Just past the cricket pitch and over the Geneva river in a bucolic tropical valley in the Grand Bay region of Dominica's southeast, I found a place called Hideout Cottage.
Reminding me of a Swiss mountain hut, it was no surprise to hear that it is owned by Rahel, a Swiss who has been in Dominica since the early 90s and her Dominican husband Octave. When I got there, Rahel was picking up her two children from school in Roseau and I found Octave working in the vegetable garden.
The cottage, which is ideal for those wanting a self-catering break on a Dominican organic farm in beautiful countryside, is nice and simple and rustic. It has a kitchen, double bed upstairs and two single beds in a living room downstairs. Ecological, its electricity comes from solar power, water from mountain streams provided by the local water company and it has a plug-in cooler bag. On its verandah outside, there are hammocks and a table and chairs, which overlook the gardens.
The view from the cottage is over the garden and forests to the mountains beyond.
Looking down from the top bedroom, there is a stand of banana palms.
As Octave showed me around the garden, which goes down to the Geneva river, I kept being surprised as he pointed out each plant in turn and all its uses. My notes turned several pages.
The list included bananas, guava, carambola (starfruit), governor plum, golden pear, cashew, coconut, pineapple, avocado, sugar cane, cocoa, rambutan, jackfruit, mango, brazil nut, sweet sop. In the vegetable garden: spinach, carrots, broccoli, pigeon peas, sweet potato, dasheen (taro), green beans, cabbages, lettuce, chilli peppers. And in the herb garden: sorrel, rosemary, thyme, sage, citronella, mint, lemongrass.
Right outside the cottage there is a cocoa tree. Its yellow pods were ready for harvest when I visited (May-June and December are the main ripening periods).
Octave cut open a pod to show me the cocoa beans covered in sweet edible cocoa fruit. He explained that they make their own cocoa paste here. The process involves fermentation of the fruit, removal and sun drying of the beans, roasting, cracking of the peel and grinding of the bean into a paste. This is then molded into dry cocoa sticks, which melt into hot water or milk. Rahel and Octave often add coconut milk, local herbs and thickening arrowroot to their hot cocoa.
Here is a cashew fruit and nut case. To extract the nut, the hard outer casing first has to be roasted and then carefully split open. The fruit makes a great juice.
Plenty of coconuts.
Something which I noted down as billing beans, which are crunchy and juicy.
A carambola starfruit.
The closed flower of the sweet sop.
A calabash, which when cut in half and dried, is still used to this day on Dominican farms for eating soups.
Chilli peppers.
Puev geneh (Afamomum Melegueta) leaves for making tea.
Octave cutting some sugar cane.
The gardens are also full of flowering plants. These help attract all the birds seen in the gardens and by the river, including three of Dominica's four varieties of hummingbird (Antillean Crested, Purple Throated and Green Headed).
A hedge row of Malvina, which along with Croton bushes, is so typical of Dominica, often planted along the roadside or at property boundaries. Its leaves are therapeutic and can be applied to wounds and immersed in bath water.
Rather fun was this fern.
When pressed against skin, its spores leave behind a perfect imprint. It's called the Gold Tattoo Fern.
And just to show how nature is so complete, there's also a Silver Tattoo Fern. Apparently, visiting children can often be seen with gold and silver fern tattoos all over their bodies!
Finally, heliconias at the bottom of the garden, by the Geneva river- a great place to bathe.
Hideout Cottage is ideal for those wanting an organic farm stay in somewhere very quiet and natural. Within walking distance are Grand Bay beach, the Dubuc Falls, basic shops in the village of Grand Bay and the Coal Pot soap factory. Local buses head into Roseau and along the coast to Petit Savanne and Victoria Falls.
The cottage is rented out at US$60 for 1-2 people in the low season and US$80 in the high season, plus US$15 per additional adult and US$10 per child.
Breakfast, a pick-up/drop-off taxi service and 4x4 Jeep tours are also available and very reasonable. They can be bought separately or as part of a package. Both Rahel and Octave, who know so much about the nature, culture and history of the island, do the tours. Octave himself is certified and very experienced, with an immense knowledge of plants and their uses, as I discovered on my visit. Highly recommended.
Further information can be found on www.hideout.ch
The cottage is rented out at US$60 for 1-2 people in the low season and US$80 in the high season, plus US$15 per additional adult and US$10 per child.
Breakfast, a pick-up/drop-off taxi service and 4x4 Jeep tours are also available and very reasonable. They can be bought separately or as part of a package. Both Rahel and Octave, who know so much about the nature, culture and history of the island, do the tours. Octave himself is certified and very experienced, with an immense knowledge of plants and their uses, as I discovered on my visit. Highly recommended.
