The spirited celebration of agriculture in the Virgin Islands began Saturday on St. Thomas. The St. Thomas-St. John Agriculture and Food Fair took place at the We Grow Food Pavillion in Estate Bordeaux where Agriculture Commissioner Louis Petersen announced the event would be extended into Sunday.
The district’s ag fair is a staple event, taking place on the weekend before Thanksgiving for many years. Once staged on the grounds of the Reichhold Center for the Performing Arts, the fair was displaced after the center was damaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. This year, it found accommodation at the traditional site of the Bordeaux Farmers Rastafari Cultural and Agricultural Fair.
Residents and visitors enjoyed a selection of soups, pates, small meals, snacks, and sweets. They browsed through tables filled with fruits, vegetables, and herbs, along with potted fruit trees.
Farmer Badega Agusta said she enjoyed sharing her love of horticulture with friends and neighbors. “They’ve all been grown from seed. They grow very well here; everything here will produce fruit within five-to-seven years,” she said.
Also growing well this year – soursop. Several displays in the pavilion held an abundance of the heart-shaped fruit with the knobby green skin. Attorney Judith Bourne spoke with delight at also finding breadfruit, having two tucked into her tote bag.
Petersen said he, too, was pleased to see the yield.
“It just seems to be a good season for soursop. They sometimes like a nice, wet season followed by a dry season, and they do well, and I’ve even seen where they don’t have the typical pest issues they normally have. It’s a really good season for soursoup, and as we say in agriculture, all of the elements came together,” the commissioner said.
Saturday’s fair also enjoyed the talents of young performers in dance, music, and the culinary art of making pound seasoning. Students from the Moravian School held demonstrations for fairgoers.
Instructor and culture bearer Glen ‘Kwabena’ Davis said he taught students how to combine the ingredients and the technique of crushing and grinding them together in a mortar and pestle. “They learned how to prepare a local pound seasoning, and I told them in order to get a grade, you have to go out in public without my instruction and teach adults how to prepare a local pound seasoning,” Davis said.
By late afternoon, those in attendance gathered around the front of the stage to cheer on participants in a coal pot lighting contest.
Agriculture officials, lawmakers, and members of We Grow Food, Inc. addressed the gathering during a midday ceremony. Petersen pointed to the progress made by his department and supported through local and federal funding; they included a groundbreaking for the installation of two cisterns at Bordeaux and a proposal drawn up by Agriculture to fund restoration of the district’s abattoir.
“About a month ago, we had a ceremony on this very site to build two new cisterns. The contractor has committed to us that the work will begin Dec. 1,” the commissioner said.
Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett listed the federal programs directed by her office to support ag initiatives in the VI. And Sen. Hubert Frederick praised a recent event that brought pre-schoolers in the district together with farmers and Agriculture officials to explore the possibilities of growing food, fishing, and raising livestock at home.
Frederick — head of the Committee for Economic Development and Agriculture — also encouraged adults to raise small crops at home and share the experience with youth in the family.
“Let’s start practicing those habits and pass it down to them so we can grow our own food and have good medicine for our bodies,” the lawmaker said.
St. Croix Source
Local news
