St. John Is the U.S. Virgin Island You Can’t Just Sail Past Anymore

“Our food scene has become so much more robust,” says Dr. Sewer. “There was a time when it was hard to find local food that wasn’t American food—it was kind of heartbreaking.”

To sample authentic Virgin Island flavors like conch stew, salt fish, and fungi (a cornmeal-based dumpling made with okra, salt, and butter), she recommends stopping by Hillside Terrace in Cruz Bay, before closing out the night at the recently reopened Mooie’s Bar, an Afro-Caribbean institution founded in 1956 by Virgin Islander senator Theovald E. “Mooie” Moorhead and now run by his daughter, the artist and filmmaker Theodora Moorehead. The rum punch is still the island’s best; now, there are fresh wall murals by Theodora and a covetable collection of fashion-forward merch that might just be the island’s coolest souvenir.

What many of the best tables on St. John have in common? Fresh produce from the island’s 18-acre Coral Bay Organic Farm and Garden Center, founded more than 30 years ago by Hugo and Josephine Roller in the Carolina Valley. The couple met in Malaysia in the mid-1980s—he was there studying organic farming techniques, she was an agricultural engineer managing large plantations—and after falling in love, they moved to St. John to start their business. Decades later, they’re still at it, juggling bureaucracy and chef wish-lists to cut the freshest mixed greens, kales, herbs, and arugulas. It remains one of the rare examples of organic farming on this scale in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“With the costs of land rising astronomically in recent years, the competition for use continues to marginalize agriculture as an economic activity,” says Hugo, pointing to the island’s long, layered history: under Danish rule, sugarcane monoculture crowded out food crops; after the 1917 transfer to U.S. governance, mainland imports became the norm, further sidelining small farmers. Still, the couple carries on, driven by their passion for organic agriculture and their love for the local community. Eventually, they hope to open an on-site agritourism project, giving guests front-door access to their gardens—if, that is, their permit ever gets approved.