Nov. 23, 2008 — Crop Farmer of the Year Michael Bryan still marveled Sunday at the award presented to him Saturday at the 26th Agriculture and Food Fair.
Busily attending to customers Sunday with his wife, Tracy, the third-generation Northside farmer said he was not expecting the honor.
"I was really surprised," he said. The fair judging committee "had been up to the farm and taken soil tests about eight months ago, and then they were up a couple weeks ago, but I hadn't heard anything, so this is really a surprise."
Bryan speaks with a certain pride of how he farms his two-acre plot of land manually: "We use pickax and machete."
The secret to his farming success, he said, lies in rotating his crops on the small acreage.
"We grow just about anything you can name," he said. The Bryans are a fixture Saturday mornings at Market Square with displays of cucumbers, basil, mint, thyme, squashes and bright red peppers stacked before them.
Sudden celebrity doesn't appear to have affected Bryan. Asked to pose for a picture with his award, he laughs.
"It's at home," he said. "I had to unload the truck by flashlight last night, then we had supper and went to bed and got ready for this morning."
Fintrac agronomist Richard Pluke, who presented this year's awards, has worked with local farmers since 2006. St. Thomas is the "hardest place to farm" he's ever seen.
"The hills, the soil, the water and the cost of labor make it very difficult," he said. "If Tutu weren't commercial, it would be much better for farming, with the flat areas."
Sunday's crowds didn't match the day before, with the rain putting some folks off, but those who came out were just as excited by all the bounty as the previous day. When the rains came, people darted under tents or to tables under the relative protection of large shade trees, and continued munching on pates, chicken leg, dumb bread and vegetarian stews while keeping a beat to the rhythms of the Rising Stars Steel Orchestra.
Making her debut this year was Diane Isidore with a raw food counter, a healthy alternative to the mountains of carbohydrates offered nearby. Her offerings include nori (seaweed) wrapped around sunflower meat or sprouts, coconut balls, pizza with a flaxseed crust, plantains in a spicy papaya sauce and every juice you can imagine — from ginger, almond milk, sea moss, Sorrell to plain, ordinary carrot juice.
Earlier this year Isidore started a catering business, Love Living.
"My grandmother Mary in St. Lucia is 103 and healthy as can be eating fresh fruits and vegetables," she said. "So I decided to follow her lifestyle and help others eat healthily."
You can even indulge a sweet tooth with a slice of mango or strawberry pie, with a flaxseed coconut crust.
A former farmer of the year, Charlie Leonard also came to the fair, along with his brother, Joseph, and seven-year old daughter, Britany. They dispensed giant avocados, basil, peppers, fresh honey, hot sauce and fresh eggs. Sometimes he also offers a few free-range chickens for sale.
"I guess you'd call them free-range," Leonard said with a laugh. "They go wherever."
By the WAPA tent, which featured demonstrations about reducing energy use, sat possibly the strangest-looking plant of the day, bearing what looked for all the world like flowering corn cobs.
"We don't know what it is, either," said a WAPA employee. "A photographer left it here."
Holiday scents wafted out from the UVI Extension Service tent, drawing crowds in for a turkey-carving demonstration. Most were far more intent on the eating than the carving, as Kenn of Kenn's Food Mobile in Crown Bay handed out generous slices of the moist turkey. Asked his secret, he pointed to Blanche Mills, of the UVI Extension Service, who cooked the bird.
Mills happily began sharing her secrets — "two days before, you rub it in garlic and …" — but that, alas, was it. Mills demurred before allowing the recipe to be made public.
"It's really my mother's recipe," she said.,"I'd love to share it, but I wouldn't want to make a mistake."
However, there were plenty of free holiday recipes available — everything from mango sauces to a fruit-nut bread featuring biscuit mix and cherry cola, a slight deviation from the fair's healthy theme.
Back Talk Share your reaction to this news with other Source readers. Please include headline, your name and city and state/country or island where you reside.
