Island Farm Eleuthera

Island Farm Eleuthera

Farming Eleuthera with Clyde Bethel

by Perry Joseph

During our last trip to Eleuthera, I made it a point to stop by Clyde Bethel's establishment, the famous “Island Farm” located just south of Palmetto Point on Queen's Highway. By far, Clyde's place is one of the best produce farms and landscape nurseries on Eleuthera. Choices include delicious fruits, vegetables and fresh bread that makes you instantly hungry just looking at it.

Island Farm is also an excellent place to socialize and meet people who enjoy sharing their knowledge and stories of Eleuthera. I came away with more than just fresh bread, jam and arugula. Clyde demonstrates how easy it is to make new pals on Eleuthera and how visiting his fine farm is more than just another jaunt to the grocery store.

You can contact Island Farm at 242-332-0141 or visit their website:
Island Farm Eleuthera.  Location of Island Farm Eleuthera

Island Farm
Island Farm

Interview with Owner Clyde Bethel

Q - When did you start Island Farm?

A - Started 8 years ago when I started to build the house. I started to grow plants for our own yard. Always had it in the back of my head that this is something that I wanted to, just didn't think it would develop this quickly.

Q - Started why?

A - I like growing plants; I have always grown them and thought it would be nice to have them in my backyard.

Q - Is this something that you started on your own or was this something your family...

A - Both of my grandfathers farmed, but it wasn't ever an area of my life I ever thought I would do. I was and still am in the restaurant business. I closed one restaurant and started the house and just started planting. It was called the Kohinoor Restaurant down by Oceanview, a subdivision developed by a German guy back in the mid to late 70s; Hausmann was his name. He's probably long gone now. We specialized in Bahamian and US Continental cuisine, fish, conch, bake our own breads, quite a happening place. Then of course, we had kids and restaurant/bar doesn't go very well with that.

Clyde Bethel Owner Island Farm Eleuthera
Clyde Bethel - Owner of Island Farm

Q - How long did you have the restaurant?

A- We had it for almost 8 years.

Q - Born and raised here on Eleuthera?

A - Yes, I lived in Canada for a few years in Winnipeg for school. I think my parents were trying to get me out of the house (laugh).

Q - How old were you?

A - I was 12. I am 47 now.

Q - You're a young man...

A - I most certainly am and always will be, I refuse to grow up (laugh).

Q - You run the place yourself, right, you don't have any partner or anything?

A - I have Mark who helps here, he's here all the time, he has lived on the island for years, he's been coming here since he was a kid, he's from New York, and he's relocating here so he comes in and helps us all of the time.

Q - So, it's you and Mark who do a lot of the farming here?

A - Yeah and we have two other guys who help. Without them this wouldn't be happening, because what's happening is we are expanding and they do all the grunt work.

Q - Expansion plan is what?

A - To clear another 3 acres this summer, expand our plants, our ornamentals.

Q - What is the better business; plants or vegetables?

A - It's seasonal. We only grow our vegetables from October through May because then June - September is so hot, it's an exercise in futility is all it is. The stuff will grow but it will only grow so high, the fruit is small, all the greens won't even grow, it's just too hot. An example is tomatoes have to have a night time temperature of 72 degrees; our overnight temperatures are high 80s in the night, so it's hot and sticky. So that's when we focus on all of our ornamentals for landscaping and stuff because we're now starting to do a lot of that.

Q - So in other words, somebody builds a house here on Eleuthera and they need landscaping...

A - That's where we're going to.

Q - Competition?

A - There are a couple of other guys who do it. We don't advertise at all. Our business is drive-by and word-of-mouth. We do it right and... but the trick is having inventory so we don't have to get plants and other landscape products from other places. The trick is in growing all of our own.

Q - When it comes to the vegetable business, it's all drive-by as well?

A - For the most part, and we supply four restaurants on Eleuthera with all of their salad stuff and broccoli; all of that. But most of it is stop-in, homeowners and people who are visiting and renting homes on Eleuthera.

Q - It's all retail -- you don't distribute your landscaping and produce to any other places?

A - Not yet. We have been asked to supply some places in Harbour Island, and we could even hit a couple of the hotels in Nassau. The way Eleuthera is growing, we'll have more than eaten up here at this developmental stage of the business to sustain us and grow the business without getting into all of the logistics of shipping and all of that. We sell everything we grow. Like with the ornamentals and all of the plants, the longer they stay, the more they're worth because we keep stepping them up into larger containers so what's a $12 plant this fall once we step it up to that, we double the price. It's a larger plant and we've spent that extra time watering it and fertilizing it.

Q - What is your favorite food?

A - My favorite food is conch. I like conch raw in conch salad.

Q - Do you go out and get your own conch or do you have other people bring it to you?

A - I haven't in a long time so whoever has it fresh I'll get it from them. I also have friends who fish and they'll often drop me off a bag.

Q - What's your favorite place on Eleuthera?

A - Poponi Beach on the north side here on the Banks Road. We call it “over the bay.” Everyone calls it Poponi now, it “over the bay.” If you talk to anybody local, it's “over the bay.” Location for Poponi Beach

Q - Favorite time of year here?

A - The cool time October thru May. The summers really drain me. It's so hot, so humid you have to do your work early in the morning or late in the evening. The middle of the day between 11 and 4 you don't get any production at all.

Q - Prime tourist season?

A - Prime tourist season starts Thanksgiving through Easter. But the island is starting to change; the season seems to be extending longer. There are so many foreign or expatriate home owners who start coming over in October, start opening their homes. That generally will start the trend for build-up for Thanksgiving and it will run thru the Easter holiday. Traditionally, how it used to be, after Easter it would just stop, then all the tourists were gone. But now I see it extending through the middle or end of June. It's really changing. We like everybody to go home in the summer (laugh).

Q - Yeah, that's nice. Well it's hot anyway. What is your favorite music?

A - Reggae. Bob Marley. Conscience music they call it.

My thanks to Clyde and Anne for their hospitality and kindness. If you visit Eleuthera, make sure you stop by Island Farm for that unforgettable “Eleutherian experience.” You can reach Island Farm at 242-332-0141 or visit their website Island Farm Eleuthera.

Now would you please pass me some more of that yummy Bahamian bread, Clyde?

© 2007 Perry Joseph