Affectionately dubbed Spice Island, Grenada is home to rich flavors like nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and a host of others that are included in Grenada’s nourishing food. 

For natives like Theresa Marryshow, the connection to her home country is deeper than what meets the surface — in fact, it goes far beyond it.

“I connected with the farm from my grandparents and they were the offspring of the slaves, the early slaves,” Marryshow, the owner of T’s Eco Gardens, said during an interview with Blavity.

“Growing up on the farm — we grew up as a farming family — and when my grandparents died, then my mother had her share, and when my mother died we continued all the nieces, nephews, and what have you. And I think that during slavery, with our grandparents as we did not experience it, they left a legacy behind that we had to appreciate farming because it is what took care of them.”

That same attention to detail when it comes to caring for and sustaining people through food continues through Marryshow’s work on her farm. 

“I love agriculture, it’s my passion,” she said. “And I will be here until my legs and my hands and my eyes cannot do anything. I love farming. It’s a sense of release, you know? Sometimes I’m stressed and I’m worried, and I come to the farm and look at the seeds or sow the seeds to plant the crops and realize that this is life — plants and humans — are so much alike. Agriculture is the backbone of our economy. We have resources like gold and diamonds and other things, but we have land and because we have land, we cannot be hungry. We have fertile soil in Grenada.”

Amid the Independence Day celebrations on the island, Marryshow, also opened up her farm to a host of family and guests for an experience of sitting around the table, enjoying food grown and cultivated on her land, and sharing stories through music via the sounds of a family-oriented band. 

Guido Marcelle is the owner and operator of T’s Eco Garden, located in St. Andrew, not far from where guests dined. 

“You do not understand Grenadians by any simplicity,” Marcelle a botanist and chemist, said. “There is a modicum of complexity. You have to delve into us to understand us because we are many places and we are almost everywhere. We have a large genealogy. Population-wise, the population is mainly about 99% [Black]. Literacy is very high and ironically most of our brains are exported. So you’ll find that Grenadians are everywhere. Is it a shortcoming or a blessing? That’s something we will have to look at for the next 50 years.”

Marcelle further encouraged those at the table to come back and continue to see what Grenada will have to offer in the years to come.

“Grenada is a country where you should experience all of the senses,” he said. “You should taste, you should smell, you should see, and you should enjoy the sun. That’s our dynamic and I would say we cannot be simply interpreted, but rather experienced.”