Food is a history lesson on St. Lucia, one giant pantry of an island

Tour guide Jahrod Alcindor smells a bottle of spiced rum for sale at Castries Market.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

A vendor at Castries Market selling green fig and saltfish, the national dish of St. Lucia.  (Lori Rackl/For Chicago Tribune)

Tour guide Jahrod Alcindor harvests green bananas to boil in his callaloo.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

Grilled lobster is a popular dish at Capella Marigot Bay resort’s main restaurant.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

The “rum cave” at Capella Marigot Bay resort.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

The pool at Capella overlooking Marigot Bay, reportedly dubbed the most beautiful bay in the Caribbean by novelist James Michener.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

People dig into the food for sale at Gros Islet’s Friday night street party.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

Tour guide Jahrod Alcindor cuts up freshly picked vegetables to make callaloo in a mountainous area near the town of Soufriere.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

Jahrod Alcindor ladles the callaloo into a calabash bowl.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

Capella resort senior sous-chef Klent Abel cooks a dish called shrimp souskaille, a colorful blend of seafood and peppers that’s popular in his native hometown, Soufriere.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

A Hotel Chocolat worker, left, shows a British tourist how to graft a cocoa plant during the Tree to Bar Tour, offered daily.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

A coconut vendor at Castries Market uses a machete to open one of the green fruits, whose clear water is a popular drink on the island.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

Rum tastings are held at Capella’s “rum cave,” where guests can buy spices and use them to infuse their own bottle to take home.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)

St. Lucia’s volcanic spires, the Pitons, come into view while traveling by boat down the west coast of the island.  (Lori Rackl / Chicago Tribune)