I travelled down to my state of origin, though branched to my aunt's place first as I would be spending a few weeks at her place before moving to our hometown for the Christmas and New Year festivals. It was a stressful journey but I was glad to be home again, with my family.
After eating and resting, my aunt took me to her little farm she has been nurturing and taking care of for a year now and was amazed at the little harvest of maize and yam which she had planted for some months. She has been eating fresh maize before harvesting these new ones.
She has always been talking about her farm on the phone and how she has been tending to it and has been helping her with some fresh vegetables to prepare her stew which she doesn't need to spend money on at the market, especially with how the country is with hike in price of items. She's lucky to have this farm to get herself busy with.
The farm was owned by a neighbour who was her tenant. The man who owned it had a family and when he couldn't continue paying the rent which was increased without a reason for it, had to move out leaving the farm for my aunt to take care of and enjoy whatever she got from it.
My aunt told me how she plucks okro and vegetables to prepare her meals. She made a melon soup and vegetables which I was served yesterday after arriving at her place and I was wowed that I ate fresh vegetables from her farm.
She has different corners in the apartment where she plants her vegetables. This is a part of the apartment where she plants tomato and scotch bonnets.
Do you notice the red peppers? That's a scotch bonnet, she has plucked a lot of pepper and needs time for more to grow and harvest again. The previous owner also had rabbit food which he planted and only came around every time to pluck to feed his rabbits.
That was when my aunt was washing the little yam and the leaves by the side were for the rabbits. The leaves were rinsed to remove specks of dirt before taking them away. For the yam, we would be eating it today and I can't wait to enjoy her effort again.
Her only problem now is watering the plants daily because there is no rain. She is getting old and can't do lots of stressful work again and according to her, she always finds it difficult to water the plants every day as she would have to fill in a big bucket of water and carry it on her head. But she has no choice, right? If she must enjoy the farm, she has to do her part, too. It's a sacrifice.
Since I would be spending a few weeks with her, I would help to relieve her of the stress and she would definitely be happy. Also, I can't wait for the pepper to grow again to see how they look. This would also help her to save her money for something else while she gets fresh food for free from her little farm.
All images taken from the farm