Jarmila Jackson, Features Writer

Miss Icy separating callaloo seeds. The septuagenarian is part of a programme aimed at getting more children involved in farming. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Icilyn Singh, a 78-year-old resident of Bushy Park in St Catherine, is best known in her community for supplying callaloo seeds to local farming supply stores at $400 per pound.

The business, 30 years strong, has expanded since then and now her daughter-in-law, Collette Khawalsingh, generates the bulk of the business on her farm.

The callaloo plant is first harvested, then sun-dried to ensure easier removal of seeds. After this, the plant is rubbed to remove the seeds; in her early days, it was possible for her to conduct this process entirely by hand, but as Miss Icy got older, she found it necessary to employ the use of a sieve.

There is, however, so much more to this woman than her callaloo seeds. She is an important component in the Violence Prevention Alliance's Callaloo for Peace initiative. Under the programme, schools across the nation are provided with callaloo seeds. Upon maturation, the school will be required to use the callaloo as part of VPA's 'run-a-boat festivities for peace. Child development experts have agreed that children who nurture plants and animals are less susceptible to violent and aggressive behaviour. So Miss Icy provides schools with the callaloo seeds.

Cottage industry

There is still another side to Miss Icy. She operates a small, multi-purpose farm on three and a half acres of land in the Vineyards community in Bushy Park, rearing animals ranging from chickens, pigs, and ducks to a very strange-looking fowl called the Silkie Bantam, which she initially bought as a pet and continues to sell its offspring to interested buyers.

There are a number of options on the small farm to help her pay her bills whenever any one crop is out of season. In addition to callaloo, she cultivates corn, pumpkin, coconut, yam, cabbage, banana, papaya, sorrel, orange, tangerine, and cashew (which she juices and sells).

"My mother and father come here from India and dem used to grow tobacco. Dem neva sen' mi go school because dem seh if mi go school mi going get married and dem neva want mi name fi change. So dem keep mi in the field to plant tobacco."

Nature's fury

Her crop range has been affected by seasonal floods. A few crops survived, apple and ackee among them.

A small greenhouse was also damaged, resulting in a major decline in flower sales.

Standing in her greenhouse, she reveals her expertise in the medicinal benefits of the various trees and shrubs which grow in her yard. Doctors often patronise her plant business, because of their medicinal benefits. The white periwinkle, in particular, aids in the treatment of cancer, she says, adding that it helps the prostate gland, improves blood supply to the brain and is a popular ingredient in several pharmaceuticals.

There is also the carambola (star fruit), which is good for the treatment of nausea and pain. It is the moringa plant, though, that she is most proud of. Just about every part of this plant can be used to treat various ailments, Miss Icy declares, saying its leaf promotes the normal functioning of the liver and the kidney, proper digestion, healthy circulatory system, as well as acting as an antioxidant, just to name a few.

Though not professionally trained, Miss Icy is versed in the science of agriculture, gleaning her knowledge from years of experience with the soil, as well as a genuine curiosity and interest in discovering the properties of new plants. "Mi like plant, mi wouldn't mind every day mi find a seed fi go out inna di field go plant it," she stated.