Wild Tobago

Regenerative agriculture is taking root in Barbados, and Trinis are part of the revolution. Pat Ganase takes a tour with Rheanna Chen who will soon return to Trinidad. (Photos courtesy Pat Ganase) Rheanna Chen left Trinidad in 2018 for Italy. She was headed to the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo to pursue her Masters in Gastronomy, World Food Cultures and Mobility, in her continuing mission to heal the world through food. It was the path she charted with her first degree, BS International Agriculture Development at the University of California at Davis; and continued at the Green Market Santa Cruz. Rheanna chooses cassava pancakes at the Farm House Cafe By the time she was ready to return from Italy in 2020, Trinidad’s borders were closed against Covid-19. The route became circuitous – through France to Martinique. She applied for an opening in Barbados and took that job. Program Coordinator, Slow Food Barbados, provided yet another window of o...

Home may be a box cottage or a mansion on a hill; make the most of it by integrating with the outside, sky, sea, wind and trees. An approach and philosophy called permaculture assures every householder and land-owner a nurturing and sustainable environment around “home.”  P at Ganase talks with Erle Rahaman-Noronha in Tobago Newsday, February 8, 2017 To Erle Rahaman-Noronha, the design principles of permaculture are home grown – on his own farm – and to be shared. In Barbados, Mustique, Grenada and Dominica, permaculture is reshaping citizens and landscapes. A permaculture approach takes care of water and soil resources, and builds resilience in the face of extreme events (storms, flooding) and climate change. We take a walk through the permaculture principles that Noronha lives. Erle Rahaman-Noronha of Caribbean Permaculture Consultants. Photo by Anjani Ganase Noronha’s home is Wa Samaki (Swahili, about fish) – so named because his first business (1997) was breedi...