st. croix, u.s. virgin islands - 2020
in February 2020, i traveled to the island of St. Croix with friend + fellow epidemiologist Ashley B. Gripper to interview Black growers + farmers on the health benefits + cultural significance of growing food.
grower errol chichester on his land
black hands / black lands.
how lucky were we to be able to sample + savor so many delicious, fresh + organic fruits grown by the loving hands of grower + native Grenadian Errol Chichester on his land in St. Croix? from the chocolatey, smooth sapote to the deeply sour bilimbi, we tried + tasted the fruits of these black lands, cultivated tenderly by black hands.
bananas from sejah farm
shrimp + grits… + bananas?
awed by Banana. i‘m not a fan of banana, neither the flavor nor the fruit itself. according to my Crucian fam it’s due to the methods used to ripen bananas stateside. standing barefoot in my friend’s kitchen eating one grown by her father, i decided that though the banana flavor was pleasant, less aggressive, smoother in texture + not overly sweet... i may just not be a fan of bananas, period!
digging into “a plate of food” - photo by ashley b. gripper
ag fair 2020.
what brought us to St. Croix (beside the sand, sun, friends + food)? the 49th annual Agriculture + Food Fair of the U.S. Vigin Islands. affectionately called “Ag Fair” by the Crucian folks, this three day event showcased the wares of farmers, growers, chefs, artisans + musicians across the Caribbean. not just a fair, not just a festival, it felt like a bigass block party as we met Black folks from Puerto Rico, Ghana, Jamaica + beyond.
alvin’s award winning hot sauce at spicy grill
peppers - the staff of life.
what’s that thing Vertamae said? “I’d be nowhere without hot peppers”. whew, that woman knows my heart!
my stomach, my heart, my very spirit are always hungry for a good + spicy pepper sauce. i mean i wanna be coughing, snorting + crying. if it ain’t spicy spicy, ion’t want it.
luckily, i found a good deal of spice in St. Croix.
culling arugula - photo by ashley b. gripper
sejah farm.
awed by the sheer amount knowledge that can be shared over an hour of culling arugula. Farmers Brown from Sejah Farm... man. this loving couple dropped so much knowledge about what it means to grow your own food as an africanperson, the responsibility of putting community first + the mental health benefits of growing.
tearin’ it up at la reine chicken shack
shoutout to chicken shack.
as we prepared for our food journey to st. croix, i asked my dear friend Tahirah (a Crucian living in Philly) what she would be most excited about us tasting when we got down there. “johnny cakes! you have to get that at chicken shack… actually, shout-out to chicken shack!”
shoutout to chicken shake indeed!