Lara's Blog Chapter Three

Chapter 3:

San Vito once more on my third week reunion. Greeted by the darkest clouds I've seen in days up on the hill after the 9km climb on the dirt road. The two boys (sixteen years old and from Sonoma) just arrived a few days ago. I've already become an old timer... At times I feel a bit like the nagging or annoyed-annoying older sister but it's hard to live in such close quarters and share everything all the time.

The Boys

Things get better and more intense by the week. I definitely feel settled in here which is great. I'm also a lot more covered in bug bites (the worst of which swell up my eyes for a few days) and a couple more bee stings. I've gone on a beautiful horseback ride with the other gringo in town, Willy, and took a brief two-day trip with Jim and Keli to the beach near Uvita and Dominical, which was beautiful. We were the only ones on a perfect beach. It looks a lot like Hanalei bay in Kauaii. We covered ourselves in sand, tried surfing, collected pink and purple shells, ate good friend plantain, fish, and homemade ice cream.

Pineapple plants

This morning I planted two rows of pineapple “hijos” (the baby shoots that grow around the mother plant) and helped Raul clear the “monte“- giant brush-weeds to expand the garden.
The chilies and tomatoes came up, I harvested some cucumber and learned how rice is grown by visiting our neighbor's property across the river. I'm learning about the seasons, the crops, the little tricks about the local plants and planting from the passing neighbors and workers, and even the kids. We made sugar and it was amazing: pressing the cane to make cane sugar juice and then boiling it in a large cauldron for hours with a big fire oven underneath. the dulce (brown cane sugar) and the miel (soft, honey-like dulce) are a daily dessert.  

Kids on sugar!

 

                    Boiling Cauldron of Sugar Cane Juice

I'm eating very well. I walked more than 6 km through ´die Pampa,´ as we like to say in German, to buy two dozen eggs... and of course I got loaded up with corn bread and avocados. It's the season for avocados and I think all the locals are worried we’re running out of food so we are gifted them by the dozens as well.

When we are low on food it's time for some food gathering. And I actually feel a bit like an animal foraging when we enter the forest with a horse and some rope and empty sacks, machetes and bamboo poles. Yesterday we got plantains, quadradoes (basically fat bananas), bananas, pejibaye and bread fruit nuts. And of course we indulged in some chocolate fruit while walking through the cacao plantation. It gets me high. I'm telling you, it's the best thing I've ever eaten. And of course the “morpho” butterflies are totally out of control in there with a wingspan of at least 5 inches and phosphorescent, or at least iridescent, colors - purple, blue, green.

Okay, so these are the highlights. Of course there's also lots of muck, snakes, cockroaches, blisters and mold around too, but that’s all overshadowed for me. Thank goodness.

Lara's Blog Chapter Two

Chapter 2:

We just left the higher mountain area after it started pouring rain for an hour because we were worried the waterfall and river would flood the dirt road before we got out. Some Israeli friends of Keli and Jim's live up there and we got some kombucha mushrooms to take home. Now we’re in an agro-economic co-operative where 26 California college kids are doing a project... the first huge group of gringos I've seen since the airport. This area is not at all known for tourists. and I'm loving the rural life.

We successfully made mozzarella the other day with milk from that morning! And then at night we made pizza with it. My diet is the definition of local and I'm really beginning to learn more about trying to be self-sufficient. I'm learning to be very resourceful and inventive with uses for things. I finished sewing curtains for my room, planted a few beds of squash and zucchini, many beds of seeds and my mustard and collards sprouted today!

                                                                



OH! Today we finished our first batch of chocolate! After getting my face, arms and hands covered in chocolate from licking off all the utensils and sampling all along the way and then driving on curvy dirt roads for and hour and a half I felt pretty sick but my god, that chocolate is GOOD. Dark and milk, roasted almonds, vanilla bean and cinnamon. I want to invest in the equipment and start making it in the states. The cacao nibs themselves after roasting and de-husking or shelling the beans are to die for. All very rustic of course. “Home-style.”

I'm getting to know the neighbors poco a poco and they are wonderful. The workers are very shy to talk to me except one who made me think of the 12 days of Christmas song... the first day an avocado from his yard, then two, then four pejibaye, then two woven palm frond pyramids... then he got laid off for a while. The jokes are still going on of course.

Oldemar, one of the workers on the farm

Lara's Blog Chapter One

Chapter One:

Coming down into the Valley

So, this is my first afternoon in the town of San Vito, which is to say that I actually don't even live in this small village, nor in the still smaller village of Sabanillas nearby, but rather down the hill 9 kilometers on a wild dirt and mud road across a few creeks deep down into a mountainous or hilly valley. We don't even live in El Valle, but Bonanza. That's right: Bonanza. That all came after the 6 hour bus ride south from San Jose, a taxi ride, lots of waiting, and two flights. and so far I like it. There's definitely some adjusting going on, but actually I feel like I just got completely transported into another world and time so that the “transitioning” out of school and into summer has been jump started after just a week at home. During the day my thoughts are pretty diverted by all the bright colors, fresh fruits, the rain and slippy mud, and so many other things that it is only really at night that my normal world back at home and school can deeply sink in. And then, of course, I wake up totally astonished at the clanging hammers, loud Spanish TV, wild loud bird sounds, humid air and a big white mosquito net around me.

I live in the old farmhouse which is bright blue and turquoise. there is also the “church” which is where the kitchen is and where I do some of my hanging out, especially at night because it's buggy and dark everywhere else. Writing all this feels weird and makes me feel like I'm not actually here anymore. Internet, computer. I have no watch and only minimal electricity at the farm but its great that way. I've been sort of touring the farm and learning the ropes for the last few days and tomorrow the real work will begin. I'm to be the head of the garden—a big responsibility which makes me nervous but also excited. We pretty much grow everything we eat here so I have real pressure to produce some juicy veggies. Even the coffee we drink, the beans, the rice, the milk (and cheese! --I've already made yogurt, ricotta and a sort of feta) are all from this farm or the neighbors'. Today we dropped off the coffee beans for de-husking and roasting and grinding and then collected empty husks and sawdust for our worm box and compost. I'm going to have to start the compost system...in the tropics? One thing I've found shocking is the incredible speed at which everything rots, decays and grows here! It is unbelievable. The bananas, for example, ripen by the hour. yummy. And they are everywhere.

And a perk I totally did not anticipate is that Keli is a yoga teacher so we do a session every afternoon when the rains come. And the other is that it's only a mile and half walk down to the river to go swimming--and over a rickety suspension bridge very near its end...

Yoga studio

Okay this is getting long. Basically all you need to know is that I've now chopped down a banana tree with a machete in the forest, eaten many strange fruits that I've never heard of before, will be making chocolate soon, and sucked on my first sugar cane. I go to bed at 8 pm and wake up at 5:30 am. It feels totally normal to rise with the sun. By 10 I feel ready for an afternoon nap.

Keli on the public "road"

The Last Blog

This is my last blog entry.

The personal interactions, the clashing of cultures, the protection of the forest, the integrity of the local people and everything in between is what is interesting.
But some things are too sensitive to put in a blog.
This place can be experienced by anybody who wants to come here.

We may occasionally blog when we are making chocolate.

More Visitors! And they're teenagers!

                               Ky and Cooper after their first sample of pure sugar cane juice





We are blogging a bit irregularly now and if you want to receive an email notice when there is a new posting let us know and we will start sending an email out.
We haven't blogged in a while and this blog is an attempt at re-igniting the habit.  We have three guests here at the moment.  Lara, who got a grant from her college to do an internship here, Cooper who was invited here by us to do a volunteer stay over the summer and Ky who was invited by Cooper as a fellow volunteer and companion.

Lara has been here a month now (Wow ,time is flying) Cooper and Ky are in the second half of their month long stay.

Jim and I are preparing to take a vacation and leave the farm and all it's operations to our volunteers.

Actually, that is not true.  Cooper and Ky who are 16 years old now along with Jim have been doing a sort of sarcastic/joking thing - they say things that sound serious but don't mean it. I am learning how that works and it is starting to seep out through my lips, too - like just now.  Living with two teeanage boys has been an outrageous, challenging, and rewarding experience for us.  They have been busy every day with projects ranging from digging drainage ditches, to cutting sugar cane and making sugar, to walking an hour to the nearby village to do some work on another farm in trade for a rafting trip. Ky is working on a video of his stay and the farm, Cooper and Lara have been journaling and we have been taking pictures so there is a good record of what is happening.  But the personal development, with all its internal negotiating and re-adjusting, is the really juicy part.

Lara has given us a gift of taking over the garden operation and we are eating well from her greens.  She has a fabulous report she made for her college which maybe we can post to share the multitude of things she is experiencing here.

It is now 7:30 AM. Ky is having breakfast and writing something and Cooper is outside sharpening his new machette.  They are now making all their own decisions about what to do, and when to wake up and get moving. They've organized a trade with Willy and will leave soon to work on his farm for the day.

                                      Ky learning the proper technique for holding a pickaxe

New Video of Bullock Cart

I'm not so sure that the link to the right of the home page of this blog accurately reflects the videos that I've taken of the Chocolate Farm.


So, here is a direct link to the newest video.... A bullock cart, which turns out to be a surprisingly efficient mode of transportation when your car would get instantly stuck in a foot of mud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVIUfDFdiZ4

The arrival of our first guest! And lots of pictures.

Lara, our first guest, enjoying a bowl of her mother's granola. (Debbie, your granola is magnificent!)

                                      Bullock cart delivering our new fence posts

This is our new yoga studio, as seen from the road.

You've heard of "its a dog-eat-dog world," haven't you?

Well, out here in the country, its a spider eat  moth world. This was a startling sight, even for us country folk.

                       Raul and Andreas, two of our workers. They are laughing because at first they put on a very solemn appearance for my camera. Then I asked them to look like tough guys and try and look mean...

                                       Keli, walking down the "road"

This is a rare moment  - I am sitting in an Internet cafe with nothing better to do than try and update the blog.                                                                                                           

I know it has been a long time since our last update. We have been so busy getting ready for our guest, Lara, who is on a 10 week visit to help us out here on the farm. We were really stressing out, trying to get all the details in place for her before she arrived. We were remodeling the original farmhouse bathroom and shower, cleaning up the house and just generally trying to get everything in order so she wouldn't be too depressed at the thought of spending two and a half months here.

Then, it turns out - due to my dyslexic mistake - that she is arriving three days earlier than we had planned and the construction is two weeks behind our original, very generous time estimates.

But once she got here everything fell into place. She doesn't mind that she has to use our shower for now or that her new home is a construction site. She is flexible and understanding and those are very valuable qualities around here.

What we have discovered is that even one more person makes a huge difference to the farm. Its not just her youth, enthusiasm and energy - its that it takes almost the full efforts of two people just to maintain the farm and its infrastructure. So when a new person comes and they can devote themselves totally to the new garden and making compost and planting seeds... it makes a huge difference.