From John’s Farm to the Food & Rum’s Table: Supporting Barbados’ Local Farmers

Ask John Jones about the best thing he has ever tasted and he takes you back to a tomato. A purple salad tomato, grown a couple of years ago, whose memory has survived every meal since. For a man who has played basketball far from home, it is a small, delicious reason to keep his feet in Barbadian soil.

There is something irresistible about a farmer who remembers a harvest by its flavour. Before a chef has dressed the plate or a mixologist has found the perfect balance in a glass, John is already thinking about what an ingredient might become. This year, with chefs placing orders for the Barbados Food and Rum Festival, his work is part of the pleasure waiting to happen.

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The tall former basketball player, known as The Bajan Farmer, has a sporting history of his own alongside that of his sister, Barbadian Olympian Akela Jones. He represented Barbados at CARIFTA and played college basketball at Illinois State University before a professional career overseas. There is an appealing change of scale in the story. Hands accustomed to a basketball now attend to the beginnings of a leaf.