LimeTree Farm

JAMAICAN BLACKBIRDS found on a birding trip at Lime Tree Farm

admin — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 22:35:19 +0000

A couple of months ago, Bob Orenstein emailed me concerning a birding expedition with a difference. Bob had previously been on a birding tour of Jamaica & had seen all but one of Jamaica’s endemics. The missing link happened to be the Jamaican Blackbird – there are estimated to be about 2,000 of these birds left in the universe! Initially I thought our chances of finding one in the one day that Bob proposed to visit us at about 35%, we do see them on our birding tours but not everytime.
The Blackbird lives in the mid range forests of the Blue Mountains & feeds on bugs from the wild bromiliads that live on the forest trees, the locals call it a Wild Pine Sergeant, a Blackbird does not look too spectacular but trust me when you hear it’s call, a high pitched cry, you can’t fail to feel a little excitement at hearing one of the world’s rarest birds nearby!
Anyway back to the story! Bob had done his homework & discovered that the most often sightings had been reported just below Portland Gap on the trail to Blue Mountain Peak & March was the season for these birds to be vocalizing – we set off at 5am, picked up Ryan Love one of our birding guides & headed for Blue Mountain. We managed, with the aid of our Landrover DFENDER, to drive up Jacobs Ladder(probably the hardest part of any hike to Blue Mountain Peak). At 630am we abandoned the landrover & set off on foot for Portland Gap, within an hour we had heard Blackbirds & soon after had our first sighting – ten minutes later I saw another pair & about half an hour later on our way back down we were lucky enough to have another pair land very close to us for an excellent view, time spent in recon is rarely wasted(I think Wellington said that!). To cap of the morning we had a Crested Quail Dove(another rarely seen Jamaican Endemic)walk out onto the trail in front of us, in the sunlight we were able to get a very clear look at it’s beautiful plumage.
JOB DONE – back to Lime Tree Farm for the best cup of coffee in the world!!

Blog by Charlie

A Big “Thankyou” to our guests at Lime Tree Farm

admin — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:02:26 +0000

Lime Tree Farm was recently awarded a certificate of excellence from Tripadvisor for 2012, we are now rated #1 for specialty lodgings in Jamaica.
All of us here would like to thank the many guests who have posted reviews on Tripadvisor, about 99% of our guests check Tripadvisor before they come to us so this is a big boost to our small business.

Maximum Respect, as they say in JA!

Blog by Charlie

A New Ride for Guests at Lime Tree Farm

admin — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:27:23 +0000

For those of you who have already stayed at Lime Tree Farm one thing you won’t have forgotten is our road – despite years of trying to get Government & Non-Government assistance nobody seems too interested in fixing it.
Due to this we find one of our biggest headaches is keeping our vehicles safe & running.
With this in mind we decided we needed a vehicle capable of taking the everyday punishment & getting our guests to where they wanted to go.
A landrover was the obvious answer but with a new one costing somewhere in the region of 50,000 pounds this was way over our heads.
About 6 months ago we discovered a rather forlorn looking example in the back of an old yard in downtown Kingston, quite honestly Chitty Chitty Bang Bang would have looked a better choice at the time!
After a bit of homework we discovered that the Defender 90 TDI 200 has probably the best engine landrover ever built so we bought it & began to renovate.
The engine was totally stripped & rebuilt along with the Chassis & interior, finally we painted it in it’s original livery & now we have a traditional landrover, which if you love them like me is a thing of extreme beauty!
Now every excursion from Lime Tree Farm will be even more unforgettable!
See You Soon.
Blog by Charlie

The Best 4X4 by Far!

Lime Tree Farm voted 2nd best Coffee Farm in the Blue Mountain Area!

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 14:35:17 +0000

I’m really happy to say that after 24 years of hard work Lime Tree Farm was awarded 2nd place in the Champion coffee farm category at the annual Agrofest Agricultural Show held in Kingston on May 26 2012.
The credit for this must go to my good friend George Ellington AKA “BUSHER” – when I bought this peice of land in 1989 I knew nothing at all about coffee.
I arrived one night in the middle of the Blue Mountains with this dream to grow Blue Mountain Coffee, it really was a dream as I had no clue whatsoever about coffee, in the past I had worked briefly on a sheep farm in Cornwall(just a little bit different)! The next morning the first person from the local village of Lime Tree to approach me was a man who introduced himself as “Busher”, I asked him if he knew anything about coffee farming & he answered “Yeh Mon” – 24 years later I now know that Busher almost always answers “YEH Mon” to everything, an attitude that has kept us working together for so long. Together we cleared the bush & planted about 7,000 coffee plants & started a farm which is now known as Lime Tree Farm.
As they say in Jamaica “MAXIMUM RESPECT” to my friend Busher!

Blog by Charlie

A TASTE of ITALY at LIME TREE FARM!

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:34:51 +0000

After years of delivery failure by Jamaica’s various Pizzerias to Lime Tree Farm we decided to take the matter in hand.
Two very special guests from Chicago Ginny & Jonathan Goldsmith working with our kitchen staff(Suzie) produced some of the best Pizzas ever consumed at Lime Tree Farm.
Jonathan who is the owner of Spacca Napoli Pizzeria,http://www.spaccanapolipizzeria.com gave Suzie a crash course in fresh oven baked Pizza making & the results were delicious.
Now guests at Lime Tree Farm can expect a little Italian/Jamaican fusion cooking along with the best coffee in the world!

Jonathan in the Kitchen!

Canadian Birds a welcome sight during Hurricane Season at Lime Tree Farm!

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:31:27 +0000

We’ve had a couple of visits lately from an unusual type of bird – The Canadian Airforce search & rescue wing have come to Jamaica to assist the Jamaican Defence Force in the event of a hurricane.
Three helicopters & their crews are stationed at Up Park Camp in Kingston & have dropped in for a couple of cups of coffee, I have to say it’s nice to know their here, so far we’ve had a very quiet storm season so lets hope they just come for coffee & aren’t needed on more serious business!

Blog by Charlie

Dropping in for a cup of the finest coffee in the world!

A New Look for our Cottage named Wood

admin — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:47:52 +0000

WE recently added a new roof to one of our Blue Mountain cottages named “wood” at Lime Tree Farm, apart from looking more “Alpine” the new roof keeps the cottage cooler in the hot weather & stops the water soaking through the hurricane proof slab top during wet periods.
With over 1500 screws & bolts we’re hoping this roof can survive a hurricane – lets hope we don’t find out too soon as hurricane season is once more upon us with an estimate of 16 major storms this season in the Caribbean area.
Blog by Charlie

Before improvements

New Roof makes all the difference!

New Birding Site Near Lime Tree Farm

admin — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 13:11:51 +0000

We have recently found a real gem of a birding site on our doorstep – The Old Mine Road is named after a Marble Mine that used to be mined in the 70′s deep in the forest just 15 minutes drive from here. This is the last real pocket of indigenous forest close to us & is an oasis of Blue Mahoe, cedar & other beautiful old trees.
The birding is excellent with many Endemic species spotted including the Crested Quail Dove, Blue Mountain Vireo, Chestnut Bellied Cuckoo & many more, a perfect first days birding for guests who have arrived after a long flight & don’t fancy the longer drives to our other sites on their first day.
This is birding season at it’s height & we’ve had some very successful visits lately so if you thinking of Birding from Lime Tree Farm you can contact me by email, charlie@limetreefarm.com or make a booking on our website, www.limetreefarm.com.

Crested Quail Dove Spotted on a birding trip from Lime Tree Farm

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:26:55 +0000

WE recently had 2 Danish guests visit for a week – Inger Norreskov Jensen & her son Stellen were keen to see Jamaica’s endemic birds. The weather was terrible for this time of year but despite a few wet birding excursions we managed to spot a large proportion of Jamaica’s endemics including the illusive Crested Quail Dove known locally as the Mountain Witch & only found in the Blue Mountains.
For more information on birding from Lime Tree Farm visit or contact me – charlie@limetreefarm.com.

New additions to the Lime Tree Farm Family.

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:02:33 +0000

Last week at daybreak, The inhabitants & guests of Lime Tree Farm were woken early by Alex my son – great excitement after months of discussing with his friends Scilia’s pregnancy(our goat) the time had finally come for her to give birth, after waking the whole community including our guests the Pangos & their 2 children Katherine & Antoine, everybody witnessed the births of 2 tiny ram goats promptly named Smoko & Joshy after Alex’s godfather & cousin!

Apparently it’s extremely lucky for 2 rams to be born together, so they say in LIme Tree Village. Mother & kids are doing fine & our head of security JET LI(Dog) has gone completely mad!!

For more countryside experiences contact me at charlie@limetreefarm.com

BLOG by CHARLIE

Scilia, Smoko & Joshy