When life gives you lemons, make lemon zest for your ponche de crème! At least, that is what some peo­ple in T&T are do­ing to­day as they cel­e­brate “Christ­mas in Ju­ly”. Based on so­cial me­dia com­ments, this year, many peo­ple have been mak­ing the most of the mid-year ob­ser­vance, wel­com­ing it as a much-need­ed re­prieve from 16 months of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Since Ju­ly 1, some have been clean­ing, paint­ing and trans­form­ing their homes with Christ­mas dé­cor while en­joy­ing the sweet strains of parang and Christ­mas oldies or bing­ing on Christ­mas movies. Christ­mas lovers have been busi­ly prepar­ing pastelles–both meat and ve­g­an–ham, turkey, sor­rel, gin­ger beer, ponche de crème, wines and oth­er Christ­mas fare, while oth­ers are buy­ing some of their food ready-made or are hav­ing it all catered.

It has been stat­ed that the very first Christ­mas in Ju­ly was cel­e­brat­ed at Key­stone Camp in Bre­vard, North Car­oli­na. The all-girls sum­mer camp held a Christ­mas in Ju­ly week­end cel­e­bra­tion, dur­ing the sum­mer of 1933, com­plete with car­ollers, a Christ­mas tree, fake snow, a gift ex­change, and even a sur­prise vis­it from San­ta Claus him­self. The camp, it was ex­plained, con­tin­ued the tra­di­tion each year and slow­ly the tra­di­tion be­gan to take off in the South—and even­tu­al­ly spread around the coun­try.

Ac­cord­ing to oth­er ex­pla­na­tions, Christ­mas in Ju­ly has be­come pop­u­lar in the South­ern hemi­sphere where warm and cold sea­sons are the op­po­site to coun­tries in the North. Peo­ple want­ed to ex­pe­ri­ence a win­ter feel for Christ­mas and start­ed cel­e­brat­ing in Ju­ly, in the peak of their win­ter. It has been gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty lo­cal­ly with var­i­ous events and sales hav­ing been held in pre-COVID times.

Al­so keep­ing the cel­e­bra­tion alive in 2021 is the Green Mar­ket San­ta Cruz. They will host their “Christ­mas in Ju­ly” theme next Sat­ur­day, Ju­ly 31, from 6 am. “We're mo­ti­vat­ed by a lot of Tri­nis who come home dur­ing the sum­mer hol­i­days when their chil­dren are out of school and they ex­press how they miss all the sea­son­al treats that are not avail­able at this time. So that's what we're hop­ing to of­fer with Christ­mas in Ju­ly; a taste of all those treats–the sor­rel, black cake, ponche de crème– and we're bring­ing out Christ­mas dec­o­ra­tions and try­ing to cre­ate a re­al­ly fes­tive at­mos­phere to make it an en­joy­able ex­pe­ri­ence,” the mar­ket's dig­i­tal con­tent lead, Rhon­da Chan Soo, told Sun­day Guardian.

At its home, Up­per Sad­dle Road, San­ta Cruz, the Green Mar­ket has brought to­geth­er lo­cal farm­ers, grow­ers, food ven­dors, ar­ti­sans and con­sumers for al­most a decade, pro­mot­ing pos­i­tive at­ti­tudes to­wards lo­cal­ly-pro­duced goods and ser­vices and sup­port­ing sus­tain­able liveli­hoods. Pri­or to the pan­dem­ic, the open-air com­mu­ni­ty at­mos­phere had been a mag­net for fam­i­lies on Sat­ur­days. The mar­ket's spe­cial themes like “East­er Eggstrav­a­gan­za” and “Hon­ey Fes­ti­val” through­out the year pro­vid­ed an ex­tra treat, with sell­ers tweak­ing their in­gre­di­ents or en­tire prod­uct to match the par­tic­u­lar oc­ca­sion.

Sell­ers are al­ways in­no­vat­ing and build­ing re­la­tion­ships with cus­tomers; a process which con­tin­ued dur­ing the re­cent lock­down as the mar­ket opened from 6 am to 1 pm on Sat­ur­days at re­duced ca­pac­i­ty, with farm­ers, gar­den grow­ers and ven­dors car­ry­ing pre-pack­aged prod­ucts, Chan Soo said.

In­di­cat­ing that food would be the main at­trac­tion at their event on Sat­ur­day due to pan­dem­ic re­stric­tions, she said on­ly take­away would be of­fered and strict COVID guide­lines would be fol­lowed.

Pastelle with “Chutney Daddy” sorrel chutney from SproutsT&T.

'The month of Ju­ly has come to be as­so­ci­at­ed with food'

The Green Mar­ket has al­so fea­tured Christ­mas pastelle com­pe­ti­tions. Jezue Cor­reia of Cor­reia’s Cater­ing Ltd won the com­pe­ti­tion in 2018 and 2020 with his fam­i­ly's recipe for beef and pork pastelles, and came in sec­ond in 2019. Speak­ing with Sun­day Guardian, he said that the month of Ju­ly has come to be as­so­ci­at­ed with food, es­pe­cial­ly Christ­mas favourites.

“The best flavours come around Christ­mas time, so why not have that more than once a year,” he said. Trac­ing the ex­pe­ri­ence of his grand­moth­er and moth­er, Cor­reia said his fam­i­ly's busi­ness boasts over 40 years in cater­ing and more than ten years in pastelle mak­ing. Their beef, pork and beef, chick­en, fish, and lentils and spinach pastelles are al­so car­ried at pre­mi­um su­per­mar­kets, he said.

Ve­g­an pastelles have stood out in re­cent years, Chan Soo in­formed. Bethany-Kay Da Sil­va and her fam­i­ly of SproutsT&T will par­tic­i­pate for a sec­ond time in Christ­mas in Ju­ly at the mar­ket. They en­tered the pastelle-mak­ing com­pe­ti­tion last year and de­cid­ed to cre­ate a ve­g­an pastelle to set them­selves apart from the tra­di­tion­al meat pastelle mak­ers. Made with lentils, mush­rooms which they sell at the mar­ket and their or­gan­ic home-grown beansprouts, ac­cord­ing to Da Sil­va, the pastelle has all the flavours of a clas­sic beef pastelle, as well as a sim­i­lar tex­ture, and was well-re­ceived at the com­pe­ti­tion. They do or­ders for ve­g­an pastelles at present which pair nice­ly with their “Chut­ney Dad­dy” brand sor­rel chut­ney, an­oth­er prod­uct they will be bring­ing to the mar­ket on Sat­ur­day.

“(The sor­rel chut­ney) start­ed as a fam­i­ly tra­di­tion for Christ­mas and my grand­moth­er asked if my fa­ther would make a batch to sell dur­ing Christ­mas in Ju­ly.”

Since then, sales of the savoury, slight­ly sweet and spicy chunky rel­ish have tak­en off, Da Sil­va said, adding that they were look­ing for­ward to the fes­tiv­i­ties, though dif­fer­ent this year.

“We re­al­ly en­joy the fan­fare and fes­tiv­i­ties, dress­ing for the oc­ca­sion, dec­o­rat­ing our prod­ucts and keep­ing our ta­ble live­ly and spir­it­ed,” she said.

Mean­while, Pa­tri­cia Nep­tune, plagued by per­sis­tent di­ges­tive is­sues years ago while va­ca­tion­ing in Flori­da, her host rec­om­mend­ed kom­bucha, a fer­ment­ed tea said to have health ben­e­fits, and she found re­lief. Come Sat­ur­day, Nep­tune, of In­ter­na­tion­al Beau­ty and Well­ness, will be bring­ing her stocks of sor­rel kom­bucha to pa­trons at the mar­ket. Op­er­at­ing out of her store at Arou­ca and at pop up mar­kets, she has made or­gan­ic kom­bucha for 18 years and her prod­ucts are al­so car­ried by phar­ma­cies.

“The re­lief I felt in such a short time drove me to em­brace the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ac­cept a train­ing pro­gramme. On my re­turn, I de­cid­ed that since we have such ex­ot­ic lo­cal fruits, why not use them to en­hance the orig­i­nal for­mu­la. The feed­back from cus­tomers sug­gests that's what sets our kom­bucha apart,” she said.

Her reg­u­lar flavours are mint, mau­by, gin­ger, orig­i­nal and she pro­duces sor­rel, man­go, berry and sour­sop sea­son­al­ly.

Pa­trons of the mar­ket have al­so been snap­ping up re­frig­er­a­tor and oven han­dle cov­ers by Jil­lian An­tho­ny of Ibukun de­signs. An­tho­ny typ­i­cal­ly de­signed jew­el­ry for women and men us­ing nat­ur­al and re­cy­clable ma­te­ri­als, but start­ed mak­ing han­dle cov­ers af­ter a friend gift­ed her some for her fridge and com­ment­ed that she should try do­ing them.

An­tho­ny re­called ask­ing neigh­bours and friends to mea­sure their fridge, oven and mi­crowave han­dles, so she could do dif­fer­ent sizes and she has gar­nered favourable re­spons­es at a num­ber of craft mar­kets in which she par­tic­i­pates. The cov­ers go on and come off eas­i­ly as they have vel­cro snaps and An­tho­ny has al­so made re­versible ones.

Peo­ple have been lap­ping them up be­cause they are prac­ti­cal for keep­ing fin­ger­prints, wa­ter­marks and even rust caused by hands which may have salt or oth­er cor­ro­sive sub­stances off ap­pli­ances, es­pe­cial­ly ones made of stain­less steel. And they al­so make ex­cel­lent gifts, she said.

“I worked at a com­pa­ny for 22 years and they didn't make me per­ma­nent, so I de­cid­ed I would just leave and fol­low my pas­sion; craft,” she said.

An­tho­ny who said it has been tough not be­ing able to see her two sons who left to live abroad in 2019, said she wel­comed Christ­mas in Ju­ly as a time to com­mem­o­rate the sea­son she adores most. She said Trinida­di­ans, in gen­er­al, love Christ­mas and the am­bi­ence at the mar­ket dur­ing the Christ­mas in Ju­ly event kin­dles the spir­it of the larg­er fes­tive De­cem­ber sea­son for one and all.

Roast duck bao with Chinese pickles and Hoisin drizzle by Yu Wan Mai Gourmet.

Ven­dors be­come in­ven­tive

A cu­ri­ous del­i­ca­cy first cre­at­ed by Can­dace Chow of Yu Wan Mai Gourmet at Christ­mas has been catch­ing on at the Green Mar­ket San­ta Cruz.

“The re­ac­tion to it when peo­ple eat it is al­ways the same. They just stop in their tracks and ei­ther close their eyes or moan,” she laughed

“Many cus­tomers liken it to a Chi­nese dou­bles. I've had peo­ple, be­fore COVID, stand up right in front me, burst it open and eat it and I see the de­light in their faces.”

In­spired by the Tai­wanese gua bao, Chow makes baos (which rough­ly mean bread or buns), a flour cas­ing that is steamed like pow and turns out like a soft, fluffy cloud. Un­like pows, baos are open-faced and filled with meat and condi­ments based on the cus­tomer's re­quests af­ter the dough is cooked. Chow fus­es Asian in­gre­di­ents like five spice, Chi­nese cook­ing wine and sweet and savoury Hoisin sauce with lo­cal sea­son­ings like chadon beni in her pork, chick­en and ve­g­an ver­sions. She serves up her baos with sauces and condi­ments in­clud­ing home-made chow chow, sor­rel rel­ish and Chi­nese pick­les. For the Christ­mas in Ju­ly event, she will do a herbed mush­room stuff­ing for her ve­g­an baos.

“I my­self am a fu­sion. My fa­ther is from Hong Kong and my moth­er is a Tri­ni–Chi­nese–Span­ish–callaloo. I grew up in a house­hold with two cul­tures.”

She said her fa­ther who came to Trinidad around 1973 when he was 13, did not like Tri­ni food ini­tial­ly. Over­time he start­ed adapt­ing and end­ed up falling in love with lo­cal cui­sine. He be­gan do­ing his own spin on lo­cal dish­es “...and that is where I got it from.”

“In the 80s there was a Chi­nese (TV) show called Chin Chow's Kitchen, so he would have had the first Chi­nese cook­ing show in Trinidad. My both par­ents are ac­tu­al­ly re­al­ly good chefs and I learned to cook from my grand­moth­er.”

Chow launched her Asian fu­sion baos in 2018 at a Christ­mas fair at NA­PA, of­fer­ing ham baos with chow chow slaw and turkey baos with a sor­rel rel­ish.

The pas­sion­ate home-cook who is proud that her food is made with meat from lo­cal farm­ers has since built up a fol­low­ing on so­cial me­dia, as well as reg­u­lar cus­tomers at the Green Mar­ket as peo­ple are al­ways telling friends about her baos. She said she of­ten finds her­self hav­ing to ex­plain what they are to new cus­tomers.

Chow said she loves Christ­mas, tra­di­tion­al Christ­mas car­ols and clas­sic lo­cal Christ­mas mu­sic and cel­e­brates Christ­mas in Ju­ly by lis­ten­ing to Sweet 100 which pro­motes the theme while mak­ing her prod­ucts for the mar­ket.

“What it means to me is a nice break from the mo­not­o­ny of the year to just be cheer­ful and child-like. That in­no­cence...it just takes you back to that time. While I'm prepar­ing the food, I play the mu­sic, so it's al­most as if the food gets in­fused with the Christ­mas vibes.

“At the Green Mar­ket it's fun to see what the ven­dors come up with in terms of the Christ­mas flavours and how in­ven­tive they get. I al­so chal­lenge my­self as to how I am go­ing to use the tra­di­tion­al Tri­ni flavours and add a twist. It's fun.”

Oth­er Asian fu­sion dish­es like Hoisin BBQ wings, and sea­son­al fruity iced teas are part of Chow's menu when she ap­pears at oth­er pop-up mar­kets and food fairs.

The pan­dem­ic gave her the im­pe­tus to pro­duce more con­sis­tent­ly. A friend kept en­cour­ag­ing her to go along and she has missed on­ly a cou­ple Sat­ur­days at the Green Mar­ket, she said. She ad­mit­ted that it has been scary to take the full leap and start up a busi­ness and there have been chal­lenges.

Sup­ply­ing fresh food at the mar­ket means prep­ping at least two days in ad­vance and get­ting up at 2 am every Sat­ur­day.

“So it's a labour of love, but the cus­tomers have been sup­port­ing and the jour­ney has been sat­is­fy­ing.

“The old­er I get, I re­alise you have to do what you love. Of course you have to make mon­ey. You have to be smart in what you do, but when you do some­thing you love it doesn't feel like work,” the 40-year-old said.

She said while she is still ob­serv­ing how the re-open­ing of food places and in­creas­ing prices of in­gre­di­ents will af­fect her sales, she has her loy­al cus­tomers and is open to cater­ing and oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ties.

“It's a very volatile time. Noth­ing is pre­dictable any­more. You go and see what the day brings and every day it's some­thing new...you just have to keep piv­ot­ing.”