Bermudians don't really like to farm, and agriculture on a large scale has rarely been very popular. Most of the cultivated land is used for Easter lilies and bananas--and potatoes. Ninety per cent of the Colony's food is imported. In the late nineteenth century Bermuda onions, potatoes, celery and tomatoes were frequent luxuries in the New York market. Eventually U.S. tariffs hurt this trade, but it really died out when the southern states, principally Texas, moved in and started growing these vegetables more cheaply than Bermuda could. Perhaps Bermuda's most notable agricultural claim is that the first potatoes ever cultivated in North America were shipped from Bermuda to Virginia in 1621.
Today less than 900 acres are under cultivation, only onethird of the land farmed in 1900. There are some 200 "farm," but they average less than five acres each. Much of the agriculture is done by Portuguese who have come from the Azores, and most of the farming is truck gardening. You can have ripe strawberries in January, tomatoes from the garden in February and corn-on-the-cob for Christmas. In addition to well-known vegetables be sure to try such local triumphs as paw-paws and cristophenes.
When the first settlers arrived the found some wild hogs, whose ancestors were probably left by Portuguese sailors equipped with more foresight than navigational ability. There were no snakes, and except for the pigs, no land mammals. There still are no snakes in Bermuda and not much more in the way of livestock. The cost of importing feed is so high that it is generally cheaper to import meat than feed stock. A few pigs are raised and there are small poultry and dairy industries.
Since Bermuda is fed by the world, housewives often plan their menus just by watching the ships come in. If a Lady boat arrives on her way south from Canada to the West Indies, they can anticipate meat, fresh salmon, Nova Scotian eggs, and apples. But if the Lady boat arrives on her way north, there may be avocados, mangoes and pumpkins in the market. On her weekly trips the Queen brings green vegetables from New York, so during the off-season for Bermuda gardens, vegetables are always fresher early in the week. The arrival of a ship from Australia invariably means a greater variety of inexpensive meat. A rough day in Bermuda will keep the small craft of the fishing fleet in the harbor and there will be no fish the next day.
Showing posts with label Bermuda Water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bermuda Water. Show all posts
Bermuda Water Food Craditions
Bermuda is probably the only tourist resort in the world that honestly likes to see rain. Though surrounded by water it is dependent on rainfall for its water supply. Fortunately it has no "dry season" or "wet season" and is blessed with a more or less even rainfall. Even so nobody wastes water. A leaking faucet is repaired immediately a Bermudian learns from childhood not to take long showers or full tubs.
Every household has its own private water works and monitors its own supply. That the characteristic white roofs, resembling flights of shallow steps, happen to be picturesque and unique is merely an attractive coincidence. The primary reason for a roof anywhere is to cover the house, but in Bermuda its secondary purpose of catching rain is almost as important. The rain water is channeled along the limewashed "terraces" or notched rows on the roof into a subterranean cistern called a "tank," which is as essential a feature of a Bermuda house as a front door. The walls of a house may be pink, blue or yellow, but its roof is always white. A few gold fish or guppies, provided free by the Department of Public Health, are kept in the tank to keep it clear of mosquito larvae. ( Bermuda has few mosquitoes.)
Water can be bought but in time of need it is hard to get and expensive to transport.
At various places you will see a whitewashed hillside or water catchment designed to collect water in somewhat larger quantities. Catchments are made by scraping off the few inches of soil down to the stone and applying a lime wash. Some houses have smaller catches to supplement the water from their roofs.
In one desperate search to find a supplemental water supply Bermudians drilled 1,360 feet into their Islands. The bore showed 360 feet of limestone, 200 feet of decomposed volcanic deposit, then 800 feet of black volcanic rock which apparently kept going right on to the ocean floor, but no fresh water any place.
The man who freed Bermuda from its fear of drought was Harry Watlington, a Bermudian whose prominent ancestors had been coping with the water problem for 300 years. The theory was that even on a remote atoll some fresh water must be held in suspension under the sandstone hills. By drilling wells down into the hillsides and then horizontally in different directions he was able to tap this supply, and for the first time in history Bermuda had fresh water that didn't come from catch- ments. "Watlington Water" is widely used by hotels, guest houses and some private homes for bathing, toilets, and other household uses, but it is not particularly pleasant to drink. Watlington was knighted by the king, and Sir Harry is a latterday hero in Bermuda history. Keats wrote what might have been a fitting inscription for his gravestone: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."
Every household has its own private water works and monitors its own supply. That the characteristic white roofs, resembling flights of shallow steps, happen to be picturesque and unique is merely an attractive coincidence. The primary reason for a roof anywhere is to cover the house, but in Bermuda its secondary purpose of catching rain is almost as important. The rain water is channeled along the limewashed "terraces" or notched rows on the roof into a subterranean cistern called a "tank," which is as essential a feature of a Bermuda house as a front door. The walls of a house may be pink, blue or yellow, but its roof is always white. A few gold fish or guppies, provided free by the Department of Public Health, are kept in the tank to keep it clear of mosquito larvae. ( Bermuda has few mosquitoes.)
Water can be bought but in time of need it is hard to get and expensive to transport.
At various places you will see a whitewashed hillside or water catchment designed to collect water in somewhat larger quantities. Catchments are made by scraping off the few inches of soil down to the stone and applying a lime wash. Some houses have smaller catches to supplement the water from their roofs.
In one desperate search to find a supplemental water supply Bermudians drilled 1,360 feet into their Islands. The bore showed 360 feet of limestone, 200 feet of decomposed volcanic deposit, then 800 feet of black volcanic rock which apparently kept going right on to the ocean floor, but no fresh water any place.
The man who freed Bermuda from its fear of drought was Harry Watlington, a Bermudian whose prominent ancestors had been coping with the water problem for 300 years. The theory was that even on a remote atoll some fresh water must be held in suspension under the sandstone hills. By drilling wells down into the hillsides and then horizontally in different directions he was able to tap this supply, and for the first time in history Bermuda had fresh water that didn't come from catch- ments. "Watlington Water" is widely used by hotels, guest houses and some private homes for bathing, toilets, and other household uses, but it is not particularly pleasant to drink. Watlington was knighted by the king, and Sir Harry is a latterday hero in Bermuda history. Keats wrote what might have been a fitting inscription for his gravestone: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."
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