By Lisa Davis-Burnett
You probably know the Freedom Fighter’s Ital Shack on Bush Road. If not, you should! A small wooden restaurant with hand painted signs in red, green and yellow on the right just, before the Prince Bernhard Bridge as you enter Philipsburg. It’s famous for real food from the soil self – and it is always 100% vegan. All meals are lovingly prepared by hand. You can’t get a fresher meal anywhere on the island.
Open daily except Saturdays for breakfast and lunch, and closing around 5:00pm, the restaurant is a hidden gem that has a devoted following among locals and visitors in the know. Stop by – if only for a fresh juice and to drink in the culture.
Ital Shack’s vitality comes from the earth and from the passion and persistence of one farmer, who walks the hillside behind the restaurant, caring for the plants every morning and every afternoon. That would be none other than Roland “Ras Bushman” Joe, the owner and proprietor of the restaurant. Along with his wife and partner, Raisa, Bushman makes sure everything served to the customers of Ital Shack is 100% pure, natural, organic and fresh.
WEEKender visited the couple on a typical morning last week, to take in the extent of the garden, and watch as Bushman harvested some okra and sorrel. We hiked up the steep slope, careful of each step – not to tread on a burgeoning seedling or sprout. The hillside was sculpted into steps, each with a rocky ledge bordering. “The rocks are the foundation of the soil,” said Bushman. “The soil is rich, just as it is; it’s good for growing crops. We have all kinds of things growing here.”
Each ledge reached higher and higher up the hillside. Along the climb, he pointed out the wide variety to behold: watermelon, pomegranate, plum, pineapple, moringa, sugar apple, arugula, kenip, akee, lemongrass, cassava, pumpkin, sour orange, onions, radish, sage, oregano, basil, mint, eggplant, banana, papaya, green beans, cherry, fragrant bay leaf and spinach. “This is the whole culture, way up in the hill,” he smiled as he brushed through the vegetation. “The view is peaceful from up here; you can never be up here and not feel peace.”
A recent addition to the farm is a greenhouse built on the remains of a stone structure still standing after the remodelling done by Hurricane Irma. The greenhouse keeps the iguanas and monkeys away from their favourite crops. “The greenhouse uses beds for growing lettuce and other greens. I also make the compost from kitchen scraps to add nutrients to the soil.”
High up on the hill, the vista laid out below encompassed the Great Salt Pond, Bush Road, Illidge Road and Pondfill Road with its strip of businesses. The distance made the busy streets seem remote. While I sat on a boulder of basalt, a hawk flew by as Bushman was busy harvesting the sorrel: “I been doing this for a long time, I originally began the farm as a protest to those who said St. Maarten is not for agriculture. I wanted to show them that it can be done.”
“We want to encourage people to do more planting. When we began this lifestyle in the 70s and 80s, people thought we were crazy. But now they realize we were prophesying. This is the way of culture and passion; it is for our health and for life.”
