By Michel Outridge

THE Pepperpot Magazine visited Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara, a quaint little village which consists of two streets that run deep down into the backlands and is the ideal place for large-scale poultry farms.

The poultry farms employ locals and the land is fertile, given the bountiful crops in almost every plot.

Small but yet large, Garden of Eden is home to less than 1,000 people of Indo, Afro and Indigenous ancestry, who are cash crops, large-scale poultry and cattle farmers.

The village has vast backlands which meet the water conservancy from where the city gets its water supply and it has abundant fruit trees and vegetables.

Almost every resident has a large-sized plot that allows them to practise farming and horticulture.

Garden of Eden is home to Royal Castle Chicken Inc., the Guyana Power and Light Power Plant, the Guyana Defence Force farm, the Demerara Harbour Bridge Asphalt Company and some small businesses.

On a walkabout, the Pepperpot Magazine met 75-year-old Bissoondial Boopat, who was grazing his cattle.

The senior citizen stated that he has been residing in the community for the past 60 years and for him it is home, because the village is very peaceful and there is no trouble there at all.

He added that he used to rear cattle on a large scale, but today, given his age, he has only five cows and is taking things easy, but still finds things to keep himself occupied.

“Well I like the place; since I come and live here from Bel Air, I get to like it and being a dairy farmer, I get used to this quiet life, and I get big, so I don’t do large scale anymore,” he said.

Life is comfortable, but the only thing is that the two utility poles in front of his house are rotten from the base and he is fearful it may fall and injure him or someone else; he is therefore urging the relevant authorities to replace them with new ones, he said.

Boopat told the Pepperpot Magazine that most days he would walk out his cows and then return them to his property.

He lives in Second Street which is home to many cash-crop farmers and the road which was paved about a year ago is one and a half miles long; the last part leading to the backlands is unpaved and is very muddy.

Second Street also accommodates a new housing scheme with very large houses; the occupants are not from the village but mostly outsiders, who purchased lands and constructed houses there.

The village has electricity, potable water supply, landline telephones and internet services, though residents stated that connectivity is very slow in that area.

Second Street is divided into two sections and in the middle is the canal which runs through the entire street from the Public Road to the backlands.

Most of the bananas and plantains come from Garden of Eden and are sold both within the community and as far as the city.