by RICHARD CAESAR WITH A PERPETUAL SMILE and quiet manner, it would be difficult to perceive the immense strength and determination that resides inside Merla Edwards. It would be somewhat difficult to picture this small-statured Burma Road, St Peter woman, battling numerous canes and the scorching sun to go on to claim a major victory. And she has. She has done more than just claim victory. Merla has copped the title of Queen Of The Crop for 2006, ending a seven-year dominance by former Queen Judy Cumberbatch, interrupted last year since there was no female title awarded. The 63-year-old labourer at the Rock Hall Farm kept to her strong work ethic and her belief in a day's work for a day's pay. She cut and piled 78.362 tons of sugar cane.This ensured she emerged head and shoulders over her competition to take this year's crown. Old-time values These values are the same ones that guided Merla as a young agricultural labourer emigrating from her homeland of St Vincent to Barbados in 1979. Merla, who struggled to make a living as a single mother of five, admitted that it wasn't always easy, but said: "You have to try your best." She got through it, she says, by learning to help herself, something she still does today. "I still do everything for myself; I paint my own house, I weed my garden and I raise animals. I plant for myself and I reap for myself," she said flatly, during an interview with the WEEKEND NATION on Tuesday evening at her home. Planting and reaping is something that this self-proclaimed ,avid agriculturalist knows a lot about. In her kitchen garden, which she was only too happy show off, Merla plants all types of natural tea plants and herbs. "When I first come here all the ground was bearing was grass. So I say instead of the ground bearing nothing it could bear something, so I started planting some herbs there in the back." She knows every plant and can recite, in detail, the healing properties of each. Good for colds She pointed to one plant: "This one here was brought over from St Vincent. If you have a cold and you drink this it will go away, or you can drink tea from this one here," she said, pointing to another as she moved from plant to plant. For Merla, her garden is a source of pride and relaxation. Merla's love of nature and agriculture puts her right at home in the canefield. She said she first started out in the field in the 1990s bundling and tying canes. "The first time I wasn't cutting, the men used to cut and I would tie. Then, after the tying, I was piling. It was then that both men and women started to cut and pile for themselves because the women said we can cut the cane too. So we start to cut and pile for ourselves," she said. Providing for herself But this posed no real deterrent to Merla, who says she still likes to know that she is working her hardest to provide for herself. It would have been no real surprise, therefore, when she won the crown. "I'm very happy about it," Merla said, still smiling widely. Very humble about her achievement, Merla admitted that sometimes it wasn't a challenge at all. "When you have the cane there good in front of you, you don't study any challenge. You can just cut, cut and go through," she related as she imitated a chopping motion. After cutting her way to her first title though, Merla seems hardly phased by the attention. She says she is not nervous or anxious at all about her crowning tomorrow before the crowd that will gather at Queen's Park for the Crop-Over BNB Opening Gala. In fact, she is looking forward to her first crown. And since this mild- mannered lady says she plans to keep cutting until she is not able to do it anymore, she may well have a lot more to look forward to.
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