Local Produce
Seasonings
Many homes in Barbados have a small kitchen garden tucked away behind their homes in which they grow herbs. The most typical way to use them is to make a blend of fresh herbs and spices known locally as Bajan seasoning - it includes thyme, marjoram, spring onions, onions, garlic, parsley, basil and scotch bonnet peppers blended with clove, black pepper, paprika and salt. The pepper gives a pleasant bite and brings out the flavour of the ingredients. Many people make this themselves but various versions are sold islandwide.
Local herbs are also used to make various teas and old-time remedies - bush tea for a bad cough or a cleansing, ginger and garlic for a sore throat. A grandmother's cure is potent and guaranteed to work fast for any ailment that might betide.
Local herbs are also used to make various teas and old-time remedies - bush tea for a bad cough or a cleansing, ginger and garlic for a sore throat. A grandmother's cure is potent and guaranteed to work fast for any ailment that might betide.
Fruits and Vegetables
Locally grown are some of the finest and yummiest fruits and veggies, much tastier (and cheaper) straight from the field than the heavily-preserved imported versions. (Though you will of course find the non-homegrown stuff as well.) Sweet potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, okras, peppers, squash, plantains, and breadfruit abound, just to name a few . . . as well as indigenous fruits of every kind - mangoes, sugar apples, passion fruit, guavas, mammee apple, pawpaw, grapefruit, Bajan cherries, limes, coconuts - you get the point. Then there's things you won't find in the supermarkets - breathing heaps of produce arranged on trays and liberated from their plastic prisons - fresh pulses, snake gourd and bitter karela, mauby bark, breadnuts (in season), buffets and shaddock. Anybody up for a market trip?
Locally grown are some of the finest and yummiest fruits and veggies, much tastier (and cheaper) straight from the field than the heavily-preserved imported versions. (Though you will of course find the non-homegrown stuff as well.) Sweet potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, okras, peppers, squash, plantains, and breadfruit abound, just to name a few . . . as well as indigenous fruits of every kind - mangoes, sugar apples, passion fruit, guavas, mammee apple, pawpaw, grapefruit, Bajan cherries, limes, coconuts - you get the point. Then there's things you won't find in the supermarkets - breathing heaps of produce arranged on trays and liberated from their plastic prisons - fresh pulses, snake gourd and bitter karela, mauby bark, breadnuts (in season), buffets and shaddock. Anybody up for a market trip?
The combination of these seasonings, fruits and vegetables are fabulous for creating rubs, sauces and condiments of every kind, not to mention preserves and chutneys, fabulous dips and drinks. You can find some of these at specialty stores, corners shops and supermarkets around the island.
Read more about how these provisions are used in Barbadian salads, soups and main dishes.
