Something just wasn?t right. Julia Munroe-Neilly?s food bill kept going up but the amount of groceries she was bringing home kept going down. She decided to do something about it. She enrolled in the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources? backyard gardening project.

That was eight months ago. Her yard in Monastery Park today is a veritable cornucopia of vegetables and fruit trees. ?The economy,? she said showing off her huge heads of cabbages. ?The economy was my big motivator. The price of sweet peppers and tomatoes in the food stores was too high.?

One of the first things she did was to uproot the beautiful, well-manicured lawn in her front yard. ?People have all this grass in their yard, and you know what, you can?t eat that,? she said. ?I took up every scrap of grass and put down broccoli, cabbages and tomatoes instead.?

In the back of her yard and wherever she finds space she has sweet potatoes, cassavas, beans, onions, bananas, carrots, beats, spices, fruit trees and more. A descendent from New Bight, Cat Island, Mrs Munroe-Neilly spent some 40 years as an educator in the Catholic system and as head of Sesame Academy.

?My food is like island food now,? she beamed. ?Fresh. Moreover, I know what I am eating because I grew it. I have everything I need to cook with now.?

Mrs Munroe-Neilly finds backyard gardening to be quite therapeutic.
?It?s something I felt I needed to do and I am enjoying it,? she said. ?I never thought I would be out here weeding, but I tell you every scrap of weed in this yard I pulled up myself. Not only is it good exercise but it is also good for meditating. It?s good thinking time. You can get away from people because no one is going to come into your garden to help you to weed.?

Leave it up to her and all householders would have their home garden. She distributes seeds and seedlings to her neighbours.
?When (Agriculture Minister) Mr Larry Cartwright said we should eat what we grow and grow what we eat, I took him seriously.?


Photo: A basket of delight from Julia Munroe-Neilly?s home garden in Monastery Park for Agriculture and Marine Resources Lawrence S ?Larry? Cartwright. Pictured from left are Permanent Secretary Cresswell Sturrup, Mrs Munroe-Neilly, fellow home gardener Oraliene Maycock, and Mr Cartwright. (BIS photo/Raymond Bethel)

A real estate expert recently honoured for handling $20 million in luxury condo hotel sales at The Reef on Paradise Island has been named ERA Dupuch Real Estate top performer for 2008.

Ten-year real estate veteran Dave ?Crocodile? McCorquodale, BRI, walked away with number one honours after zeroing in on one segment of the real estate market that continued to thrive despite economic challenges ? luxury properties.

Networking, benefitting from word of mouth referrals, he nurtured relationships with second home owners who wanted to invest in The Bahamas. The result: among many other single home and commercial transactions, 10 sales at the 22-story Reef including its most expensive offering, the Ocean View Resort, a residence with a priceless view and a price tag of $7.6 million.

?Dave?s success often surprises people because he appears quiet, almost like an observer, never aggressive, but he knows the market backwards and forwards, inside out, and he really listens to people, mulls over their needs, considers their time frame, long-term plans and then he goes to work finding the exact match. He rarely misses,? said Peter Dupuch, founder and owner of ERA Dupuch with headquarters on East Bay Street.

McCorquodale?s steady rise in the industry parallels the rising profile of the real estate firm where he works. Founded in 1993, ERA Dupuch Real Estate joined the ERA network in 2001 and has since grown to singular status within the franchise, becoming the first outside the United States to earn luxury market status. It has been the top-performing ERA affiliate in the Caribbean three years running, beating competition in Turks & Caicos, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Cayman Islands and Puerto Rico. In addition to its head office in an historic building, the firm has multi-lingual agents throughout The Bahamas.

?While I am honoured to be recognised as the top broker or sales associate for the year,? McCorquodale said, ?I know I would not have been able to achieve all that I did without the great team of ERA Dupuch Real Estate behind me. You can?t find a better, more supportive group to work with, right from flying all around the islands in our company plane to look at new listings or familiarise us with various small islands to the networking and web support we get daily. It?s the team that is number one.?

Photo: A soft real estate market didn?t stop real estate broker Dave McCorquodale, BRI, right, from having a successful year. He just worked twice as hard. Named ERA Dupuch Real Estate?s top performer in 2008, McCorquodale is congratulated by the firm?s founder and owner, Peter Dupuch, outside the company?s historic East Bay Street office in Nassau.