For 37-year-old mother Taliga Howard she has not looked back after deciding to swap her office job for the life of a pumpkin farmer.

Hailing from the village of Moamoa, Mrs Howard owns a small stall and sells vegetables and fruits every day in front of her home by the roadside.

The family own a piece of land at Saleimoa, where they grow their crops and work on them on a daily basis for their own food supply, as well as to supply their mini-vegetable market.

“It was not long ago when we decided to go back and work the lands for crops as a way to support my family, my children and our everyday needs and wants financially,” Mrs Howard said.

Judging by the quality of the pumpkins she had on display in her mini-vegetable market, growing the orange colored vegetable was becoming her specialty. 

She said it can take up to 3 to 4 months for the pumpkin to grow before bearing fruit, until the final stage before its fruit is ready for harvesting.

"While the newly planted seedlings are in the process of blooming and growing to the stage of bearing fruits the fully grown pumpkin plant is ready to be eaten, these pumpkins are then picked and collected to be brought home to Moamoa to be sold at their fruit and veggies stall". 

Recollecting how she and her family first got into the vegetable market business, Mrs Howard said it has been over three months, since her and her family went back to cultivating their lands in Saleimoa by growing varieties of veggies and fruits including pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbages, eggplants and avocados. 

Thanks to her experience and success story, she has also helped other people who are considering farming as a serious proposition, over paid employment. 

In fact due to her success with her family garden harvest, she sometimes caters for orders from Chinese supermarkets in Moamoa.

"Farming also benefits us from selling our pumpkins and many other crops grown on our farm to Chinese Supermarkets here in Moamoa, where they always order from us when they are short in stock, especially when we give them a fair price for our fruits and veggies,” Mrs Howard said. 

And the beauty of harvesting pumpkins is that in terms of the vegetable’s self preservation and shelf-life, they can last up to 2 to 3 months. And she is not afraid to say that the good old pumpkin is now her favourite crop.

“Above all I prefer pumpkin by saying this because the preserving of pumpkins can last up to 2 to 3 months, if there are a lot of stock they can be harvested and stored for that long,” she said.

“But we are able to tell if the inside of the pumpkin is spoiled or affected due to our warm climate then we can also put it to use by using its seeds to grow more pumpkins on the farm.”

And Mrs Howard believes that growing pumpkins and other vegetables also gives one an honest life. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the family’s sales could easily generate around $1020 as their main customers were either tourists or Samoans living abroad who were in town to visit family.

Currently, she is living her dream of “being her own boss” and believes that other Samoans can go down the same path, but it requires a lot of work and sacrifices.

"My advice to those who are looking for jobs and did not complete their education but are looking for ways to help their families, we have lands and they are free, farming is the easiest yet free income we can get,” Mrs Howard said.