ST. CROIX — A backyard gardener from St. Lucia who moved to St. Croix to live with her older sister when she was 17 years old attributes heavy rain, prayer, and daily talks with her fruit tree to growing the largest soursop she has ever seen.
Martha Jean-Pierre grew a 14-inch-long, 9-inch-wide soursop weighing 14 pounds after nurturing the tree she planted six years ago on her quarter-acre property in Estate Hannah’s Rest.
“I nurture it, I pray, I talk to it, so that was like God’s blessing to see that humongous soursop,” she said.
The oval-shaped tropical fruit that is covered with prickly spikes typically grows up to 8 inches and weighs up to 10 pounds, so Jean-Pierre said she was surprised to see her tree produce such a large soursop. She said she learned how to grow food as a child in St. Lucia because her parents had a garden.
“I have a lot of experience in growing backyard gardens,” she said.
After harvesting such a large and heavy soursop from her tree, Jean-Pierre offered a few theories for how it got so big.
“I would say it have a lot to do with the rain because we had a lot of rain,” she said. “And, you know, whenever we get fresh water from the rain, your fruits and plants grow much better than if it’s sunny.”
Beyond the rainfall, Jean-Pierre said she prayed every day for her soursop tree to produce. She said she even talked to it.
“I talk to all my plants in the morning,” she said. “When I get up, I say, ‘how y’all doing?”
Jean-Pierre said she first learned about the benefits of talking to plants and trees while growing up in St. Lucia. She said that knowledge gets reinforced when she visits St. Lucia every few years.
“I’ve also learned that from elderly people, too, because sometimes the elderly know more than us,” she said. “And, you know, it works.”
Jean-Pierre’s soursop was so big she cut it up to share with friends, family, and neighbors. She also froze some of the massive fruit so she could thaw it at her leisure to make soursop juice.
“It’s very nutritious,” Jean-Pierre said about soursop juice, which she compared in texture to sea moss or peanut punch. “Some people add milk to it, some don’t. It all depends how you like it.”
When Jean-Pierre makes soursop juice, she doesn’t use any measurements when adding water, cinnamon, and sugar. She does it all by taste. She begins by mixing the soursop and water in a blender after removing the skins and seeds from the fruit. If it’s too thick, she adds more water. She then pours the mixture into a strainer propped over a bucket and stirs inside the strainer with a wooden spoon to remove the juice from the pulp. She returns some of the juice to the blender to mix in cinnamon and sugar before returning it to the bucket. The last step is a dash of vanilla.
A St. Croix resident of 57 years, Jean-Pierre has lived in Hannah’s Rest for 34 years. She has grown fruit trees in her backyard and vegetables in her front yard garden bed the entire time.
“I like to eat organic food,” she said.
A mother of two, Jean-Pierre said she was raised eating organic food as opposed to conventionally-grown produce that is not required to be tested for pesticides.
“It’s like it tastes better, so I like to have my organic stuff grown by me,” she said.
A retiree from the Virgin Islands Department of Human Services, Jean-Pierre ended her 30-year career aiding the community in 2011, which is when she was recognized as employee of the year. She now spends time growing a variety of fruits and vegetables when she isn’t selling souvenirs and clothing as a cruise ship vendor. In addition to soursop, she grows tomato, avocado, cucumber, banana, plantains, breadfruit, lettuce, kale, eggplant, sweet potato, collard greens, celery, and seasoning peppers.
Jean-Pierre has planted a variety of fruit trees in her backyard throughout the years, replacing hurricane-damaged trees when necessary. She ferments fruit picked from her trees for three months to make wine, which she sells at vendor fairs in sealed bottles decorated with her “Martha’s Specialty” label. She makes wine from carambola, gooseberry, mango, golden apple, elderberry, and plum. She also makes a variety of fruit juices and stewed fruit.
