When Aubrey Bynoe and Lubitza Currie moved to Dominica to launch Free Up Farm, their ambitions were largely focused on living off the land. The couple, who met during university in Boston in 2012, had spent years working on farms all over Latin America before deciding to take what they’d learned about regenerative agriculture to Bynoe’s home country. In 2017, they purchased a seven-acre plot in the island’s northwest, wanting to be part of Dominica’s recovery in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
They built a modest home around which they planted jackfruit, plantain, rambutan, and papaya, while raising chickens that wandered among the trees. A few years in, rather unexpectedly, visitors started appearing.
“People were showing up saying they’ve heard about an organic farm, so we just started leading them on a walk around the property,” Currie recalls, adding that tours were never part of the initial plans. “People were interested, like you would [be] in a museum, in visiting someone’s farm [to] learn about it.”
Agritourism of all kinds—from short, casual farm visits to immersive months-long work-trade stays—is an established movement in countries like Italy and Costa Rica. But in Dominica, perhaps surprisingly for such a fertile place, it’s still a seedling industry. Nicknamed “Nature Island,” volcanic Dominica seduces visitors with dramatic diving sites, hiking trails to thundering waterfalls, red-rock beaches, and rushing rivers. Its expanses of banana and coconut plantations and fragrant citrus groves have been, until recently, mere backdrop to a tourism industry focused on active adventure.
Lubitza Currie and Aubrey Bynoe started Free Up Farm in northwest Dominica in 2017, and now host property tours and farm-to-table lunches featuring dishes such as passion fruit–papaya tart (pictured).
Courtesy of Free Up Farm
But modern Dominica is built around its fruitful soil, starting as a plantation colony of both France and the United Kingdom. In the 20th century, banana exports to the U.K. bolstered economic prosperity on the island before the industry crashed during the mid-2000s. Today, while you can still grow basically anything anywhere, farming is a niche industry. It’s grueling work, and many will tell you that government assistance can be hard to come by, not to mention the dark history of slavery-based agriculture on the island. Abandoned plantations are plentiful.
But Bynoe and Currie are part of a growing community of farmers committed to reclaiming Dominica’s agricultural heritage. To them, the island’s future depends on it, not only to reclaim food sovereignty for its residents but also to provide them with economic opportunity.
“The potential for agriculture, agritourism, and wellness on the island is immense,” says Vaughan Green, whose family has overseen 36-acre Soma Garden along the Pagua River for generations. As demand for clean living and quality food continues to surge, he adds, Dominica’s fertile land can help it become a food production hub in the region.
As at Free Up, agritourism at Soma Garden started unintentionally. Decades ago, the estate was a thriving coconut plantation before it transitioned into banana production. Only when the banana industry collapsed did Green’s family move toward crop diversity, growing everything from sweet potato and taro to pineapple, avocado, and papaya—many of which they still sell. When he took over in 2022, Green says he became addicted to learning about the land’s growing potential, experimenting with all sorts of crops and plant species to embrace biodiversity. Locals eventually heard about his Spanish tamarind, monkey jack (a cousin to the jackfruit), and peanut butter fruit (named for its distinctive scent and flavor). They started signing up to take tours around Soma to experience Green’s experiments.
Just south of Soma, Kenny Blandford’s six-acre Cocoa Valley Eco Farm is—as with many farms on the island—aimed at reframing agriculture after centuries of exploitative monoculture forced on Dominica by colonialism and slavery. Blandford, as with many of his neighbors, says he was raised around farming and developed a love for cultivation, growing the odd plant in the family garden before eventually committing to his own handful of acres.
The Sea-Cliff Eco Cottages are located a short walk from the village of Calibishie, where travelers will find rum bars and secluded beaches.
Photo by JibiBrown/Shutterstock
“Before, I used to do more conventional farming using all sorts of chemicals, because that was all you knew,” Blandford explains. “But COVID was my wake-up call,” he says, adding that shutdowns forced him to confront the sustainability and health issues that come from those chemical inputs. Five years ago, after researching permaculture and climate-resistant agroforestry, he started from scratch.
Blandford’s crops look wilder, almost random, compared to the neat rows of large-scale industrial farms. During tours, he explains the order behind the chaos: What might seem out of control and messy is actually part of a thriving ecosystem. For instance, cacao—which many on the island think could become a blue-chip crop for Dominica—is planted next to pigeon peas, which help provide shade for other plants and fix essential nitrogen into the soil.
Guests at Cocoa Valley can also participate in grinding and roasting fermented cacao beans before making their own hot chocolate. Blandford, who developed his tourism acumen as a river-tubing guide, says that developing a more dynamic, interactive experience is key to diversifying income streams and making a small farm profitable. Without sustained commercial success, the concern around the island is that future generations may not see opportunity in agriculture at all. But this growing network of passionate pioneers shows that with a bit of commitment, even a small plot of land can transform entire communities.
How to experience Dominica’s agritourism offerings
At Free Up Farm, visitors can join Bynoe and Currie for farm-to-table lunches on property—a program that developed organically from guests asking if they served food. In addition to farm tours, they’ve since started leading multi-day itineraries around Dominica, introducing travelers to like-minded farmers in between hikes, dives, and hot springs.
At Soma Garden, tours are built around showing off the land and all it produces, from various mango varieties to ornamental plants. And, of course, guests can taste many of the fruits and veggies. Green says there are plans to flesh out visits to potentially include larger meals and maybe even adventures on the river. He’s also working on packaging jams and spreads for his guests to take home.
The visitor experience at Cocoa Valley Eco Farm is similar: Blandford, who leads most tours, incorporates storytelling to highlight the importance of sustainable agriculture. Cocoa Valley presents a more unruly style of farming, all of it by design—a tour may even include wading in the river to get up close and personal with Blandford’s crops.
Hotels with hyper-local sourcing
At Secret Bay, a member of Relais & Châteaux, herbs from the on-site garden are used at several on-property dining venues, including the adults-only Bwa Denn cocktail lounge.
Courtesy of Secret Bay
In the northern village of Calibishie, not far from the famous black-sand beach, there’s Sea Cliff Eco-Cottages & Gin Distillery, where Brooklyn transplants Amber and Simon Morris live with their children and operate a lodging and spirits business. The lemongrass, grapefruit, galangal, and West Indian bay leaf that flavor their gin are plucked directly from their organic gardens. Other botanicals are sourced from the community: Recently, Sea Cliff collaborated with Soma Garden to produce a limited-edition dragon fruit gin. A five-minute walk from the bay, the property has five self-service cottages, ranging from studios to two-bedroom units. In May 2026, the couple introduced a saltwater pool adjacent to a yoga pavilion, which will be joined by a new bar in October.
For a more luxurious option, there’s Secret Bay, a secluded beachfront resort with 27 villas in the hilly northwest that sources produce from Free Up and other farms. (Currie also teaches yoga on the property.) The hotel’s close relationships to local agriculture initiatives mean the staff can easily connect guests for tours and tastings. But Secret Bay also has its own farm-to-table effort with Botanica, which hosts cooking classes and a chef’s table dining experience based around the produce, herbs, and spices that grow in the on-site garden.
Dominica’s best farm-to-table dining
The island’s agricultural bounty is a canvas for chefs such as Sutherland Haskell of Lacou, in the Dominican capital of Roseau, and Allison Lo (pictured) of Botanica at Secret Bay.
Courtesy of Secret Bay
Another way to support local farmers is by eating at restaurants that highlight their produce. Chef Sutherland Haskell, for instance, recently relocated back to Dominica after years abroad to open Lacou in the heart of Roseau, Dominica’s capital. The tonka beans in his pastries are from Free Up Farms, as are the free-range eggs in the Niçoise salad. Roots Farm, in the village of Cochrane, supplies the Brazilian passion fruit and daikon radishes that brighten the ceviche. For a fruitier crème brûlée, Haskell asks his neighbors for juicy mangoes.
“Lacou as it is right now would not be able to exist without those farms,” Haskell insists, adding that it’s common around the Caribbean to source pricey ingredients from overseas—New Zealand lamb, Maine lobster. Having reliable local partners allows his kitchen to serve its own take on Dominican home cooking, giving visitors a deeper connection to the island.
“We could copy [those international sourcing practices] easily, and it would make my life a lot easier,” Haskell says—“but where would the fun be in that?”
