A: It came about through a number of things. I like good food. I like fresh food. It's upsetting to me to have a mouthful of food that's not fresh. I have a strong sense of smell and can immediately tell when something is off.

So, from a personal standpoint, it was my interest in eating good food and my interest in gardening, my interest in the natural environment, my interest in farming, my interest in agriculture and my interest in the survival of agriculture in Bermuda. And I think that my interest in the survival of agriculture in Bermuda was probably the strongest, most motivating factor.

My earliest memory of having my hands in soil, I think I was less than five. I recall trying to plant seeds in terrible soil. It was almost colourless. I had no tools to work with and (as I wasn't talkative) probably didn't have the wherewithal to express my desire to get into the soil with a tool.

But I managed to produce little purple flowers that used to be commonplace in those days. My second memory is of trying to grow vegetables. I had no idea where I got the seeds from and I had no idea how to turn the soil.

But I think my grandmother gave me some thyme; I don't remember much else growing. But then my neighbours threw away some geraniums and I planted them under the window where my grandmother used to sit and they all blossomed. She loved them and I think a love was born (between me and gardening).

My background is quite varied. It seems my entire adult life has been involved with growing plants in one way or another. I had my first real garden that produced something meaningful, while I was living in San Francisco. I think there was then a lot of interest and change in getting back to things that were important such as growing food.

And people of my generation, back in the '60s, were "Back to Earthers". I had a garden outside the apartment where I lived and I made use of it. And then, when my husband and I lived in Canada, we had a homested which sat on 13 acres. Its original owners were the Doukhobors, Russian peasants who emigrated to Canada.

We learned a lot through living in the community. To not have a garden in that area was abnormal. So we learned by watching what they were doing and asking a lot of questions. (It also helped that) my husband is a great self-learner and wrote to the US Department of Agriculture and got pamphlets on everything as far as farming was concerned. I grew food for the family full-time.

We have basically three seasons to grow in. Most farmers stop in the summer but some put in a fourth crop so we get potatoes, okra, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupes. (The present one) actually starts in August when it's very hot.

So we're now getting early crops of carrots. But the best will come in later. The (crops) get better tasting as the season goes on. I think there are some changes in the weather. The rain pattern has changed and it seems to shift from year to year. It's something that I've got a sense of, but (I'd) have to look at documentation before I (could state it as fact).

: The amount under production is a little less than 500 acres. There's more than that but a lot of that includes land in people's backyards. It's possible to grow quite a variety of crops in Bermuda. Now we're focusing on winter crops - cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, mustard greens and root vegetables such as carrots and beets. Lettuce is always popular and there's more variety than ever before. September and October are really difficult months in Bermuda. There aren't many things of fresh quality around and so we all suffer during those months. I try to eat local food but I do buy the occasional frozen corn or lima beans, but that's it. They're the only two I would buy. Other than that, I eat from my garden or other people's gardens.

Local suppliers are always happy to have local produce. The problem is the volume - when they want it every week - and the consistency of quality.

My biggest stumbling block is not pests, but the fact that there is not enough interest in growing. There's not enough interest in taking up agriculture as a career. We all need to eat and we're very dependent on foreign produce which I don't think is very healthy.

It's been said that the reason is that we don't have enough arable land, but there's not enough people interested in being farmers. If people had the skills, I think we can grow more. I would like to see more (home gardeners). There's a lot of land in backyards that can be used. That way, you know what's been put in the soil to grow the food and you know about the health of the food you're eating.

I'm very interested in the health of the environment, the soil and people. It's kind of ironic today we are so much more affluent and yet we seem to be having more health problems. Many people feel that the quality of food is very much related to health. I hate to use such a clich?, but you are what you eat.

People who are concerned about their health want to be assured that their food has nutrients and don't contribute to ill-health but part of the problem is that people don't have time to prepare their food carefully even if fresh food is available. We're always in a rush. And people are sometimes not aware of the value of fresh food or have the time to put into (preparing) it.

Food that is fresh has more nutrition. Food that is fresh has more life. It has more flavour. It's more crisp. It's more crunchy. It's more satisfying. When one eats, the enjoyment of eating is really a big part of it. There should be some feeling of satisfaction. You don't want to be eating empty calories and you don't want to have to pay for having eaten empty calories.

It's not like I'm some great connoisseur of food. I like food from around the world. I don't have a favourite. I tend to cook a lot of Middle Eastern foods; I cook a lot of Indian food; a lot of Mexican. (It's largely because) a lot of their food is vegetarian - not just vegetables but non-meat (dishes).

I eat fish and I occasionally eat chicken although I don't cook it myself. It's not just for myself (that I promote healthy eating). I'm interested in the health of Bermudians. It saddens me to see children who are obese and adults who are unhealthy, especially if it has something to do with their food or eating habits.

Our society is (such that) we're all engaged in making a living. People just don't have the time to prepare meals properly. Even I don't always. There are some days when I'm hard pressed to find something to eat, there are times when I just don't have time to cook and there are times when I don't feel like cooking.

I teach a class at the Paget Community Garden through the community education programme. It's a specific method of gardening that I have been trained to do, a sustainable approach to gardening and mini-farming called Grow Bio-intensive. I teach it on Sunday mornings and am working on developing a garden that shows what this method of gardening is. I also teach some classes at home. It's actually a course not just for beginners but also those who have some knowledge of gardening. The object is to teach people in terms of sustainability for the future. Sustainability is something that has become a buzzword.

But it essentially means to maintain say, in this case, a system to live in such a way that resources are not depleted and that they continue indefinitely. How that is done in this system is by largely recycling organic material to be sustainable. We don't bring materials into the garden from outside. We actually grow organic material that we are going to put back in the ground again.

For example, we have a 60-30-10 approach to growing crops so that 60 per cent is grown for compositing, 30 per cent for calories and diet and ten per cent for minerals. At the moment it's an ideal. We haven't gotten there yet but we are aiming in that direction. But the hope is that we can make people aware that there is a way to do that in a small area.

It varies. I try to have a routine of an hour every morning. Now I have the good fortune of having a good apprentice which has helped tremendously. But I really only garden (to provide food for my family), if there is a surplus, and generally it's bananas, avocadoes and papaya, I take it to the Market.

We have a core group of about eight farmers. A couple farm full-time and the rest part-time. I think it's the diversity, variety and also the atmosphere. A farmers' market is something that's part of every country's tradition. I think that's attractive to people. The marketplace is somewhere people love to go even if they're not shopping for food.

There's something lively, natural and right about it. Also, people get to see the person who is growing their food and there's an element of surprise because there's always something new. And it's not just vegetables that people buy in the market. There's baked goods and (potted herbs and plants) as well. It's all home-grown or made.

We opened on February 2, 2002 and ran through the end of June. And then we opened a week ago, on November 2, and will hopefully run through the end of June as well.

The market opens at 8 a.m. and runs until noon every Saturday on Canal Road in the open-air parking lot on the north side of Bull's Head. If it rains, it's still on - under the cover of the Bull's Head car park building.