St Bess farmer powers sawmill with old truck engine
Lambert Brown, a St Elizabeth farmer, did not know the real value of a truck engine he bought 20 years ago. This was until he got an idea to dust it down and use it to operate his sawmill.
Brown lives in Bybrook, and during a visit to the parish recently, he took CENTRAL STAR for a jog down memory lane.
“I had the engine for 20 years. I pass and see other sawmill and I am a mason so I just build it my way,” Brown said.
He told CENTRAL STAR that his woodwork shop caters to the needs of the community.
“People buy slab and build their house. They use it to build all hog pen and dem something deh. I have two guys that work with me here, but dem not here now,” said Brown, who is also a cassava farmer.
Meanwhile, Brown said that the decison of Red Stripe to use cassava in the production of its beers has proven to be a blessing for farmers.
“A $20 a pound dem a buy it for. ... The normal man pay nuff for it but dem nuh buy whole heap like Red Stripe. They buy everything,” Brown said.
Under its Project Grow initiative, Red Stripe is moving to introduce five per cent cassava starch as a replacement for imported barley in the production of beer.
“If you plant whole heap you make a money. You plant any crop you want enuh, but since the cassava thing come in, nuff people a plant it,” Brown said.