Tonight, I'm going to share some photos and talk a bit about food in Haiti. Here's some statistical data, from my pals at Wikipedia ...
" Though more than half of all Haitians work in the agricultural sector, the country relies on imports for half its food needs and 80% of its rice. Haiti exports crops such as mangoes, cacao, coffee, papayas, mahogany nuts,[clarification needed] spinach, and watercress. Agricultural products comprise 6% of all exports.[164] In addition, local agricultural products include corn,beans, cassava, sweet potato, peanuts, pistachios, bananas, millet, pigeon peas and sugar cane."
A big part of giving the Haitians an opportunity for self sufficiency and independence is teaching them agricultural skills. Haiti has extreme weather, ranging from floods to droughts, which makes raising crops and livestock challenging. HFH has been working with a number of Terre Blanche residents installing drip irrigation systems, to help sustain their crops during the dry season. On the main road between Port au Prince and Terre Blanche, we drove past rice fields and processing plants, and street markets that sold just about anything you could imagine finding in Haiti. There were also food stalls set up along the road, that definitely brought back memories of Caribbean living. In Grenada, vendors would sell "street meat", bags of mangoes, skin-ups, papayas, and roasted corn. I was lucky enough to get mangoes, papayas, and the biggest, creamiest avocados I have ever tasted, in Terre Blanche. Most of the crew had the opportunity to go to the market in Terre Blanche, on the last day of clinics. One of the more interesting items sold at the market were "cookies" or "dirt cakes". Dirt is mixed with butter or oil, and sometimes herbs or spices for flavor. Unfortunately, eating dirt is an inexpensive way to fill a hungry belly, and also a source of a lot of parasitic disease found in the locals. It's a sobering thought. Some of the photos below show the markets, dirt cakes, rice bags stacked on the road during harvest, and the wonderful women who made us passion fruit juice and fresh mango mousse!
" Though more than half of all Haitians work in the agricultural sector, the country relies on imports for half its food needs and 80% of its rice. Haiti exports crops such as mangoes, cacao, coffee, papayas, mahogany nuts,[clarification needed] spinach, and watercress. Agricultural products comprise 6% of all exports.[164] In addition, local agricultural products include corn,beans, cassava, sweet potato, peanuts, pistachios, bananas, millet, pigeon peas and sugar cane."
A big part of giving the Haitians an opportunity for self sufficiency and independence is teaching them agricultural skills. Haiti has extreme weather, ranging from floods to droughts, which makes raising crops and livestock challenging. HFH has been working with a number of Terre Blanche residents installing drip irrigation systems, to help sustain their crops during the dry season. On the main road between Port au Prince and Terre Blanche, we drove past rice fields and processing plants, and street markets that sold just about anything you could imagine finding in Haiti. There were also food stalls set up along the road, that definitely brought back memories of Caribbean living. In Grenada, vendors would sell "street meat", bags of mangoes, skin-ups, papayas, and roasted corn. I was lucky enough to get mangoes, papayas, and the biggest, creamiest avocados I have ever tasted, in Terre Blanche. Most of the crew had the opportunity to go to the market in Terre Blanche, on the last day of clinics. One of the more interesting items sold at the market were "cookies" or "dirt cakes". Dirt is mixed with butter or oil, and sometimes herbs or spices for flavor. Unfortunately, eating dirt is an inexpensive way to fill a hungry belly, and also a source of a lot of parasitic disease found in the locals. It's a sobering thought. Some of the photos below show the markets, dirt cakes, rice bags stacked on the road during harvest, and the wonderful women who made us passion fruit juice and fresh mango mousse!
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