“You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers”
Farming has been in the Foster and Reid families for three generations. In 1976, Harry and Tina Foster fell in love with a fifty-acre farm in the hills of Balaclava, St. Elizabeth – a stone’s throw away from Harry’s birthplace. “The Farm” became the passion of Harry, a Mining Engineer and graduate of Jamaica School of Agriculture (JSA) and Tina, a Registered Nurse. Every Saturday, the family would journey down to “Bala” with their three children (this trip was not voluntary for the children). After a day of plucking chickens, pruning coffee, or harvesting oranges, the children would “drive” the dilapidated Morris Oxford or the farm hand’s handcart.
Over the years, the family planted coffee, citrus plants, apples, passion fruit, bananas, plantains, coconut and ackee. In the late 1990s, Harry invested in five colonies of Italian bees. Grace, the youngest child and an MIT-trained Engineer, got involved with the bees in 2010 after she lost her income when local bauxite plants were shuttered. She had the vision to create 100 Jamaican jobs through innovating honey. The vision took on life after a near-death experience involving a bicycle accident in 2011. She registered Ecofarms™ and launched the first product – Buzz™ HoneyStix™ in 2011, followed by the award-winning Buzz™ Honey Wine in 2013. In 2018, the company automated most of the production process in as it scaled production.
The company has been blessed with many awards and honours including:
- Jamaica National Social Enterprise Boost Initiative (JN SEBI) Social Entrepreneur 2018
- Caribbean Export Development Agency Women Empowered to Export Program (CEDA WeXport) 2018
- Observer Food Award Nominee 2016
- Vital Voices vv100 2016
- Manchester Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year 2015
- National Baking Company Bold One in Manufacturing 2014
- Winner NCB NationBuilder Category 2014
In 2016, Ecofarms™ partnered with Jamaica Deaf Village (JDV). Ecofarms™ has engaged two deaf youths and is training them as our beekeeper. One of these youngsters attended a two-month training in China in 2017. The company is setting up a factory at JDV and will hire more persons from the deaf community to produce our Buzz™ products as we slowly but steadily realize the vision of creating 100 Jamaican jobs among at-risk and marginalised groups.
