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Sophia Sniffin, Trinity College

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Hello to all who are reading this! We are nearing our last few days of our on shore St.Croix component. Today was Saturday and here on the island that means off to the Farmers Market! After breakfast we packed in the van and drove to one of the two farmers markets on the island. We arrived at an empty market 🙁 Luckily there are two! So we kept driving and alas a farmers market in full swing!

It had stands both inside and out with different foods, drinks, jewelry, and more. Our mission for the morning was, in groups, to find an item and ask about how it’s grown, its relation to St. Croix, and how to prepare it. Once we found our item we grabbed Ben and bought enough for a little ‘Show and TASTE’ before dinner! It was lovely getting to walk around and see the different foods they had on display. It was also an optimal place for some holiday gift shopping. Beans bought a dinosaur ring, Gwynne got a bracelet for her mom, Elle and Blake got bean balls (a fried ball of beans, peas and spices), and I got some holiday gifts (I’m not saying what since interested parties are reading this).

Gwynne, Blake and I chose to get sorrel. Sorrel is a flower in the hibiscus family and is used to make Sorrel Drink, a traditional christmas beverage. Now one can freeze, or dry the flower in order to preserve it year round to make Sorrel Drink. We prepared this by taking the seed out of the middle of the flower and placing the flower petals along with skinned and chopped ginger in a pot of water.

We boiled it for 10 minutes adding orange peels and more ginger. We ran out of time and had to serve it warm, but ideally you let it cool, strain it, place it in the fridge and serve it cold with ice. Show and Taste also included: Guava Cheese (Andre and Evan), Arrowroot Porridge (Anna and Caroline), Sugar Cane and Tamarind balls (Elle and Yifeng). I think the Arrowroot Porridge and Guava Cheese were my favorite. The Guava Cheese tasted like a sweet sugary gummy and the Arrowroot Porridge had a great cinnamon flavor.

I’d like to give an early Thanksgiving shout out to my parents, sister Olivia, my friends from home, Sebastian, and Josh! I miss you all so much and can’t wait to show you all the videos and photos I have. Love you guys! Also Happy Early Birthday Elisabeth!

Addendum: Andre would like to credit our talented deckhand Kaleena Davis for the photos used in his blog entry. Providing proper credits slipped his mind at the time of writing and he’s been stressing out about it like when he undercooked everybody’s rice that one time during the shore component and couldn’t get over it for a week.