Curtis Baker – Bittersweet Abroad: Jamaica W25

Amateur Hydro-Engineering for Fun and Profit (no profits were made)

I would like a weir.
Nicola Shirley-Phillips of The Source Farm via WhatsApp prior to our departure for Jamaica

During the chaotic lead up to our study abroad pivot from Trinidad to Jamaica, I had the good fortune to reach out and attempt to lay some groundwork before the travel was even approved. Through pure providence, I have an extended family connection to The Source Farm Ecovillage, specifically Nicola Shirley-Phillips, Colleen Williams, and Nomi and Dwight Shirley. Not about to let a perfect one-for-one replacement site slip by a number of WhatsApp conversations led to an eventual link up while on ground!

During the conversations, the lack of water access for the Guango Wild Garden Conservancy (GWG) was brought up. Without water, the processing center at the site was unusable, and by extension the Source’s activities with the Ujima Organic Market suffered. This seemed like the perfect place to apply some nondestructive learning in the form of labor support to the effort.

Conversations lead to the understanding that emplacing a weir. Awesome. Now wtf is a weir?! Put simply, a weir is a kind of restricted flow barrier placed in a channel. It holds water upstream in a weir pool, and allows a flow-through, or crest, that can manage the holding pool height, weight/pressure of water upstream, and down stream flow all from a single point. As cool as it sounds, there is a lot of variation to weir design and it can have major impacts on its effectiveness, longevity, and usefulness.

I’m a hands on learner, so armed with all of humanity’s collective knowledge, I grabbed some scrap aromatic cedar off-cuts, a handsaw, my dog, and some plucky determination before setting off for a backyard creek to test different weirs.

Test site cleaned and modified to test weir plates.

The opening of a weir is called an orifice. It determines the flow-through capabilities of the weir, as well as its water retention capacities in the weir pool. Trial an error was the name of the game. 20° V notch weir? Too small. 90° V notch weir? Too big. 4″ Rectangular Weir? Too basic. 4″ Rectangle-to-45° Compound weir? Too complicated. It seemed my stock of cedar was destined for a waterlogged graveyard of failure.

Compilation of failed designs. The dashed line shows the 60° trap weir orifice. Foreshadowing…

Before giving up and going back to being Curt in the Dirt with no water creds, I tried a trapezoidal weir. A V notch whose bottom is a simple flat edge. Perfection. The V allowed for increasing outflow as the water backed up, while the half-rectangular bottom allowed for consistency. Eureka!

Top-down view of the weir plate (and scraped failures). Not the weir pool height (bottom) compared to downstream flow (top). That’s a lot of water retention!

I left the weir in place for 15 minutes to track pool growth and retention. I observed my spillway (made of a piled stone “leaky” weir) offload the overflow of the weir pond. I measured the crest and reinforce the downstream flow with flat stones to prevent scouring (washing away/removal of the stream bed due to crest flow). All was working. The lessons learned in observing failure made the observations of success sweet indeed!

Centered in the channel, anti-scoure stones at the crest, clean flow-though, a calm/straight weir pool above, & a leaky weir serving as the overflow spillway (right side of image). That’s a damn fine weir.

A simple, but effective scale weir in all of it’s glory.

I may not be a Hydro-engineer, but I could play a passable one on TV.

As the trip solidified and the timelines were laid out, the GWG water project would morph and grow. Ultimately a three-sided catchment would be designed and emplaced, and my 60° trapezoidal weir would never manifest. But all was not lost! A sediment/debris screen would be added to the back of the catchment box. It’s design? A leaky weir, baby! We got there in the end.

The team building up the hips of an in-creek catchment box.

An objectively talented artist’s concept sketch of the catchment project.

The project at about 80% completion nearing sunset of day two (of three).

I regret nothing. I learned a LOT in my research and testing. While it did not materialize in the planned project, there is nothing stopping it from being useful in my future. Basically I learned on my own time (yuck). I will leave you with this: a video of a handsome dog and his unqualified, self-taught owner talking about things of which he only has a basic grasp. Enjoy!

Applied Design Post for One Regeneration/Durga’s Den

It seems that water has been the theme of your PDC.
Rodjé Malcolm, giving me the run down on Durga’s Den’s hopes for a greywater system.

The team’s original base observations map.

The applied design project saw team Mappy McMap doing our best to utilize the potential of the elements and landforms that made up the front third of Durga’s Den. From the main road, up the driveway, until you are parallel with the upper showers/toilet, all the way up to the neighbor’s fence line. This portion contains the majority of the guest houses as well as the yoga deck, lower garden beds, and upper swales.

The site of the proposed greywater reclamation system.

I was given the responsibility of designing a greywater reclamation system for the section of the property. After some clarification, this project was requested by Lise and Mikey and is something they wish to work with going forward. As such, I was given the area pictured above to work with, and a mandate that the system be able to handle inputs from approximately four guest’s weekly.

Given the relatively tight area, and soil samples showing loamy clay sitting on top of limestone/marl, I decided a mostly contained system would serve the purpose better than open air succession ponds. I set to work brainstorming designs and settled on plastic 55 gallon drums as the vessel to catch and manage the greywater.

Concept sketch of stages one and two of the greywater system for Durga’s.

Ultimately, I wanted a system that would scale with increased inputs, manage overflow within the area that currently takes the used water, and would be relatively accessible for any necessary maintenance that may need to be performed. A scaled down version of the water separation systems used at LOTT in Olympia, WA seemed appropriate. Utilizing aggregate as sediment filters, and mid-line syphon flow pipes to allow proteins, oils, fats & detergents to sit on top, the water leaving stage one should be fairly well cleaned without the need for filtration or treatment.

Stage two is a smaller version of stage one, partially sunk into the ground to aid flow angles. A final sediment filter/POFD separation should allow the outflow to be mostly free of contaminates by the time it settles into the planned pond feature. This pond will utilize an impermeable liner, small gravel bottom, and water-borne plants to hold and biologically filter the final stage. A solar-powered submersible pump is recommended to allow for circulation of the water and discourage mosquito growth.

The final step is to allow for two perforated pipes (leech lines) to be directed back at the hillside where the water currently drains now. This will continue to create and encourage a wetland micro climate below the showers. With the addition of some water-loving plants, everything from herbaceous groundcover that can serve as chicken feed, to fast growing fodder plants, pleasant flowering shrubs, and even a small shade tree can be planted to take advantage of this additional water.

Map of the greywater reclamation system proposal.

This area, once planted, could serve as an additional ‘Chill Zone.’ It’s location relative to guest lodging, unique wetland plants, shade tree, and central water feature would make a wonderful spot to place some simple earthen benches and give guests a place to sit and listen to the water babble through the submerged pump.

I hope this design can inspire a future greywater reclamation system in that area. The land holds a lot of potential. I hope to return to see it transformed in the near future!

A professional artist’s professional rendering of the system on site, before additional planting.

A vision of a possible pond and seating area for future guests.

Week Three –

You have some roses and a maple. That’s cute.
Nine, when looking at our partial companion planting design.

Here it is, Week 3. The end is near. You are standing, with your PDC cert in hand, staring into the middle distance wondering what the future holds for you and this newly grown seed of permaculture in your mind. Should you go home and destroy your backyard to create edge? Should you hack swales into that grass beside your driveway to move your water laterally? Oh God! What if Nine sees this sad attempt at gardening without community and laughs at you?

Fear not! The Scotty B (yet again) has you covered. Whether you are a college kid in the dorms, a college kid in an apartment, a college kid splitting a rental with three others (and their partner[s]), or just a plain old college kid in your own rental or home, the pepper has your back!

In 1941 the first Hungarian Paprika seeds were planted in Washington’s Yakima Valley.
DeWitt & Bosland, proving Washington’s chops when it comes to pepper cultivation.

Although the Scotch Bonnet is a tropical plant, it can be grown in a small greenhouse made from something as simple as sticks and plastic wrap. The seeds tend to take a long time to germinate, doing best in high humidity and staying warm over night. They are slow growers and can take between 80 and 120 days (or more) to produce a yield. This yield can vary enormously according to how well you adapt our conditions to those of Jamaica in your greenhouse. Stunted plants producing as few as ten pods, all the way to large bushy plants with fifty or more pods are possible (DeWitt & Bosland, 1993).

A veritable bounty of Scotties waiting to go home with a lucky buyer.

While a few handfuls of Scotch Bonnets may not seem like a worthwhile pay off for all of that invested energy, I would argue that the challenge of bringing a bit of Jamaica to Olympia is worth that cost. Whether making taumaline with dungeness or red rock crab guts, or pickling your own pepper, or going nuts with a couple of Boston Jerked chickens to make Thanksgiving dinner worth eating (F you turkey), a pepper garden can be your ticket to a world of flavor to spice up your life.

The heat or ‘hotness’ of food is refereed to as pungency. It is a sensation experienced by the entire oral cavity – and elsewhere, notably the anal mucosa. Pungency is commonly linked with astringency, and ‘cooling effects’ under the general heading chemesthetic. The effects of chemesthetic stimulants may be better described as a chemical irritation, and has much in common with the sensation of pain (Coultate, 2024).

Are you surprised that at no point Scoville heat units (SHU) have been mentioned? That is because SHU is based on an invented scale dating back to 1912. A number of peppers were suspended in ethanol, diluted with water, then fed to a panel of judges. The results are neither precise nor accurate measures of casaicin concentration, but can be useful in comparing the pungency of various peppers in controlled concentrations to the average ‘every-man’ (Coultate, 2024).

So the next time you watch Hot Ones on YouTube, roll your eyes at the Heat-o-Meter, grab you a fresh Scotty from your window greenhouse, pop that bad boy in your mouth and fret for your anal mucosa.

Week Two –

“Oh no. Let me make you a real sauce Curtis.”
Celine Ramjit, in response to my attempt to use store bought hot sauce at breakfast.

After the “discovery” of chile peppers by Europeans, slave ship captains combined pepper juice with palm oil, flour, and water to make “slabber sauce” that was served over ground beans to slave aboard the ship.
The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia

Peppers were seen as the gold of Caribbean after actual gold failed to materialize. Unfortunately for Columbus’ ambitions, the fruit of the islands failed to gain traction with the spice loving wealthy of Europe. Something that could be easily grown locally was looked down upon and considered lesser than the black pepper corns of Asia.

The most basic hot sauces on the islands were made by soaking chopped Scotty Bs in vinegar to make pepper pickles, then sprinkling the fiery vinegar on foods. Over the centuries, each island developed its own style of hot sauce by combining the crushed peppers with other ingredients such as mustard, fruits, or tomatoes. Homemade hot sauces are still common on the Caribbean islands (DeWitt, 1999).

Arawak-Carib words you may know include barbecue, canoe, hammock, hurricane, and tomalley. The oldest known hot sauce, taumalin, uses tomalley (the greenish innards of cooked crabs and lobsters) mixed with minced chinese peppers, most likely habanero (Walsh, 2013).

At the end of week two, we had planned to visit Portland, Jamaica, home of not just Jerk, but the world-famous Boston (Beach) Jerk. Our timeline got blown up, (big surprise) and the easy answer was to cut that portion of the day to preserve a reasonable arrival time at the Bath Fountain Hotel. While we may have all missed out of true Boston Jerk, I have pulled a recipe from The Hot Sauce Cookbook to serve as a holdover until the next time you’re on the extreme eastern end of Jamaica.

½ cup fresh thyme leaves
15 scallions (white and green parts) trimmed and chopped
¼ cup finely diced and peeled fresh Jamaican ginger
3 steamed Scotch Bonnet peppers (seed-in)
¼ cup peanut oil
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon freshly ground coriander
2 teaspoons freshly ground allspice
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon
juice of 1 lime

Combine all of that goodness in a food processor. Process to a thick, chunky paste. The sauce will keep if refrigerated in a sealed container, for several months. This makes 4 cups.

Want to get silly and Jerk a chicken?

1 Three pound chicken, split in half
1 to 1 1/2 cups of the above Boston Jerk rub

Pack the rub around both chicken halves under the skin. Put them in a sealed container in the refrigerator over night. One hour before grilling, take the chicken out and let it come to room temperature. Light up charcoal (like an adult) 30 minutes before you are ready to grill in a water smoker or covered grill. When the coals are covered by ash, spread the coals, and sear the chicken halves, turning to brown both sides. Make a pocket in the coals, and place a drip pan in that pocket. Place the chicken over the drip pan, and when it begins to sizzle, add sweet wood around the coals so as to smolder the wood, not burn it. Keep the temperature between 250° and 275°. Refuel with small chunks of charcoal and sweet wood as needed.Smoke the chicken for 90 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165°. It should be crispy and well done, and the rub should be black and crusty (Walsh, 2013).

Now wish you had just stopped for fat stacks of real B-Jerk in Portland and lament the evils of the Democratic process.

Week One –

“I don’t want it if it ain’t got that Bonnet on it.”
Curtis Baker, pepper aficionado.

You know you’re in for a treat when our very first stop is for food at a Jerk Shack called Scotchies!

Week One in Jamaica brought me to Montego Bay International Airport. From there, our bus headed east to St. Ann Parish, through Ocho Rios, (past Ferngully!) to Durga’s Den. In that time I encountered the (in)famous pepper that is as Jamaican as Reggae music, running fast as hell, and ‘herbal cigarettes’. From roadside shops, to the table top sauces, street corner vendors, to the broth served with our dinner, the Scotch Bonnet, Capsicum chinese, is everywhere. Touted for it’s mid length burn, tolerably high pungency (spiciness) and crisp fruity flavor, this little pepper finds it’s way into almost everything.

It is believed that the first peppers to inhabit the islands of the Caribbean were small, spherical pods commonly called bird peppers (DeWitt, 1999). These Capsicum annuum were eventually cultivated into the jalapenos and anchos through human intervention. They were spread by birds that sought the bright red fruits as a source of vitamin A, (invaluable for brightly colored plumage) and because birds have no receptors for capsacian, the chemical that makes peppers ‘hot’ to the taste.

But we are not here for bird peppers. We came for the crown jewel in Jamaica’s pepper basket; The Scotch Bonnet.

Introduced from the Amazon Basin where the species originated, the seeds were carried and cultivated by [Arawak peoples], Capsicum chinese formed, seemingly on each island, specifically adapted pod types, called land races, of the species.
(Dave DeWitt, the Pope of Peppers)

The Caribbean is home to many of these ‘land races’, or cultivars, with names like Habanero in Mexico (which means from Havana, where the pepper originated), Goat Pepper in Haiti, Bonney Pepper in Barbados, Congo Pepper in Trinidad, Puerto Rican Rocatillo, Cuban Cachucha Pepper, and the star of the show; Jamaica’s Scotch Bonnet. The pods of these chinese vary in shape from small berries ¼” long to wrinkled, enlongated pods over 5″ (DeWitt, 1999)