Aug 10 2010
Conscious Eating and Disposal on St. Croix: sustainability and survival
We, present house company, are all very excited about having just submitted our order for island-grown organic produce! On Wednesday we will be able to pick up bundles of spinach, bananas, chaya, katuk, moringa, mangoes, passionfruit, eggplants, arugula, and coffee straight from the hands at Creque Dam Farm. Some of the aforementioned wonders, such as moringa flowers and katuk, we had to research prior to purchase, but I’d say that we are feeling more limitless than limited by our local produce! We are, in fact, excited to test some local flora and fauna on our other senses besides those governing olfaction and vision.
How did we come to this conclusion? It goes a little something like this: we arrive at the supermarket only the find that everything we intended to buy is either overripe, hard as rock, or from a million miles away. The change in food plan might have been easily overcome if it were not for the fact that every one of our gang has dietary preferences as well as regimens; supplying food to sustain everyone is a challenge worthy of any food network challenge! Some are vegetarians and hypoglycemic, others gluten-nut-dairy-free carnivores, others avoid vitamin k, carbohydrates, or nightshades, and still others are triathletes who might waste away were it not for their nightly scoop of ice cream (variation is the strength of the species, is it not?). And so, when it was also mentioned that in food-shopping excursions priority was to be given to the packaging materials (aka plastic-free) and origins of the produce…well, I think secretly our cook was tempted to quit on us, especially being that most produce is packaged in styrofoam and plastic containers because after all, this is the tropics. We grabbed some sweet potatoes and some cucumbers, threw them into our canvas food bags, and retreated.
