Arona PetersenHerbal Renditions

When Arona Petersen was born in 1908, much of what was learned about how our preceding generations lived was passed along by the telling of stories. She mastered this oral tradition, and kept it alive during her lifetime as a resident of St. Thomas. Author, entrepreneur, folklorist and herbalist, Petersen was also known for her deep knowledge of West Indian food and food ways.  During her long and varied culinary career she worked as a cook at Fort Buchanan Army base in Puerto Rico and operated two popular and legendary restaurants in St. Thomas.

In her mid-60s, after closing her second restaurant, known locally as The House with the Green Roof, Petersen began writing a newspaper column. For twelve years she authored a weekly column in the Virgin Islands Daily News. This popular feature, written in phonetic island dialect, was often a running dialogue among the main characters, three gossiping market women, Miah, Stella and Melda, who bemoaned the passing of the old ways. The weekly column resulted in her third book, Food and Folklore of the Virgin Islands (1990), a collection of her newspaper writings and where she continued her quest, the preservation of the local culture, as she shared her philosophy of life & death coupled with a generous offering of her favorite recipes of Virgin Islands food.