June 2 to September 2, 2021

Grenadian tour guides comment that “No one has to go hungry on Grenada. They just have to walk in the bush to find edible fruit, vegetables and spices.”

One finds many common fruits (coconuts, bananas, mangos and papayas, passion fruit, guavas), nuts (almonds and cashews) as well as vegetables (callaloo, cabbage, breadfruit) in the markets. Grenadian spices are known worldwide. Nutmeg, allspice, turmeric (known as saffron), cloves, cinnamon and ginger are everywhere.

On our tour, I learned about water lemons (Passiflora Laurifolia). This thin skinned, small plum sized yellow fruit is in the passionfruit family. You enjoy the juice by sucking the juice out and eating the seeds. It was yummy—sweet and sour.

Making ginger juice is easy if you have a food processor. Ginger is spicy hot when it is fresh. The flavor is strong enough that it is mixed with water or fresh lime juice. The kick of ginger juice in ice water tastes wonderful.

Limes in Grenada can be green or yellow. Lime is often mixed with lemon grass for a refreshing juice. Lemons are not widespread. They have a very bumpy peel and are green. Oranges are green. Both sour oranges and juice oranges grow easily. Grapefruit is smaller. Oranges are used for homemade marmalade.

Root vegetables or provision are also commonly grown. They are quite starchy--yucca, starchy potatoes, and boniato (sweet potatoes). Green beans, long beans, summer squash, pumpkin (winter squash), corn, carrots, onions and cabbages are in the markets.

Seasoning peppers look like small hot peppers, but they taste like mild bell peppers or pimentoes.
Herbs like thyme (thime in Grenadian), cilantro (culantro), big leaf oregano, tarragon, basil (usually Thai), bay leaves, lemon grass and mint are readily available.

Chocolate is another product of the island. There are several chocolate cooperatives that produce dark chocolate bars with 60% or more cocoa. Chocolate tea (name of it) is a Grenadian breakfast beverage. It is made with lots of rich cream, unsweetened cocoa balls, sugar, cream and condensed milk with a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg.