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Farmer’s Market a Tasty Success

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Farmer’s Market a Tasty Success

St. Thomas' Martha Jolie had plenty of fresh produce Wednesday.Lush red tomatoes, crisp green cucumbers, yellowish seasoning peppers and much more were on display Wednesday at St. John’s Farmer’s Market. About a dozen farmers from St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix set up at the V.I. National Park ball field.

“I’m very excited to see anything local and fresh. I’m really hoping they come back every week,” St. John resident Patty Tacquard said.

Theresa Worrell had a mental list. She already bought some cucumbers and was looking for kidney mangoes and some pumpkin. Jane Johannes had her dinner in mind when she bought some seasoning peppers.

Elmo Rabsatt promised Oswin Sewer more than just a lime tree that will produce limes. After Sewer complained about his lack of luck with getting lime trees to produce, Rabsatt said he’d plant the tree himself.

A contingent of students from Gifft Hill School was among those with display tables set up.

“Want a taste of green pepper?” student Kyon Louis, 14, asked.

Fellow student Rachel Myers added that the pepper was picked just that morning. She said that the goal was to grow enough food so the middle school students can have them for lunch every day.

The students in the school’s Earth Program have plants growing in 422 pots, Louis said.

Students from Julius E. Sprauve School came on a field trip.

“It’s important to grow these things. Without vegetables you can’t get strong and healthy,” Sprauve student Sheyla Ramos, 9, said.

Many of those who shopped and shopped some more for the rare chance to buy really fresh produce on St. John said they wished the Farmer’s Market was a regular event. The Agriculture Department held the first one on St. John in August 2010.

Agriculture Commissioner Louis Petersen Jr. was on hand for this Farmer’s Market, one of the three planned for this week on all three islands in recognition of National Agriculture Week. He had kudos for Seaborne Airlines, which reduced the shipping price for bringing produce from St. Croix to St. Thomas, and for the Water Spirit barge, which brought the produce gratis.

Petersen is pushing hard to increase agriculture production across the territory, including St. John. A garden project is in the works for Coral Bay, where growers will be able to rent low-cost plots. Petersen said the project has hit a snag because the local funding available for fencing the property— a necessity to keep out roaming goats and sheep—has dried up in light of the territory’s economic crisis.
He urged any one who wants to help fund the project or has fencing and other supplies to donate, contact him so St. John can start to have its own source of fresh produce.

Call Petersen at 774-5182.

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