‘Ground Provisions’ in Barbados
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7 March 2016
Green banana salad
Green banana salad

by Karen Karp

I like the familiar in Barbados: a regular shopping list that includes flying fish; papaya; incredibly sweet and perfectly sized bananas; the traditional bread which is puffy and has too much sugar in it; and local staple vegetables like okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, and lovely, floppy, variegated-leaved lettuce; and black belly lamb (shoulders, ribs, great).

As happens every year, there were some new items that I encountered this time out: raw milk, from the supermarket, a half-gallon of which would last the month for morning tea once divided up into four smaller bottles and put in the freezer; dried coconut milk (for cooking just about anything); sailfish (beautiful steaks with the consistency of soft, warm tofu); and green bananas, which made it to this year’s larder.

There are still a number of “ground provisions” that didn’t hop into my shopping bag, and may or may never do so in future years.

Here are some lasting impressions from my month in Barbados: