Spring Hill is a quiet farming community in the Buff Bay Valley along the ridge of the Blue Mountains where farmers plant, reap and sell the world-famous and appreciated Blue Mountain coffee.

To get to Spring Hill from the parish capital, Port Antonio is quite a task as the road is narrow and in dire need of repairs.

Yet, despite this infrastructural malady, farmers in the Spring Hill community readily admit that the results of their farming endeavours have been good, especially with the increased prices available for coffee.

“I farm mostly coffee intercropped with bananas, plantains, pumpkins, grapefruits and tangerines.“The farming here is pretty good and the coffee is very good. People who moved away from coffee have and are returning as the prices have increased. Princess O’Sulllivan, a long time Spring Hill farmer said with a huge smile on her face “Some are enthusiastic and have started to replant. Wallenford/Jamaica Coffee Board and Mavis Bank Coffee purchase our coffee. “People come in and purchase other crops and go to the market from time to time,”.

Donald Lowe, another Spring Hill farmer who was returning from his farm with his prune sheer in tow, agreed with O’Sullivan.

“It is good farming here and when the crops come in we are pleased. “The weather has been good to us this year; we have the rain and no drought this year” Lowe said.

I plant yam — Lucea and yellow — bananas, coffee and plantains. We don’t have a problem with praedial larceny as persons are gainfully employed and help their families on the farm,” he pointed out.

Spring Hill is also involved in eco-tourism, with tourists regularly travelling through Cascade, Section and New Castle. A lot of tourists utilise the area to be with nature at its finest.

This is a popular area for the Blue Mountain bicycle tours where tourists ride bicycles from Section to Avacot. At Avacot visitors usually make use of the Avacot Falls, which is one of the many picturesque sites in Portland.

Residents of Spring Hill are counting their blessings as they live and work in a community with very few incidents of crime.

Corporal Glastone Shackleford, a serving policeman at the Spring Hill Police Station told Observer North and East confirmed that the community is almost crime free.

“Crime is at a very low level. We have had only two minor incidents for the year thus far,” Shakleford explained.

“There is a really good relationship between residents and the police. The last murder here was in 2012, and last year (2015) we had no crime or violent incidents and none so far in 2016.

“People in the Spring Hill and other communities nearby are gainfully employed on the coffee and other farms, which helps to control crime,” the Police Corporal said.

The station at Spring Hill is presently without a service vehicle, leaving police personnel to use their own vehicles if any incident occurs.

“I would love if we could be supplied with a four-wheel- drive vehicle or a pickup truck, mainly because of the terrain we have to deal with. This would help with patrols,” Corporal Shackleford said.