Costa Rica - Dia Cinco
The roots drying in the picture above are most commonly known as taro. Here in Costa Rica, they are mostly referred to as dasheen or yampi. They come from a diverse group of plants called Elephant Ear and are a healthy and versatile starchy crop.
Back in Eau Claire, we had this plant growing in pots around our house. It's in the spiderwort family and commonly referred to as Wandering Jew. It's being used here at Finca Fruicion as an edible ground cover underneath some of the other taller plants in the garden beds.
The most common ground cover we have seen so far in Costa Rica is this little yellow peanut called Manisillo (mani means peanut, sillo makes it little). It's not actually a peanut, no nutty tubers, but the foliage is very similar and the little yellow flowers are quite tasty. It's a great nitrogen fixer, like clover and vetch, and is nice and soft on the bare feet!
On our way to visit a neighbor, we stopped at the river for a hike and a swim and found these delicate little purple flowers growing out of the rocks.
Sage (Sabio is his newly adopted Costa Rican spanish name) trying out his new waterproof video camera.
Some lizard eggs were discovered in the sand, a couple came back to the farm with us as an experiment, we'll see who hatches!
On the neighbor's lot, checking out their solar hot water heating system....
And their solar food dryer
A few days ago, we had a visit from a couple from Austin, Texas who have been traveling around checking out various farms and permaculture communities in the region. Rose (far left) is quite fluent in spanish and gifted with the ability to pick up languages quickly. Jake (right next to Rose) runs the Sustainable Urban Agriculture program for the city of Austin. Check out this urban farm ordinance! How about more of this in the world? www.ci.austin.tx.us/edims/document.cfm?id=148296
Also pictured are Alana (in the center) Benjamin (on the far right) who is one of the primary laborers here at Finca Fruicion and lives nearby, Sabio (hiding in the back), Kita the dog, and a gorgeous mango tree.
From the bus where we are living, we hike up a steep, narrow trail with about 7 switchbacks to the main house - here you can see the porch on our way up. We've been chopping open coconuts on that porch and tossing the empty shells over the edge to help build up the soil around the house on the hillside.
JangaRa likes to shimmy up the center post on the porch like it's a coconut palm. Both he and Baraka can zip right up like little monkeys, gripping with their feet. They have TONS of energy! How could we harness that for the farm?
Here we are in the lower garden area with Albis, who is the other primary laborer on the farm and also lives with his family nearby. He recently fractured a rib and was practically forced to take a week off to rest! He is the oldest of 8 and his mother is like an adopted abuela (grandmother) to Cedar, JangaRa and Baraka; she takes care of Cedar 3 days a week.
The pond has 3 kinds of fish, including minnows and talapia, and soon to have fresh water lobster and crab. Albis loves to fish; Alana calls him the King Fisher. He has been very patient with our minimal understanding of spanish and is quite a teacher. We have learned a lot from him already!
Origami lessons at the school bus
Home Sweet Home
