Puerto Rico Rebounds

Puerto Rico has always been known for its' locally farmed ingredients. Two violent hurricanes changed all that two years ago, leaving the island to rely on canned and frozen goods from the US mainland. Thankfully , that's all changing and fresh produce and spices are coming back to centuries old recipes.

Julia Moskin wrote about this brave island endurance in today's New York Times Food section. Hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed the farmland and the local food movement on Puerto Rico. Everything was wiped out from restaurants to greenhouses. fish farms to food trucks.The mega storms surprisingly stirred up patriotism  of young chefs who had left the island for success
. Mario Juan is  one of them.He was trained at the CIA and worked at the famed Momofuku Noodle Bar and Blanca. Yet he felt the storms were a portent of a career on his native island. Now he is proudly making pernil sandwiches in a permanently parked Airstream trailer. Thirty year old university trained botanist Gabriel Meja Lugo had his farm destroyed thanks to Hurricane Maria. He had to retreat to his extended family in Brooklyn where he sometimes worked , helping farmers at the Union Square Greenmarket. He is back in Puerto Rico. dedicated to his farm. Older farmers aren't that loyal, just taking their insurance checks and retiring. Before the destruction, farms had a lot of restrictions thanks to the Jones Act which gave islanders all the rights of US citizens along with privileges and limitations.Only American shipping companies can legally transport goods from one  US port to another.That meant chefs sometimes had to go to Costco for their ingredients.

Some of that changed with Hurricane Maria. Food supply chains were snapped in the urgency of feeding people. Mobile kitchens were pressed into service to make sandwiches and sancocho, the island's comfort food, a stew like soup made with chicken and ham.A huge help came from Chef Jose Andres who mobilized an army of cooks, farmers and volunteers days after the storm. His top "lieutenant " Erin Shrode from World Central Kitchen has not left the island. She coordinated the relief effort long after the news crews had left, moving food, cooks and trucks as sections were cleared and power resumed. Two months after the hurricanes, she began alloting grand money from World Central Kitchen to help replant farmland, rebuild bakeries and reopen restaurants. The grant program, Plow To Plate has now garnered almost $600,000 to farmers and other food producers. The farms now are all geared to the side effects of climate change .Greenhouses can be quickly dismantled before a storm and crops saved.This means also bringing back indigenous plants that are the backbone of Puerto Rican cooking.It's sparked an interest from a new generation interested in using heirloom recipes and practicing veganism. The last is thriving on the island, thanks to the news farms and produce.

The hurricanes may have destroyed Puerto Rico but they didn't decimate its' spirit. It is thriving, especially in the  culinary arts. The food culture has come back with a vengeance that even nature can't obliterate.