A Market for Hope

Pat Ganase invites you to visit the fresh food markets in your area, they are places of nature and hope.  Influence the sustainability of local farming by buying from green markets. Eat fresh and seasonal fruit and vegetables for good health. All photos by Pat Ganase

 

 

Santa Cruz, from my earliest memories has always been a magical green valley. From whichever end of the Saddle Road you approached, the green hills embraced the valley through which the gentle river ran. The earliest plantations deep in the area known as La Pastora were cocoa; the far foothills a haze of orange when the madre de cacao (immortelles) bloomed January to March. The Saddle Road, once the leisurely winding connector from San Juan to Port-of-Spain through Maraval, frequented mainly by cruise ship visitors for the serene views, is now a busy thoroughfare.

 

Chaconia in the Undercover Garden Centre

Cameilla and Dominic Pierre of Undercover Garden Centre

Citrus groves covering the slopes on the Maraval side of the valley were replaced by the Undercover Garden Centre, acquired and operated by Dominic and Cameilla Pierre since March 2016. When the Santa Cruz Green Market closed in 2023, the vendors approached Dominic for space for a Saturday market which he called A Little of Everything (ALOE). This market space is one year old this month, representing a safe space and resilience in difficult times. ALOE market includes a core group of produce vendors some of which started with the Santa Cruz Green Market in 2012. For most of the farmer-vendors, ALOE is one outlet. For some, a Saturday market allows them to supplement the income of a full-time job with produce from a home garden, a sideline of craft and cookery.

 

Far from the notion of the traditional selling spaces in shops and malls, the Saturday market, its vendors and customers, represents a fluid space for community interaction. Fruits and produce change with the rain, heat and seasons. Mangoes are coming in, and avocadoes; will this be a bumper year?

 

Narvin Ramroop and his pineapples from Rio Claro

Peter Alexander and his fresh greens

Barry and the jackfruit from Christine Farmer’s estate

Through its collaboration with this core group of vendors, the Undercover Garden Centre, a nursery for mainly ornamental plants serving the needs of homeowners, corporate green décor and occasional event planners, is becoming a place for community interaction. For the Love of Reading, an independent organization dedicated to encouraging love of books and reading, has recently added Undercover to its libraries. Each library is stocked with books that have been donated. Visitors are allowed to take books free of charge, and invited to contribute their used books and magazines. You never know what you might find in children’s and adult titles, fiction, history or contemporary literature.

 

Markets build communities, unite producers with consumers and foster appreciation for what is local, sustainable, in season and economical. Try to visit markets in your neighbourhood or region; or those that may be convenient on the roads you travel. The Saddle Road is such a connector, for those coming from east or south to Maracas or the North Coast. Next time your family outing or Saturday excursion bus is heading through scenic Santa Cruz, make a stop at Undercover.

 

Here’s a sampling of the vendors at the ALOE market. You are welcome to meet them on Saturday from 7 am to noon. Many offer their own stories alongside the products made with pride and anticipation of your enjoyment.

 

Joanne Delicia from Cantaro Santa Cruz, makes the best coconut bake. In sorrel season, hers might be the earliest fruit. These days, she offers breakfast, as well as a range of preserves, kuchela, toolum and tamarind balls alongside homegrown cucumbers, caraille and ochro.

 

Brian Farley has seamoss

Jens-Ulrich Poppen is ready to serve from a pot of drinking chocolate

Joseph Neptune makes Kombucha

Karen Felix invites you to treat yourself with French inspired cakes and cookies

Jens-Ulrich Poppen, a lawyer, learned to make chocolate six years ago at the Cocoa Research Centre in The University of the West Indies St Augustine. Cocoa beans come from his tiny holding Finca Dos Vistas as well as neighbours’ estates. The result is chocolate from a single location, Aripo. He offers banana bread (with chocolate) by the slice and drinking chocolate by the cup; as well as 82% bars. Every sip or bite a treat!

 

Brian Farley usually has the sweetest guavas in season. He offers authentic sea moss, melons from Manzanilla, and the only purple sweet potatoes I’ve ever seen.

 

Elizabeth Da Silva grows greens on an upstairs patio in Diego Martin: two or three varieties of tender fresh lettuce, kale, bean sprouts and mushrooms. She also has honey and a sour-sweet sorrel chutney all year round.

 

Narvin Ramroop comes from Rio Claro. He is known as the pineapple man for a weekly crop of sweet fresh pineapples. In season, he brings citrus, melons and pigeon peas. Eddoes, sweet potatoes and cassava are other staples from his fertile estate.

 

Marjorie Nichols comes from Caigual, north Manzanilla. Plantains, silk fig and coconuts are her main crops. In season, she brings lemons, grimes (giant grapefruit-limes), starch mangoes and tamarind which Konica her daughter will shell. This week, she had finger limes, with a flavour between five finger and lemon, great for chow or pickling.

 

Brian Dickson with a basin of lettuce

Karen Nicholas from Paramin, brings craft

Joanne Delicia has kuchela and other preserves

Elizabeth da Silva has honey and sorrel chutney

Marjorie Nichols brings fruit from Caigual, north Manzanilla

Karen Felix, Faites Vous Plaisir (treat yourself in English) is presenting specialty baked goods since November. She had been baking in England, taught by a French chef. Since returning to Trinidad, she has been experimenting with local fruit and flavors, adjusting the chemistry of baking to what’s available here. She offers savoury crepes (spinach and ham) and sweets, brownies, madelines, chocolate cookies loaded with nuts and chocolate chips. She makes everything from scratch and accepts requests for catering. She invites you to “treat yourself” by visiting on Saturday.

 

Bread and bakes, breakfast and lunches are also available from sweet han’ Debbie of Lagniappe. More recently, Leoni Prime brings loaves of bread, including sour dough.

 

Brian Dickson comes from his estate in Brazil: hefty winter melon, loofahs (dried from the wild cucumber vine), sachets of dried “blue flower” tea (Butterfly Pea plant), fresh milled cayenne, chilis and jalapenos; sorrel (red and white) in season; cauliflower, cabbage and purple bodi.

 

Christine Farmer is known for the citrus from her estate. When limes are scarce, she usually has. Oranges, portugals, mandarins. Five fingers, avocadoes, abiu and mamey apple. Christine also makes a very tasty pepper sauce. This week, she had jackfruit.

 

Green markets put us in touch with the producers of fresh food. They help us co-create healthy families and interdependent communities. You too can become an occasional vendor in a green market. Visit and be inspired.