Since winning the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service’s award for Agriculture (18 – 35) in October, Dasia Edwards, 34, hasn’t been resting on her laurels.
The founder/director of Living Environment Arts Festival (LEAF) and her team transformed the organisation which was mainly a physical festival to an online platform, including an eco-store, doing workshops, seminars and marketing for eco-entrepreneurs.
The group connects people and food to the environment while providing eco-friendly products for everyday use, promoting, sustainable clothing, agriculture and living.
Edwards also manages her own grow box and vertical garden, Jelani Ubi in Matura.
“Ubi” is the Igbo word for garden. Some of the plants grown are used to create garden grow kits designed for homemade meals.
This is where she champions her cause for farming in small spaces and growing where you are by giving her the experience of triumph through various personal and physical struggles.
Edwards is an advocate for growing food in small spaces; a mantra that is echoed nationally and goes in line with reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG goals) of no hunger by 2030.
Despite having a high-risk pregnancy and undergoing an emergency C-section in February and having a healthy, baby boy, she has still managed to help families to grow their food in small spaces.
Edwards’ speciality garden kits are designed for specific local dishes and also work as a container garden for families to grow in any available space.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian Edwards said “Since COVID-19 more people have become interested in home gardening and calling LEAF about our products and getting more traffic on our website.
“We expanded our eco-friendly and agricultural product line of grow kits.
“They include the salad, breakfast, stir-fried or steam vegetable, pizza topping, junior growers and cocktail garden kits.
“These kits include recipes, plants, seeds, soil, compost, seedling trays and plant pots made from biodegradable coco peat, the natural fibre from coconut husks.”
She said the breakfast garden kit would have tomatoes, melongene, bodi and some seasonings plants such as chive, small leaf thyme, and celery.
Edwards revealed the furthest point they had delivered one of their garden boxes to was Cocorite.
She shared that a cocktail garden was added as a gift table garden with Christmas drinks and herbs such as basil and mint to garnish and make drinks.
Edwards, the 2018 WHYFarm and Digicel Community awardee for the Agripreneur Mastermind Program disclosed that before the establishment of safe zones and bars reopening, heading into the Christmas season people wanted to make their own drinks at home.
She partnered with Green Bartender from the South to start making cocktails, to put a bottle in the cocktail garden box along with the herbs that complimented the cocktails and there were also non-alcoholic cocktails available also.
Edwards, a youth coordinator for social programmes in the St Andrew/St David area and throughout the island recounted that her organisation had partnered with another NGO, Junior Chamber International (JCI), and the Ministry of Agriculture to distribute salads, herbs and seasoning gardens for Christmas to needy families.
She said every weekend before Christmas, JCI gave out clothing and groceries to the less fortunate families.
Edwards opined someone can give groceries but they will finish and still need to purchase more, with seedlings and plants they can grow their own food and have “groceries” from their own backyard.
She revealed that unfortunately, one of the family members involved in the project died from COVID-19 just before Christmas and was postponed.
Edwards said she still had her seedlings to give, the children will also receive their clothes and toys at a later date.
