Gorilla Rock

Hope Estate Cannabis Farm St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Dana and I meet up with Kobra and ISong to hike the path leading to Hope Estate, one of the legal medical cannabis farms on St. Vincent. It’s a mountainous trail, off the main road near Questelles Bay.  We’re off on an adventure of a lifetime! Our personal guides are as eager to take two herbalists to the farm as we are excited to be going there. Kobra thoughtfully brings us each a bottle of frozen tamarind juice, a sweet-sour tropical fruit boasting of many health benefits. The juice ensures we stay hydrated and refreshed in the heat on the hour-long hike to the top. Kobra has a beguiling smile; an easy-going nature and he encourages us to take our time.  There’s no rushing here, he says. So slowly, we make our way up the dirt path. Between them, Kobra and ISong share a vast knowledge of local botany and herbal wisdom, evident at the occasional stops we made learning about the medicines that abound.   

ISong stops at a soursop bush, reverently pulling off a young leaf, touting its virtues. “When you drink this, trust me, you flush your system out, you pee, pee, pee. You drink it every day of your life in the morning, and it also does help release any lumps inside of your system, cancer cells, but you have to keep drinking it like water, boiling it every day, making it your life, every morning, every evening.” The Vincentian accent flows from his mouth as effortlessly as the dangling doobie stays attached to his lower lip.

Along the way, Dana spots a cacao tree. ISong is up the tree in a few strides, returning in less than a minute holding a cacao fruit in each hand. Dana gleefully carries the sacred gift on the hike. ISong explains how to process the seeds into a nourishing chocolate drink.

Dana asked him where he came by his knowledge of the bush, how he came upon his philosophy and beliefs. He tells us that he spent 4 years in the bush, living off the land, learning to survive, reading lots of books, learning the plants. That provided him with everything he needed. “I learned that everything on earth has a way of documenting histories. The trees have it in the rings of the wood. The plants pass it on through their seeds. The stones show it in the way they wear over time. People show it in their faces. The ganga root provides better energy than ginseng, and is the best plant for asthma. The medicine is in the root.” We listen intently, climbing the mountain.

When we ascend to the top we come upon the cannabis plants growing as far as the eye can see. Dana and I look at each other in disbelief! It looks like a cannabis Christmas tree farm.

In the distance is Gorilla Rock, a natural wonder resembling a gorilla’s head from afar, overlooking the farm and the valley; a timeless, ancient spirit embedded in a mountain. Hope Estate has been owned and farmed by the Phillips family for many generations. Leonard Phillips is working whole-heartedly to bring Gorilla Rock to the attention of visitors and Islanders alike. The rock can only be viewed from the farm and apparently fewer than 1% of Vincentians have ever seen it.

It was harvest day. Dana and I amble around the farm, watching one of the guys harvest the plants (in one fell swoop with a machete), and the next haul them down the mountain to to the drying shed. They take time to roll a few, before the scissors come out and the cutting and trimming begins, Vincentian Reggae music bIaring in the background. ISong in the meantime has been preparing lunch. He cooks up bush stew, adding freshly harvested herbs and local vegetables to a broth which simmers for hours in a blackened pot, balanced strategically over 3 stones on an open fire. Kobra feeds the fire with dry coconut husks. As the stew cooks over the flames, ISong prepares the Bush Stew. He’s making coconut dough.His kitchen is a weathered wooden table, overlooking Gorilla Rock and the green, lush valley below. On the table is a plastic bowl, a knife, a jug of fresh water, a coconut and some fresh provisions. Later he will roll the coconut dough into dumplings, and drop each one carefully into the steaming stew. We were quite hungry by then, we’d climbed a mountain and hiked around the hillside for hours! Kobra proudly serves up the stew, served in improvised bowls, ranging from calabash gourds to plastic Enfamil containers. It’s the most delicious dish I’d eaten in the week I’d been on the island; richly flavored and incredibly filling! We sat on makeshift benches, under the cover of a metal roof, having lively conversation, eating stew and telling stories.Dana shares what farming is like in Pennsylvania, our seasons, what we grow, how we preserve and store food, and that it’s illegal for us to grow cannabis. They shake their heads, and all agree that it’s criminal to make a plant based medicine illegal.

They teach us about cannabis farming, the 3 growing seasons, from the planting of the seeds, to the cutting and trimming before readying the plants for export. We watch as they adeptly start the trimming, the Vincentian Reggae music energizing hands to scissors.

After the plants are harvested and processed they are carried down the mountain then transported to the nearby port, where they are loaded into shipping containers bound for Europe.

By late afternoon we all hike back down the mountain, still talking, sharing and reflecting on the plant medicines, how one plant can be treated so differently in different countries, We remain full up on the sunshine, plant energy, good vibes, bush stew and new friendships made.

Dana, beaming, turned to me and said, “I don’t know about you Sue, but this has been one of the top ten most fun days of my life!” I thoroughly agreed, it was a magical day for herbalists in paradise.

Here at Sue’s Salves I am passionate about growing plants for medicine. All of my products are grown with 100% organically grown plants in my medicine garden.

Coming Soon: Part 3- More adventures at Spirit of the Valley, making ylang ylang salve, going to the Bush Bar and more!

Tags: St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Hope Estate Farm, Medical Cannabis on St.Vincent, Gorilla Rock, Herbalism, Herbalists in Paradise