Making a Composting Toilet and Chasing Pigs

Giant Ratons in the Papaya!

It was a shock going out for a shower last night and hearing a rustling in the papaya tree overhead. I yelled for Keli to come out and bring a camera - we were both amazed at the sight. Here they are called ratons - basically a big rat but I prefer to think of them as a not-so-cute racoon.

I had to laugh recently when a friend told me that they had bought a composting toilet for a thousand dollars. Right now I'm building one out of spare parts that I found around the farm plus a recycled 50 gallon barrel.

You just need some simple tools - a jigsaw, a drill, a measuring tape - and you can build your own.

This is my second - the first one has been filled. Very successful!

Anthony, our neighbor's son, really takes after his father. He is seven years old but swings a mean machete. He wanted to help me with the composting toilet. He was handing me tools, marking out lines and very interested in the tools I own. He had never seen a jigsaw before and immediately recognized it as some kind of saw. I let him go to it and he was sawing through the two inch PVC pipe with a steady hand, keeping to the line.

We had some real country excitement today. I was heading towards the farmhouse when I saw a pig sauntering across the road. I kept my distance because they can be ferocious if there are any baby pigs around. Then I saw 6 piglets and two other big pigs. It wasn't a welcome sight because they will dig up your landscaping and they leave large piles of faeces wherever they go.

Bambi is our neighbors dog. He doesn't like pigs but he respects them. I started egging him on, trying to get him to herd the pigs out of there. He looked at me like, "C'mon, give me a break, they're way bigger than me..."

But he finally started barking at them and mock charging them. As soon as they would look in his direction he would turn tail and run like lightening. But he always came back barking and soon they started heading the other way. A few times they really ran at Bambi and then he ran so fast he looked like he might disappear. They finally got tired of the game and ran back into the forest - with Bambi chasing but careful not to get too close. Everybody, the four neighbor kids, me and Keli were cheering, impressed with his courage.

First Lesson in Harvesting Beans

Today I awoke at 5:45am to the whistling choppers,  Raul and his friend who have been coming to work everyday here on the farm.  They do all the hard work that the Ticos (Costa Ricans) are used to but would kill us - literally.  I just love that they whistle while they work.  People whistle here and today i reflected on that... i am not used to that but it seems like a sign of contentment in the people here and I find it endearing.

I usually do some waking up routine then Jim wakes up and i do another stretching routine along with him so his back is getting better.  Then we have coffee and attempt to make a plan for the day. The next hour is usually spent getting ready to leave which includes boiling the milk that Anna and the kids drop off in the morning. Somtimes i make cheese yogurt sometimes just have it ready for use as milk.  Then laundry - today just taking it off the line and folding, but our washing machine is small and power is limited so we do a little everyday.

I carried mushrooms mycelium from the states and it's been a real pain to keep them cold all the while and the topper was making wood chips by hand.  Since we got the delicate mushrooms in the ground yesterday, which was our main focus for the last several day,s we took a little time to walk and see the bamboo park.  Some of it is doing well, some is getting smothered by cow grass (pasture).  I returned a little disheartened about the pasture.  It is such a big problem here if we don't have cows. We planted many things when we first got the farm when the pasture had been used by cows and was short. We had no idea of the immense problem we faced with the pasture taking over everything.  So now we may have to replan the whole farm or at least a lot of it.  Let some trees go and resrtucture our attack on the pasture and how to have more trees with out having to hire fulltime choppers.  It is difficult to explain the power of how some things grow here because i have never seen anything like it in CA.


After lunch the children came over and each one got a turn playing our Casio piano. They had asked about that yesterday and it was fun to see them get introduced to music and something totally different than their normal experience, it's quite something to be so influential  with these children in terms of exposure to different things.  I wonder, as time goes on and they grow up, what they will do, how we will effect the community, certainly this area has not had any outside influence for a long time or at all.

Then i spent an hour with them pulling beans from the field.  Anna, the kids and I would go out into the field, climb up the hill and pull bunches of drying beans back to a shady spot while Deanae (the father) would thrash them by swinging two sticks onto them to break open the pods.  I noticed the torso follow through he used.  Around here everyone has very good body mechanics because the whole life is spent doing these repititive jobs and the body finds the right way or else...

I was prepared to work with them untill they were done for the day but Deanae sent me home after just an hour. It took five minutes for his whole family to communicate that because of my lack of spanish, and it was quite funny, but finally i got the message i should go.  I didn 't know why untill i got back and Jim told me how red i was.  I showered and fell asleep.

It's two o clock.

Arrived in Costa Rica

We arrived safely and all went according to plan.  It was a wonderful feeling to arrive here.  We went to pick up the car which we keep with Pollo who is now a friend and has an auto shop.  We store the car with him and when we get back he has also done all this wonderful and necessary work on it, so every time we come back to a great working car.  Not an easy feat in Costa Rica.

In the taxi on the way from the airport I realized that i had a kind of relaxation in my body and mind. I feel it every time I come here but this time was more pronounced, I guess because we've been so busy moving.  Jim also noticed as he was tying our suit cases onto the roof of the car that he felt more alive. When he was communicating with Pollo about the bill and all that had been done I could see or feel something different here.  Maybe it's a bit more machismo but also very simple and we have been so lucky to meet and befriend so many truly kind, honest, and extremely helpful people here.

Even in the city where we are staying now I look up at the sky and see stars.  Did i say it is nice to be here?

Tomorrow we're sleeping in.

Not the last song

The Champion is grinding, the Santha is humming, so it looks like our last couple of batches is underway.  Thanks to Maya Resturant on the Square for lending us the grinder and much needed general support from Rachna along the way.  But it feels a little crazy, like everything we do, to be making chocolate; such a big project in the middle of moving ( we leave on the 11th.)  But i guess food processing was in the stars today because i spent the first half of the day crying and sniffling because of the fresh cayenne pepper i was powdering.  I guess some "spicy hearts" are in order.   And this time i'm going to try putting in the Vanilla beans and cinnamon at the end.  Again there is no guarantee but if it comes out good i would like to offer a free bar to those of you who were regular customers.  We are not going to sell any this time... 
We do have some fresh cinnamon sticks and also some of the award winning vanilla beans from Villa Vanilla still available as well as some jars of vanilla extract made by the same farm.  We had intended to offer all these amazing products but i never got around to organizing that.  I'm taking donations for my cost, or just giving it away, I would love for it to be used.  

Oh!!!!! I'm being called to the kitchen this very moment, there is a problem, something is going wrong with the chocolate,  maybe the beans absorbed some moistsure while sitting out... and it is not looking normal, to be continued...

So, anyway, as we leave Sonoma, i look around and feel the hope in my heart that everyone here will take time to sit in silence, or sit and listen to music, not as a backround music but as an event, a rendering of the heart for the heart, the way we use to do in the old days, to participate in the calling of the planet for wasting less, using more natural products in day to day life, reading poetry, making slow food, befriending someone in need, contemplating nature and in general to prioratize our activities in  our lives to reflect our truest desires.

more time passes...

Ok... a Yoga lesson and a short flute practice later, and the chocolate is back to life.  Jim has been tinkering with with it and though we haven't added the sugar yet or the rest of the cacao it looks again full of promise.

In my last days here i reflect on all the relations I have had here, all the nourishment, soulfull education, the deep friendship, and, not to be one sided... all the trials, disapointments, and stupefying realazitions I've had. Each one stays in my heart, finished and unfinished.  Unlike the feeling of escaping from a situation, this feels like a natural shift.  A clear seeing that I've offered what I can, taken what has been offered and surrendered to a deep resolve that sets me free. 

We'll be back to visit and when our paths cross again it will be a delightful occasion.

Please come by if any of the above products are calling you.

We plan on continuing the Blog about our experience in CR.

The Lull

Haven't blogged in a while and why??? No chocolate.   Jim has not felt inspired, we're getting ready to  move, we have to borrow the equipment now and even though we have looked for a Santha grinder on Craigslist everyday we have not found one.  We were lucky to find one before and took it to Costa Rica.  However, I (keli) am also running very, almost fearfully, low on chocolate and resisting temptations to call patrons and ask to buy back some of the good stuff.  So there will be a bit of a lull and hopefully one more batch before we go.

Jim says he will make a new batch of chocolate when he gets inspired or finds a used Santha grinder on Craigslist, whichever comes first.

In character, as people who want everything out on the table, we want to disclose that we (after much research) have found a chocolate bar that impressed us.  It is Askinosie.  Sold in Whole Foods.  It's "bean to bar," wrapped in earth friendly to the max material and, as Jim put it, they have done all the things we could think of and more as far as quality and fair trade and Eco are concerned.  Only my sense of flavoring is missing.  Each bar from different farms taste different and it's nice to see a product on the market which reflects the actual variation of farm life.
Check out his website at https://www.askinosie.com/

We both feel that Sonoma is due for it's own chocolate company and if it is not us at some point then it will be someone else. Either way it's been fun participating in what we have heard one person call "the food that will help tranisition us into the next age."

Here is a nice video about one person doing what we are embarking on.  Grenada Chocolate.
Although we have heard he is expanding and maybe even getting bigger than he intended, his chocolate is still very good too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbRA0NiQDxk

Fifty-Fifty Reviews

We have been getting tremendous reviews of our latest batch of chocolate.

Like this one, from a well known local musician and author...

"If chocolate were music, yours would be the darkest, deepest Mozart."

Or this one, from another local, Laura Chenel, of goat cheese fame...

"We had some last night, just after we finished a small amount of high-end chocolate we had been
enjoying.  Yours blew the other one out of the water!  After tasting yours,
the other one tasted flat, dull, lifeless, boring. It is really intense and
intensely "fruity".  The taste and the impression lingered for a long time. Absolutely stunning.  Off the planet."

                                                Keli preparing cayenne from our garden


 We had been a little surprised at the depth and complexity of the flavor. We weren't sure why this batch was so different. Then today I made some cacao butter out of beans that are so bitter I don't use them to make chocolate. I tasted the cacao butter and made a discovery - when these beans are turned into cacao butter, you can still taste the bitterness but it is transformed. It is as though the clarity and purity of the cacao butter is transmitted to the quality of bitterness - it becomes transparent to all the other flavors and enriches them without obscuring.

This home-made cacao butter is the same stuff we used for the fifty-fifty batch. I guess that is what made the difference.


So tomorrow I am going to make more of the fifty-fifty but with evaporated cane juice from Whole Foods instead of our own farm sugar. Keli is going to add fresh coconut cream and crystallized ginger. Last week we did a small experiment with the coconut and ginger and the results were impressive.

Latest update:

We made another small batch with fresh coconut cream and crystallized ginger. The coconut cream is prepared by running the meat of a coconut through a Champion juicer. A rich cream comes out of the strainer and coconut flakes come out the end. We mix a little bit of the flakes into the cream, freeze it and then pour chocolate over the coconut mixed with crystallized ginger. No added sugar in the coconut cream. The results are sublime...

50/50 Batch

Batch 50/50


16oz beans from San Jose, Costa Rica
16oz beans from our farm--unroasted ( that means raw food)
4oz home made cacao butter and 2oz regular cacao butter
16oz our farm sugar
8oz evaporated organic cane sugar from whole foods
flavored with cinnamon and vanilla from Villa Vanilla, (Rainforestspices.com) a biodynamic farm in Costa Rica

Most of this batch has been pre-ordered and it is a small batch.  We have available :
two large bars with roasted hazel nuts
four medium bars with roasted hazel nuts
three small bars with goji, bee pollen, and brazil nuts
four small plain
eleven leave - plain
 Please call us if you want to order any of this and we will see what is left and I can put it away for you.