Fay with Chef Randy
Treasure Beach, Jamaica – Many people spend their lives in Jamaica and never travel far from their parish, that’s why it was such a pleasure for us to spend two weeks traveling around the island discovering the special things that each parish has to offer. My husband’s family originally hails from north St. Elizabeth so it’s a parish close to our hearts. However, neither Angela nor I had spent time in south St. Elizabeth before so we were excited to go on a Jamaican farm tour to learn more about this part of the island … especially because we’d been hearing a lot about the wonderful things happening in Treasure Beach.
Mr. Dull’s with a bowl organic fruit
We made plans to stay at Jakes Hotel, which is truly the heart of the tourist experience in Treasure Beach. Jakes is the love child of Jason Henzell and his mother, Sally, who have turned it into a quiet destination with a commitment to uplifting the entire community. Click here for our interview with Jason, who answers the question: What is community tourism?
In simple terms community tourism is a commitment to having a everyone living the a community benefit from tourism not just a select few. To that end, Jason continues to spearhead initiatives such as the new community sports centre that boasts a football field, basketball and tennis course. The sports centre is now the hub of the Treasure Beach community and we made sure to join the locals on Saturday night to enjoy the football festivities.
Beet, carrot and arugula salad
Another way Jakes shares the wealth is by purchasing all their produce from farmers in Pedro Plains, the local farming community. Once a month they also host a full moon farm to table dinner at Dull’s Farm, a local organic farm. Since we wouldn’t be there for the dinner that month we jumped at the chance to do a farm tour with Jake’s chef Randy.
The Jamaican farm tour video below is about 5 minutes and was shot on location in Treasure Beach’s Pedro Plains farming community. Make sure to watch to the end to see the easy recipe Chef Randy made with the delicious bounty from our Jamaican farm tour.
