Different kind of farming

My Dad loved being a farmer -- in fact he moved family and started a new life at 39 so that he could be a farmer.  That didn't happen for another 8 years, but he finally got his farm and stayed there for the rest of his life.

Yesterday we took a bus to the north-east corner of the island -- Nordeste.  It was the local bus, so it carried school children, ladies going from their country homes into the towns for their shopping and tourist like us, just along for the ride.  We went up and down mountains and in and out of gorges that make up the coastline where rivers meet the ocean.  There were numerous little towns with streets so narrow that the full sized bus had less than a metre on each side from the houses.  We were navigated over one lane bridges where cars had to stop and back up so that we could pass.  I truly admire the drivers!  The 80 km trip took 2.5 hours.

And we travelled through farm country -- very different from home.  Besides being very green at this time of year, the fields are usually quite small and since there are hills and slopes everywhere, angles quite ridiculously sometimes.  I can't image tractors on most of those inclines, nor on the dropoffs to the ocean.  The fences are of stones or bamboo hedges, but often just a terrace and a drop off to a lower lever.  Most of the fields were planted in grass -- don't know if it was going to be wheat or a grain crop, but now it just looked like grass.

Lots of cows -- milking cows were usually free moving in a fenced field while younger animals were tethered by a leg or chain around the neck and allowed to eat in a circle -- then moved up the slope when they had cropped the area.

Some market vegetables -- usually cabbage.  Orange trees were fully of lovely ripe fruit.  There were a few small potato fields.  And there were lots of banana fields tucked away in protected areas (like the gorges).

Always interesting to see how farming is done in different places!