Puerto Rico

On a breezy but hot late-summer day, I drive up to Maria Benedetti’s new home and farm. Tucked into the hills of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, her mother’s family’s native home, it’s the first farm she’s ever owned despite having created three herbal learning centers based on traditional botanical medicine.

Maria is dressed in a vibrant, form-fitting rainbow tie-dyed top and teal pants, her curly red and silver hair voluminous and joyful.

“Que te preparo?” she asks. What should I make for you? I tell her it’s up to her, whatever she’d like to show me, and she takes me out to the yard and instructs me to start harvesting what look like weeds from the garden. In fact, it’s margarita silvestre (Bidens sp.), an indigenous plant that grows wild across the island, sometimes sprouting out of sidewalks and parking lots with floppy green leaves and small yellow-centered white blossoms. We pull it up, wash it, shake off the water, and add the leaves and flowers to a pot of simmering, salted water. She cooks the greens until they darken and become tender, then adds olive oil and freshly mashed garlic, and serves me a steaming bowl of nourishing broth and vegetables. She brings out roasted breadfruit and a pesto made of oregano brujo, a powerful native version of fresh oregano that’s widely recognized for its medicinal properties. It’s all delicious, and sourced from the garden that is just steps from her front door. This preparation is the key to Maria’s work on traditional medicinal plants—the cornerstone of a storied career.