By Michel Outridge

THE Semple family are no strangers to hard ‘back-breaking’ physical labour on any given day. Its members are large-scale farmers who do the work on their farm, themselves.

The family has a five-acre plot of farmland behind the village which is about three miles from their home, and they would make that journey by foot daily.

Andrew Semple, head of the household, told the Pepperpot Magazine that he would bring out buckets and tubs filled with tomatoes and other produce from the farm on his head and shoulders.

This happens when they harvest as they did recently, a healthy crop of tomatoes, which were sold to a wholesale buyer from Bath Village for a mere $80 per pound.

The tomatoes are often re-sold at Bath Market for a much higher price, so instances such as these leave the Semples without a profit.

Yvette Semple, who works beside her husband, stated that they have no choice when it comes to wholesale buyers, because she tried to sell their produce at the Rosignol Market and business is very slow.

“We don’t have any other option but to sell off our produce to wholesalers, who set their prices and we have to accept it or get nothing for our perishables,” she said.

When the Pepperpot Magazine visited this family, Yvette had just finished washing the tomatoes by hand and had dried them for sale.

The harvest was laid out on every available table and on other surfaces, awaiting the arrival of the wholesale buyer, who came with a bus.

“Farming isn’t a flamboyant job like others, but it is honest work so we don’t mind doing it, even though it doesn’t bring in a lot of money like regular work,” Yvette said.

Andrew Semple explained that farming is not a one-day job, but constant hard labour without heavy equipment and machinery to make the workload lighter.

He reported that a day in the life of a farmer is hard, so much so that they constructed a small cottage in the backlands where they would rest whenever they cannot make it back to their residence.

The Semples reported that because they do their farm work without any outside help, they have to spend a lot of time in the backlands tending to crops; as such, they would often overnight at the location.

This family has crops of vegetables of bora, ochro, squash, boulanger, pumpkin, peppers, seasonings, fruits, bananas and plantains too. They also have some chickens, sheep and cows.

The villagers told the Pepperpot Magazine that they would admire how Yvette would work beside her husband. She is touted as a very dedicated wife, mother and farmer.

The Semples are simple people who described life in Ross Village as quiet, which entails hard work and no idle time to spare since they have so much to do daily.

“Life nice, but we have to work long hours due to farming and it is now the rainy season, so we have to look out for our crops and we like this kind of work because it is our living and we do it anyway,” Andrew said.

Andrew and Yvette Semple have five children, three boys — who are now young men and would assist on the farm — and two girls, young ladies who are in the public health profession. One daughter works at Britannia Health Centre and the other is employed at the Fort Wellington Hospital.