Manuel Viera has tended his vegetable stall on the South Shore with Middle Road come rain or shine for 20 years. Now the familiar sight of this formidable 65-year-old man at his site will be no more, as the veteran farmer has gone into retirement. Despite moving on, Mr. Viera swears that the secret of his success is that Bermudian-grown produce tastes 100 percent better than imported food. "It is the soil, it makes everything sweet. There is nothing like a Bermudian onion, tomato, banana or broccoli,'' said Mr. Viera. "And Bermudians recognise that. That is why they would come and buy from me, instead of stopping at the supermarket.'' Mr. Viera may now be retiring from the farming world, but he is urging shoppers to keep buying local produce, rather than imports to keep the tradition of farming alive on the Island. And while his patch in Southampton remains empty, he says that only with customers demanding Bermudian-grown food will the farming industry survive for future generations. Mr. Viera has been living on the land almost all of his life. He began working on the land at the age of nine, when his single mother sent him to spend the summer at the Terceira farm in Somerset. Since then he has never looked back and has made the land his life. In his time he has lived through an agricultural revolution on the Island. He has witnessed the move from horse-drawn carts to tractors, and known the back-breaking pain of harvesting potato and bean crops by hand. Now, in a world made easier by machines and high prices of vegetables on the Island, the life Mr. Viera leads may seem alien to many. "When I was nine I went to live with the Terceiras. I used to get up at 5.30 a.m. and take care of the chickens. Before I could go to school, it was my job to set out the table for the ten men who worked on the farm. I had to get the bread, butter, cheese and make the coffee. "And then when I came back from school I would change my clothes and get the horse and cart and go and water all the heifers. After supper I would clear the table, wash the dishes and put everything away. By then it was time for bed, and I did that every day.'' This hard life suited Mr. Viera, and he grew up happily on one of the biggest farms in Bermuda which stretched across Somerset. It had 500 pigs and was the biggest dairy producing farm for years. He had been taken in by the Terceira family and was welcomed with open arms by the two boys and two girls the Terceira's already had. He left school at 12 -- something he regrets to this day -- to work full time on the farm. As a young man he met and married his wife of 41 years, Antoinette, and the couple moved to a cottage on the farm and set up home. "I was 21 then. I got 2s 6d a week, then 5 shillings a week, and then a pound. Ha! That is just $2.40, can you imagine? "As time went on the pay increased, and we moved from pounds to dollars, and eventually I wanted my own place.'' The training he got on the land was invaluable for him when he did manage to get a bank loan and help from friends to set up on his own. With just three acres, no machinery, and a great deal of hard work, he worked 15 hour days just to keep his head above water. "I used to do everything with a hoe and a horse. It must have been in the mid sixties when I started up -- it was 34 years ago now. It's not that they didn't have tractors on the Island, just that I couldn't afford one. "Gradually I saved up bit by bit and bought an old second hand David Brown. That saved a lot of work. With the horse it could take all day to plough a field, with the tractor it would take a couple of hours and it did a much better job.'' Earlier in his career, when he was still working with the Terceiras, he remembers the back-breaking work of potato planting and picking. To plant the potatoes, ditches would have to be dug, and then huge aprons filled with heavy spuds, which were scattered by hand, and then covered over. Once they were ready, the crop had to be hand picked, with two men working along side pulling up the potatoes and a third putting them in barrels and then loading the 160lb charges onto carts. "It was really hard work. We would then take it to the market, which in those days was on Front Street, next to the customs office.'' Farmer retires Eventually Mr. Viera had 14 acres of land to farm and he grew broccoli, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and salads.

Long before he opened his vegetable stand, he would take his produce on his horse and trolley and sell it door-to-door to housewives. "After a while I got a pick-up truck, but the work was really too much. I was getting up at 5 a.m. and not finishing until 9 or 10 p.m.

"I started to cut back on the days I was selling -- many housewives had started working and there was no one home anymore to buy the vegetables.

"I eventually put up a stand on the property of Mr. & Mrs. William Mello, and my business grew from there. "At times my prices were higher than a supermarket, but the customers understood that if I brought produce in, I would buy less than the supermarket and therefore get a less favourable price.

"They still came back. But then my vegetables were a lot fresher and tasted a 100 percent better as well. The only thing that is not better grown in Bermuda is the cantaloupe. For some reason that is always sweeter imported. Everything else is better grown here.'' All his life Mr. Viera has worked over 12 hours a day, seven days a week. "I like working hard,'' he said. "I always have.

Once you have worked hard all your life, you cannot stop.'' And although he feels that farming has become too much for him, he is not giving up work. He has begun to work as a taxi driver, and although his hours are more flexible, he sees nothing wrong with still working seven days a week.

However, he still remembers his customers of 20 years fondly. He said:"I miss my customers. We always had a good laugh, and there was always a lot of chat.

I appreciate the support I have had over the years and thank all my loyal customers.'' FOOD FOR THOUGHT `It is the soil, it makes everything sweet. There is nothing like a Bermudian onion, tomato, banana or broccoli.' *** `I like working hard. I always have. Once you have worked hard all your life, you cannot stop.' *** `I used to do everything with a hoe and a horse. It must have been in the mid sixties when I started up -- it was 34 years ago now.' On page 33