A senior citizen who is outspoken, witty, industrious, has an indomitable spirit, is at times shy, and always loving. These are the words which aptly describe Ms Delores Elizabeth Chung also fondly known as ‘Linda’. Ms Delores is a lover of nature who became a self-taught farmer over 20 years ago. Her love for agriculture ignited when she discovered her grandfather’s parcel of land of over 200 acres. Luckily for her, the land was vacant and was waiting for her to get started.
Ms Chung’s passion became tangible during our interview as she shared how she felt about the farm. “The soil was beautiful. I loved to experiment with the soil’, she said.
As a young farmer, Ms Chung started her journey producing flowers, after which, she added ‘ground provisions’ and then vegetables. Ms Chung is a natural explorer and a senior scientist of the soil.
Whenever Ms Chung travelled, she returned to Jamaica with different seeds from wherever her travels took her. Her favourites to date are the Fugah and Dunga seeds from China. Holding tight to a threeway tie is the Cucamelon seed from Mexico. Such an exotic farm quickly became a showpiece and over the years, attracted basic schools students who enjoyed regular field trips to the property.
A New Beginning
Tragedy struck in September 2019 when Ms Chung suffered a debilitating stroke which disabled her and hampered the operation of her farm. Instead of giving in to the inconvenience of the stroke, the indomitable Ms Chung became even more resilient and utilized her inner strength which was fueled by her love and passion for farming. Not knowing what it is to quit or let ‘situations’ get her down, within months, Ms Chung returned to her farm.
As a display of her resilience and determination, Ms Chung has relocated to another parcel of land to resume her farming. Additionally, she expanded her original farm and added livestock of broilers, layer birds, ducks and rabbits. Needless to say, she loves every minute of it.
On Eat Jamaican Day 2020, this crafty Senior Citizen presented her wrap that reflects our motto “Out of Many, One People”. Her creative mind used her ingredients to invent the “Out of Many Trees and Plants, One Salad”. The wrap contains a mixture of fruits, vegetables, seeds and ground provision. This salad is tantalizing to the palet and appealing to the eyes. Her wrap consists of cabbage, tomatoes, pineapple, papaya balls, beetroot, onion, pepper. Sweet potato buns caress the side with thinly sliced avocado topped off with chia and sesame seeds.
To the world, on November 25, Ms Chung says, “Happy Eat Jamaican Day” one and all.
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