needs to be made to Janet & Gordon Ellis who visited us in February from Notts, UK. A little while after they visited a cheque for 250USD was received from them, I used this donation to buy a series of early learning books for the 15 children at Tower Hill Basic School(Nursery) - these books cost about 500 Ja dollars each & each child has 4 covering, early maths spelling etc. Just to give you some idea of local economics, the average daily pay up here is about 800 Ja dollars so as you can imagine it's very hard for parents to find the money to buy books for their kids.

MAXIMUM RESPECT TO JANET & GORDON

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