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The most important dish of this culinary journey is the Minorcan soup, an ancient recipe going back to the Spanish island in the Mediterranean brought here centuries ago along with the Spaniard influx.

Those who survived the journey and a decade of hardship became a vibrant community in St. Augustine that still celebrates its Minorcan roots.

The Minorcan soil seems to revel in its ability to make things grow, from a bounty of aromatics — rosemary bushes, thyme, lavender and chamomile — to yucca trees, blackberry bushes and succulents that shoot up through the rock crevices.

The Minorcan group consisted of 1,400 indentured servants brought over in 1768.

While the whitewashed walls recalled the austere cleanliness of the Minorcan capital, the condition of the streets gave one the impression that the inhabitants subsisted chiefly upon oranges.