Food Webs

It is that early morning time, when the dew still hide on the west side of grass blades and the birds are still the dominant sound in the air. This is the time of cutting flowers and picking spinach and checking irrigation lines. This is the time for a cup of tea and a deep brearth of air. This is the time that makes farming the best job on earth.

That time before most people are working is the peak of your day, your rush hour. Before the heat begins to rise and sun to beat down you have to move all the cut flowers into buckets of cold water and coolers. The leafy greens must be picked and plunged into cold water and the peas hidden in buckets placed in the shade. The quality and keeping power of your wares relies on your ability to beat the sun and work with water shade and breeze to preserve freshness and moisture. At the same time you are filled with business and eagerness, the rest of the world is only barely stirring, thinking not of heat and crisp heads of lettuce, but of coffee and starting car engines.

This fails to capture the reason that I love the morning, and also my job though. Perhaps it is that the morning is new and filled with energy. I will never feel so good for the rest of the day as I do the moments after finishing morning stretches and shaking the sleep from my limbs. Maybe it is the anticipation of what is to come, the Farmers Market oohs and aahs at the bouquets, or the crisp salads yet to be cooked. There certainly is much satisfaction in the mother who buys your spinach to make baby food. For the restuaranters, co-op and families that I well to, there is certainly an element of trust, in purity, nutrition and quality, that fills my work with a certain meaningfulness and purpose.

But what is sometimes perhaps even more satisfying is seeing the land that I work, rather that what most people think of as a farmer's “finished product”. Undoubtedly part of the reason that I so love the morning is that I am not the only part of the farm that is feeling most lively first thing in the morning. Beetles scuttle from bark chip to fallen leaf. Pill bugs look for a place to stay wet through the day. Bees buzz happily about my fingers as I cut the flooms that they are hurriedly harvesting from. Robins, starlings, storks and numerous other birds flit in the air, and quails running out of the brush pile as I walk by.

Being able to be a part of this piece of land, finding my livelihood among so many other livelihoods is really what makes the whole endeavor worth while. As farmer perhaps it is best to say that I am the bridge, between a human food web of restuarants grocery stores farmers markets and dinner plates and a wilder food web; of bird eat bug eat bug eat leaf.

Another good reason to deliver flowers by bike

Rather than in the truck:
It is easier for the owner of Graze to shout at you from the sidewalk: "HEY! Are you selling those flowers?"

And of course the answer is "Why yes, yes I am."

Time

Time is such an interesting thing. There are so many ways of marking and so many reasons that it is a good idea to pay attention to it.

I don't mean in the way that most people pay attention to time, the minutes and seconds of the day, the day of the week, how many hours until the next event.

I am thinking more of passage of the earth through the cosmos and the rest of the cosmos around each other as well. I can't say that I am very good at paying attention to these things, but the cards imply that I should pay more attention.

As a farmer, I already pay attention to the sun more than most. I know the times that it goes up and down, and how that will change as the seasons do. I know how it passes through the sky during the day, much lower in the winter, barely rising above the large trees in the front of the property. During the hotter months it will stary behid the eastern trees only until 8 AM, and then start to make the spinach wilt.

I wish I knew more of the stars and the moon though. The constellations of the zodiac which I plant by, but rely on a calendar to tell me what they are doing. I can't pick out more than a few, and don't recognize a single planet. I can usually remember if the moon is waxing or waning, but not whether it is falling or rising.

These are the things I need to know if I really want to understand time. Time means nothing without movement, and the movement of the large things is important to understanding that.

I also hope to see the movement of the smaller things as time passes, but that is a series of thoughts for another day.

Green

Recently there has been much talk of targeted sanctions against the Revolutionary Guard in Iran as a way to help bring about positive political change in that country, both to help our own interests of keeping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and also to assist the growing pro-democracy opposition movement in the country. In the interest of helping the opposition movement there in particular, we might look to the factors that helped precipitate the Islamic Revolution that brought the current regime to power.

One large factor in any popular uprising is the support of a majority of the people, and in almost all countries that means the necessary help of those in the working classes. While a regime still has substantial resources it is easy to keep the people content by engaging in pork barrel type spending, that while not addressing the root causes of their unrest (in this case, a lack of democracy in recent elections) takes care of basic employment needs and essential bribes them into supporting leaders who do not have their best interests at heart. The current regime in Iran under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is particularly adept at this, and has plenty of money to do that (and to buy bullets for the Revolutionary Guard to continue to put down those that do dare protest) because of their oil resources.

As long as the world continues to use oil at a stable or increasing rate, Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guard will have an easy time keeping protest at a controllable rate. The Shah was in a similar position in the '70s, with oil prices especially high during the oil embargo (in which Iran did not participate). It was only when oil prices fell after the embargo ended that the Shah's regime started to falter, as the economic fate of the poor urban masses fell apart after having been good for so long. It was this economic crisis, along with a drawdown of western support and the charismatic leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini that finally drew enough protesters to the street to end the tyrannical monarchy in Iran.

A similar drop in oil prices, this time brought about by a “green” environmental movement in the western world that could bring victory to the Iranian “green” democracy movement and an end to the military tyrrany of Ahmadinejad.

"Junk"

I know that it is a little cliche, but I feel as if I am constantly being reminded that one person's trash is another person's treasure.

My friends Dana and Ishai just moved in with me this week to help farm this spring. Being new to town and having moved all their belongings in a total of 8 small to large size suitcases there were of course a few things we had to pick up for them, including bikes. We first hit up the thrift stores, and though we were able to find plenty of things such as pillows and lamps, a good bike still eluded us.

We headed off to the bike shop, to pick up gear and see exactly how expensive a new bike might be, mainly thinking to check Craigslist and/or classified ads later. As Dana and Ishai were finishing looking at bike hemets I was waiting by the door when a guy came in to ask the guy at the front if they were taking bike donations for a local cycling program. When he mentioned that they were just out in the back of the truck I just had to ask "Would you be interested in selling one of those bikes to my friends over there?" So we went out and took a look and one of the bikes was a beautiful (though in poor repair) Schwinn 10 speed from the '70s. In need of new tires and a lot of lube, but otherwise a beautiful machine. Dana and Ishai mulled it over and offered him $50 for that one bike, and he accepted and threw in the mountain bike for free.

Obviously these bikes were worth very little to him at this point, but the Schwinn will get Ishai all over Walla Walla this spring. Just like when I am drowning in Tomatoes in September and do all I can to push some off on friends, or trade laundry services with my neighbors for some Anaheim peppers or applesauce. An item of very small value to one becomes something of great value to another. It is why I love to trade things, every one feels like they have made out better than can be expected, or as if they got the best deal.

Off Ometepe and on the homestretch

Ometepe was a blast. I didn´t want to spend too much time writing earlier, but Zopilote was by far the best place I stayed. Probably what was best about it was the feeling of it being a home away from home, rather than a hotel or lodge at which you were a guest. The communal kitchen that one could cook in was certainly the biggest contributor to this, but the atmosphere in general really added to it as well.

It was also fantastic because of the global crossroads it represented. Owned by Italians, French and French-Algerian staff. Guests from Poland, Argentina, Canada (French and English speaking), USA, Maylasia, France, Germany, England and probably more that I am forgetting. The lingua franca of the place went back and forth from English to Spanish depending on the day, but there were always side conversations going on in all sorts of mixtures. In any event though, a lot of great travel stories to hear, with people staying at Zopilote for 2 days to 4 weeks and on 2 week trips to Central America or indefinitely long trips all over the world.

Let me tell you though: If you are going to Central America please learn at least a little Spanish. Here are 3 examples of siguations that should have NEVER HAPPENED 1) At the tienda after picking out a few snacks to buy and being told how much they cost `What does once mean?´(and if you don´t know, it means 11, please learn how to count) 2) "How do I ask which bus to get on?" 3) "Quiero polo." Confused look "Do you want chicken?" "Yeah. Polo." "Quire pollo (pronounced as poyo)" "The double ls make a y?"

Don´t be that person.

Also, why would you ever offer a joint to someone who is chopping limbs off a bamboo stalk with a machete. That just seems like a bad life choice.

Sweating it out in paradise

I am here on Isla de Ometepe, in the hot hot humid air. it is absolutely gorgeus though. Huge island in the middle of a gigantic freshwater lake. I am staying at Finca Ecologica Zopilote, a big organic farm with tons of backpackers from all over the world staying there in bunks and cabanas and hammocks and tents. There is a lovely communal kitchen where we can make our own meals and shop that sells all sorts of farm products. Also, there is a big wood fired oven where they make bread every few days and pizza three times a week. I haven´t been here for a pizza night yet, but I´ve heard they are amazing and people from all over the island show up.

As part of staying ther I am doing a volunteer stint (20% off the cost of accomadations). So far it has been pretty cool. This morning we helped this older Italian guy make a new bed. It had already been all dug out, but the soil here is so rocky and harsh that they have to sift through it and then add compost and rice hulls and put it back in there to make a bed that grows a lot of things. It was really labor intensive (no wheel barrow, very small sifter), but we got it all done and it was super nice to be dirty and tired and getting calluses on my hand again. Plus a major feeling of accomplishment to have actually done something after so many days of being at farms but not actually part of them.

In any event, I think I will wrap this up because it is ungodly hot in this computer room and there are some Canadians here who offered to buy me a drink. 4 more days on the island and then back to Chontales.

It is warmer when you leave the mountains...

In fact, it was quite hot today. And I spent almost all of it in one or another of those busses I described in the last post. Now I am in Granada, a pretty rad city (or so I'm told, having spent all day traveling I haven't had time to look around) at a youth hostel with free internet access and more NotreAmericanos than you can shake a stick at (plus a few spare Euros).

From where was I traveling today? Well I was traveling from a little bit outside of Esteli, in the Miraflor Nature Reserve. I think I described it before, but basically I was staying at another organic coffee farm (though much smaller than the others, it is part of a cooperative rather than exporting independently). This coffee farm is next to a whole bunch of other farms that produce other thingsand then there are a whole bunch of other trees intersperse too and you are not supposed to cut down the trees without permission and now there is some ecotourism going on to insentivize that as well.

The first night I was at Finca Lindos Ojos there was another family staying there. The parents were originally from Nicaragua, moved to Costa Rica and then New York and now live in Nicaragua again. The kids (all adults now) still reside in the US, one in New York with her husband (who was also there) and the other in Washinton DC. In any event, they were really nice and fun to talk to and very New York (though they didn't say it, I'm pretty sure they live in the city or at least nearby). I also got the parent's number in Managua and might stay with them the night before I leave, though I fly out pretty early and they apparently live on the other side of town from the airport.

After they left I was the only person staying at Lindos Ojos for the next two days. It was kind of nice, but also a little boring and isolating. I had some really nice long walks in both the forest and through some farms, but sort of wish I would have hired a guide for at least a half day because it was hard to find the trail heads and I feel like I didn't get as much of the forest as I could have. The woman who cooks and runs things at Lindos Ojos was totally awesome though and VERY patient about my crummy Spanish. Also her kids were seriously adorable and amusing.

Overall though, I was just as happy to leave this morning. First the hour and a half long bus ride to Esteli, down out of the cloud forest into the more arid forest and then the tobacco fields (apparently Nicaragua has good cigars?) Then from Esteli the 3 hour bus ride to Masaya. I sat next to this nice Nicaraguan man who lived in Canada for 5 years (yay real conversation due to English, boo to my continuing abysmal Spanish ability). He is a chef and furniture maker and moved back to Nicaragua because his wife is a radiologist and can't practice in Canada or the US without a new certicficate. Anyway, we talked food and northern climates (he likes Vancouver a lot better than Toronto) and a few other things and he helped me get my bus to Granada a lot quicker than I otherwise would.

In any event, now that I am here I hope to walk around the city really early tomorrow morning and then try to La Finca Ecologico Zopilote at a reasonable hour tomorrow (boat ride). Expect another post on the other side of the water.

Report from the rainforest

Well I´m actually down in the valley at the moment, but heading back up to new mountains soon. During my absence I moved from Selva Negra to Finca Esperanze Verde, where there was no internet, so I will try and catch things up quickly. Esperanza Verde is another coffee farm, but farm more remote and much more Rainforest, less farmstead. It is owned by a Sister City organization between San Ramon, Nicaragua and Durham/Raleigh, NC. With a more remote location came less english skills in the staff (and the tour guide on the coffee tour) and fewer guests. In fact, I had the entire place to myself last night and only shared the lodge with one other family the two nights previous. Nothing like paying Youth Hostel prices and having the entire bunk house to oneself.

On the coffee tour there I got to pick some of the coffee and then they put it through the wet mill (thats the first part of the coffee process). Picking coffee is way hard, let me tell you. And yesterday afternoon I spent a lot of the day watching them sort through the beans, taking out anyones that are a little small or a little burnt, etc.... I thought it was hard and time consuming to sort my culinary beans, that is nothing compared to this high quality coffee process. The hardest part of the coffee picking is that the trees actually get pretty tall, and so you have to bend the whole bush over to get the beans at the top.

What else what else...I also saw a sloth! And some birdies! But here´s a confession of my one major vacation snafu so far: I forgot to bring my binoculars. I know, really dumb. Don´t tell Hutch (my Natural History Prof, for those not in the know).

Also, there is a butterfly house and butterfly breeding program at Finca Esperanza Verde and it is pretty. (I mean, what else can you say about butterflies?) The youth hostel is right next to it and so I pretty much just went and looked in it all the time. There was also a waterfall and you could swim in it! It was mostly too cold for swimming, but if you hiked a whole bunch in the hottest part of the day and then went straight there it was totally refreshing.

After this and picking up some food I will be headed out to Finca Lindos Ojos in the Miraflor Nature Reserve, which is going to involve some serious buses.

The buses! I haven´t told you yet about the buses! So you remember that Blue Bird school bus you rode in 7th grade? Well now it is pimped out and being used for the Matagalpa to Esteli bus route. From what I gathered this is the list of priorities when converting an old school bus into is 1) Add a bitching sound system, 2) Add bumper stickers that say "God has blessed this bus", 3) Add luggage racks and bars for standing room passengers inside, 4) Paint route name and Jesus/Mary on the back, 5) Paint route name and flames on the front or 5)b) Paint route name on front and paint whole bus in bright awesome colors 6) Add more bumper stickers inside proclaiming that God is looking out for the bus and passengers, 7) Add novelty horn.

Anyhow, now for that food and bus. Hasta Luego!

I am in eco-farmer geek paradise

So this morning I went on a long walk on a very slippery path while it was misting but there were lots of trees and epiphytes and birds and monkeys (I only heard most of the birds and only heard all of the monkeys) and I only fell in the mud once so I think it was a total success. And then I went on a farm tour that BLEW MY MIND

All right, so we already know this is an organic coffee farm growing shade grown coffee and with part of it set aside for forest and at least some animals and veggies because that is what the menu at the restaurant said. BUT THERE IS SO MUCH MORE.

First of all they make 1000 tons of compost a year. Then from the coffee processing waste and the human waste and some of the animal waste they do anaerobic decomposition and harvest the methane which is what the workers use to cook. Thats not all the renewable energy though, they also have a small hydroelectric plant that makes enough power for the farm during the rainy season (and by farm I mean village for 200 workers that includes primary school, clinic, etc....). So what sort of animals are these that they get compost and methane from? Well there are about 63 Jersey cows, primarily used for dairy and most of that to make European style cheeses. And then there are the pigs, which they use mostly for German style sausages. And then there are the Quails whose eggs they use for some gross sounding appetizer. And then there are chickens (eggs and meat). Oh and what else, well there is citrus and banana trees scattered throughout the coffee fields and veggie garden and 240 bird species. Oh, and some goats here and there. Apparently they don't actually like coffee though, like in the story. You don't know the story!?!

So the story is that the way the caffeination power of coffee was discovered back in Ethiopia, where coffee originally comes from, is that the guys in the forest saw some goats eat some coffee and the goats started jumping and dancing and the guys were all: Que pasa? (ok, so that is Spanish and not Ethiopian, whatever) and then somehow from that the guys figured out how to brew coffee. But Eddy says it is a lie since goats don't like coffee, but it is a good lie so he still tells it.

In any event- Montana Selva Negra Estate Coffee is officially endorsed by this blog as being grown in an incredibly cool place (and I don't know coffee, but I assume it is tasty) and it is apparently sold in Whole Foods stores all over. Also Montana Selva Negra Hotel is a rocking place to visit. Apparently one of the daughters is getting her masters in Tourism in the US right now, so if you want to come before it gets more Americanized then come NOW, and if you want more of the signs to be in English, come in a few years: selvanegra.com

Oh, but if you come, don't be obnoxious and loud and talk over the guide like the one guy in my car. I wanted to punch him.

And, stop Climate Change because if it gets warmer there will be less high quality coffee and the rain forest will die.

La Laguna and Coffee Land

So I didn't get to Montana Selva Negra yesterday like I said I would, instead I followed Colin to a cute Cabana on La Laguna (huge volcano crater filled with clear fresh water and surrounded by peaceful forest) which was FILLED with other Peace Corp folks. After a day of swimming, chilling in hammocks, watching The Office (I know I know, but these Peace Corp folks don't get to have a TV and DVD player that often) and grilling delicious eats though, it was time to move on and finally get separated from my fab translator and guide (thanks Colin!) to do some solo traveling.

Thus far I have had fantastic luck with getting on and off all the right busses at all the right times, and thus have made it to a world full of coffee, organic veggies, German Chalets (go figure), monkeys, birds, and other fab cloud forest stuff. Having only been here for a couple daylight hours I can't report much yet, except that the food is delicious and clearly very German inspired (I'm going to get fat if I stay here too long).

More to come tomorrow after I do my farm tour and wander the lovely hiking trails.

Greetings from Cowboy country

You know what is delicious? Quesillo, it is this wonderful melty cheese stuff that is kind of like mozarella but you eat it on a tortilla and sometimes there is rice and beans on top of it and sometimes you have bananas too.

Ok, enough about my food obsessions. I am currently staying in Villa Sandino (near Santo Tomas if you actually want to find something on a map) in Chontales with Colin Miller, a lovely amigo de universidad that is currently doing peace corps here.

So far Nicaragua is one of the most laid back place I´ve ever been. Very little hustling on the street, even at taxi stand and bus stops. There is also more open space here then you could believe. Part of that is because I am in cow country, and pastoralism necessarily requires lots of space. There are hills and mountains covered in green as far as the eye can see, and in the next few days I plan on going up there to see some coffee plantations (and yes, I am actually going to drink coffee, I started working on developing a taste for it while I was in Seattle).

Things here run really slow. Sunday everything was closed, except a few shops and restuarants and the church, but even in the open shops things were running at a slow pace. Colin and I spent most of the day going around to see the folks he knew around town and just hung out at his house, enjoying some quiet time. The visiting was good for me to work a little on my spanish skills. My comprehension is pretty good, but I still let Colin do most of the talking for me. I know recognize "does she speak any spanish" though and can answer the appropriate pocito (very little). I also spent a lot of time playing with Colin´s adoraple cat, Miko, who is the tiniest thing I have every seen.

Yesterday was another take it easy day, but this time because the power was out virtually all day due to some serious wind. Colin and I hitched a ride up into the hills to see the petroglyphs. The local tourism people are working on developing the area for eco/agro- tourism and this will be the main part of that. They were very cool and swirly with lots of what looked like dancing animals/people/gods. There´s not a lot in the way of explanatory/interpretive signage up yet, but it was still a fun walk around with a beautiful view of the hills. The main project they are working on right now for the park is to fence things off so that the cows will stop wandering in and pooping all over their nice concrete path and also the petroglyphs. Certainly did seem to be a problem.

We also had delicious food at a very rural house near the petroglyphs. Egg over easy, plaintains, beans and rice, warm fresh milk with sugar in it. While we waited on a little patio type thing the girl cooked over an open fire in a house with dirt floors while a cat, dog, piglets and chicken wandered in and out of the house, patio, yard. I also got to see what a traditional style wood oven in this area looks like. They are basically just a big dome type thing mad of concrete with one opening in front. Apparently a lot of peace corp volunteers work on helping people to build more efficient ones that both use less wood and don´t send smoke right into the chefs face. I really appreciated having lunch there, not just becuase it was delicious because it gave me a better idea of what the really rural houses in the area look like (dirt floors, no electricity, made of scrap wood, open to animals and the elements) since most of the houses I´d seen in Villa Sandino are pretty nice (all cement construction, most with tile floors, electricity, bars on windows and nice wooden doors that lock up front).

On the ride to and from the petroglyphs I also got to look at what the countryside looks like. All was a patchwork of slash/burn pastureland with some tall trees and banana trees scattered around. There also was an interesting mosaic of plots that obviously had not been grazed in a long time, which suggested to me that there was some sort of rotational grazing being practiced, but Colin said that he didn´t feel like that was really the case, or at least that it was not a formal consistent thing. It did still seem very pleasant and well managed, with very little bare rock or soil showing (most severe signs of overgrazing). Most of the cows here seem to be kept primarily for dairy and we passed a lot of milk trucks on our way to the petroglyphs. Every morning the vacaros will milk their cows into metal milk pails and then those will be emptied into large plastic barrels on the back of trucks which then take the milk to the villages and any that isn´t sold there to a dairy processing plant in the nearby area, all so quick and fresh that no refrigeration is needed.

Today I am hoping to get some real cowboy boots made and then it is off to Matagalpa tomorrow.

Just as a quick preview, I´ll be staying three nights at Montaña Selva Negra, an organic farm and coffee plantation started and still owned by a German family (I know, random). Then it is on to Finca Esperanza Verde, another organic shade grown coffee farm and nature reserve for January 16-18. After that it will be off to the Miraflor Nature Reserve near Esteli, a privately owned coooperatively managed reserve, almost entirely self funded by associations of small scale producers (mostly coffee) (and yes, I did just copy that almost word for word from my guidebook). While there I´ll be staying at Finca Lindos Ojos another organic coffee farm! From there I´m finally going to head down south to stay on Isla de Ometepe.

Now must go.

Paz
Alice

Bienvenidos a Nicaragua

I have been in the country almost a whole hour now! Have not seen much other than what could be seen from the taxis window. Sandino's outline was there to meet me at the airport though and much red and black and "Viva [insert revolutionary hero here]" painted outside walls near shanty towns that smell like cumin. I am exhausted and feeling overwhelmed at the moment though, so the next Nicaraguan site I see is likely to be my bed.