Home News Local news Ag and Food Fair Draws Hundreds to Enjoy Bounty

Ag and Food Fair Draws Hundreds to Enjoy Bounty

0
Ag and Food Fair Draws Hundreds to Enjoy Bounty

Albion 'Chico' George displays his batik.Hundreds of folks bounded out Saturday to the 31st Annual St. Thomas-St. John Agriculture and Food Fair on the rolling green hills of the Reichhold Center for the Arts at the University of the Virgin Islands.

The fair continues from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Though intermittent rain showers fell throughout the day, the fair prevailed, as people were not easily deterred from attending the premier once-a-year opportunity to enjoy the island’s rich bounty.

And such bounty. The hills abounded with all manner of edible and decorative growing things. Farmers brought their bounty – soursop, hibiscus, bougainvillea, cucumbers, fat shiny purple eggplants, tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, plantains, bananas, papayas, squashes, avocados mangoes.

It was a colorful display that kept folks spilling over the grounds comparing notes while inhaling the heady aromas drifting up from the culinary treats warming up a bit farther down the campus.

The emphasis this year appeared to be on healthy food, but always backed by a good dose of the traditional – a pumpkin johnnycake cannot be so easily replaced by a spinach salad.

But, according to Vivian Thomas, the purveyor of “V’s Health Delights,” it’s a matter of taste, of opening your mind to new experiences in eating.

“We have our food traditions,” she said Saturday, while dishing out dishes of butternut squash balls with a bright spinach salad, “but if we open our mind to change, we can be surprised.”

Judging from the people sampling her healthy fare, she has a point.

“Eating things that are good for you is becoming more popular,” she said, with a glance at her pumpkin tarts. She has become a fixture at the twice-monthly Yacht Haven Grand markets. “I have my own following now,” she said with a healthy smile.

The popular pony cart takes youngsters around the fair.Carlos Robles, vice president of the fair committee, noted that the fair’s theme this year is "Cultivating the Next Generation.” Earlier in the week he said visitors this year would notice a significant presence of the territory’s young people.

“We’re looking to encourage the next generation of commissioners, extension service employees, researchers, farmers and entrepreneurs to explore the possibilities awaiting them in agriculture,” Robles said. “To do that, we’re highlighting what young people are already doing and encouraging others to get involved.”

Members of the Future Farmers of America Chapters at Ivana Eudora Kean and Charlotte Amalie high schools were front and center Saturday serving as co-masters of ceremonies for the event, along with young people from UVI’s 4-H program.

Additionally, the fair committee recognized several schools on St. Thomas and St. John which conduct gardening programs or projects for their students.

But, there was one notable senior UVI member Saturday who was busy cultivating a new path of his own, Robles’ colleague Albion "Chico" George, a 30-year mainstay of the UVI extension service.

While handing tiny pots of basil to eager youngsters, George’s usual drill, he took a break for a minute. With one of his huge smiles, he said, “Look, I have something I want you to see,” indicating a UVI tent displaying batik work. “Here’s mine,” he beamed.

When he left to tend to his seedlings customers, Caryl Johnson, UVI Extension Program supervisor, pointed out his batiks, startling color combinations, depicting what he knows best: plants and flowers. strong with George’s ebullient spirit. Johnson praised his work, which he started just a couple of months ago.

How did this turn of his energies take place?

“I listen to the class sometimes outside my office,” George said. “They had this batik artist from Barbados instructing one day, and he caught my attention, and I asked Caryl if I could join her class.”

He has the excitement of a teenager, growing in batik instead of potting soil.

“We are going to have a show next month, too,” he said. “I’ll get to sell my own work.”

Details on the show will be available at VI Council on the Arts Facebook page.

Meantime, kiddies enjoyed the petting zoo, complete with fowl and hoofed critters, horseback rides and the perennially popular rides behind a little dappled brown and white pony which threaded its way through the campus, by the many tempting food booths, agriculture displays, woodworking, arts, crafts, and jewelry displays.

Quadrille dancers led off the opening ceremony, where V.I. Department of Agriculture Commissioner Louis Petersen Jr. and UVI President David Hall made remarks.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here