I had such an incredible day today! I spent an afternoon with Ana and Neni, two of our lovely cooks, making cookies and jam! We made about 250 ginger cookies, 40 oatmeal raisin cookies, and jarred 100 jars of starfruit jam and 30 jars of guava jam. The amount of food produced in a small kitchen with only four stovetops and one oven is incredible. And the combination of the simmering vats of jams and constant production of cookies made the kitchen smell heavenly! I wanted to bottle that smell and remember it forever. After hours of hard work, and also to ensure the quality of our labors, Ana and I enjoyed chilled glasses of fresh goat milk and cookies—delicious!
Earlier in the week Rafa, our charming and super knowledgeable ethnobotanist, came out to visit. I accompanied him and Steven around the Sacred Seeds Garden as we talked about various plants. It was such a pleasure to follow Rafa into the garden and listen to him explain a little bit about each of the plants. He pointed out a carob tree, sangre de drago, chirca, and spoke a little bit about each of their properties. It was very interesting and right up my alley—I love learning about plants. Although he only spoke Spanish, I seemed to understand everything he was saying, though not without some help from Steven. Rafa pointed out the relative toxicities of some plants and their various uses in different cultures. He explained how some plants are deemed completely toxic simply on the account of one of the many compounds they possess, and as a result are no longer investigated for their medicinal worth. This is unfortunate because some plants, like pharmaceuticals, are toxic in high doses, but at low doses, their toxicity is minimal and their medicinal values are notable. He also noted how plants are not often enough analyzed in their whole forms, but are instead investigated only in isolated compounds. Whole forms of a plant can often provide maximum medicinal value through a combination of complemented compounds that isolated compounds cannot. Fascinating. Seems common sense. Rafa is trying to put together a second volume booklet of information about selected plants in the garden. Hopefully I’ll get to help out with some research for it.
The night before Rafa left, we had a great dinner, which I complemented with a glass of wine at Rafa and his Spanish friend’s insistence. They kept persisting that it would improve my Spanish speaking abilities, though I’m not quite sure it did. All in all, it was a great week.
ethnobotany
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
One of the wondrous ways Costa Rica will BUG you
I am a lover of all creatures on this earth. And I love bugs. I cannot bring myself to kill a bug, spider, or any insect. I simply love bugs, but yet, for some reason, I get really squeamish when katydids fly in my hair, or especially when cicadas fly at me. Cicadas are the wackiest bug I have seen fly. They bang into lights, walls, and even people, making a big racket as they do. Being hit by one during one of their nose dives feels like someone just threw a rock at you. Tonight, while hanging out in the kitchen and helping serve dinner, a crazy cicada flew in and erratically started banging into pots, walls, the fridge, and every now and then it would suddenly change course and plunge toward me and the cooks, causing us to scatter and duck for cover. All the while, I, the bug lover, let out a little squeal each time it came at me. Although they fly around like a plane with a busted engine, they are really pretty insects. I caught one last night in a glass and showed it to a few of our guests who thought it was a neat sight.
Steven contends that it is okay to kill insects that will inevitably bite you and draw blood, like the unloved horsefly. Although I have never been bitten by a horsefly, I can’t imagine wanting to kill it, but then again, my reflexes at such a moment might just get the best of me. My pacifist tendencies toward insects stem from my belief in bug karma. For example, if you kill a mosquito, you are sure to be bitten by not just one, but at least two more mosquitoes that otherwise would not have bothered you. I have seen it happen before.
One of my favorite insects in Costa Rica is a light green katydid that looks like a brilliant young leaf. Here it’s called Esperanza, which means hope and is supposed to bring luck—isn’t that beautiful! The insects here are just wild! There are silver and green beetles that are as reflective and shiny as a mirror, tiny little beetles that look like someone delicately painted on dots of hot pink and yellow on a slick black shell, and huge Megaloptera that are like gigantic moths that I almost mistook for a bat! I just learned that in the tropics, ants make up 10% of the total weight of animals. I don’t find that at all hard to believe after coming across an ant last night that was as big as my thumb!
An amendment to the last blog: It is not Iti who dislikes Toucans, but her sister, whose awe of the bird came to a screeching halt when she caught one eating a cute little defenseless bird.
Biodynamics
Steven contends that it is okay to kill insects that will inevitably bite you and draw blood, like the unloved horsefly. Although I have never been bitten by a horsefly, I can’t imagine wanting to kill it, but then again, my reflexes at such a moment might just get the best of me. My pacifist tendencies toward insects stem from my belief in bug karma. For example, if you kill a mosquito, you are sure to be bitten by not just one, but at least two more mosquitoes that otherwise would not have bothered you. I have seen it happen before.
One of my favorite insects in Costa Rica is a light green katydid that looks like a brilliant young leaf. Here it’s called Esperanza, which means hope and is supposed to bring luck—isn’t that beautiful! The insects here are just wild! There are silver and green beetles that are as reflective and shiny as a mirror, tiny little beetles that look like someone delicately painted on dots of hot pink and yellow on a slick black shell, and huge Megaloptera that are like gigantic moths that I almost mistook for a bat! I just learned that in the tropics, ants make up 10% of the total weight of animals. I don’t find that at all hard to believe after coming across an ant last night that was as big as my thumb!
An amendment to the last blog: It is not Iti who dislikes Toucans, but her sister, whose awe of the bird came to a screeching halt when she caught one eating a cute little defenseless bird.
Biodynamics
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Lightning, Thunder, and Toucans!
The past few days have been busy! Now that I’m somewhat oriented to the farm, I braved the local bus and accompanied a guest to Ciudad Quesada, a nearby town about 45 minutes away. The views of the countryside are incredible! So lush and green. And the bus ride was entertaining. On the way back from Ciudad Quesada a pastor climbed onto the bus and, from what I gathered using my very rusty Spanish, he delivered a passionate 30 minute sermon while promoting his church. Just as we were getting back to Luna Nueva, the skies let loose and the rain began to pound. Amidst the gushing rain, I made to take the guest to her bungalow with the golf cart when Lorena, one of our lovely cooks, called me to the laundry room. Once there, I watched her unfold a ten gallon plastic garbage bag. I thought she was going to stuff some laundry in it for me to drop off on my way, but then she tore it up until it was just one large sheet of plastic. I had no idea what she was going to do with it until she wrapped it around my waist like a skirt and then zipped up my rain jacket for me—she had just rain-proofed me! Everyone who works here is so nice! It’s really like one big family who all takes care of each other, and they do a particularly good job taking care of me, making sure I am well fed, happy, and dry.
In addition to being simply captivated by the rain, I also love the thunder and lightning. Back home in California there are no episodes of lightning like there are here. In the evenings from the dinner table I love to watch the lightning off in the distance. It’s an amazing light show. From the observation tower at night the lightning lights up small sections of clouds against a foreground of fireflies. The thunder is really incredible too. Yesterday on a walk through Juan’s Garden I was happily strolling along, munching on rambutans that I picked off trees when I saw a bolt of lightning that didn’t look too terribly far off. It was immediately followed by a boom of thunder that I felt deep in my stomach—the same way that a loud bass at a concert would make you feel. It was soon followed by another set. When lightning is close I heard that one should avoid clearings and avoid standing next to tress. Since those were my only two options I was at a small loss of what to do. In times of doubt I look at animals and mimic them because they always seem to know what to do. Luckily there were some goats nearby and through the whole encounter they did not seem very alarmed and just went about munching on leaves. I decided to follow their example and not worry about being struck by lightning while I made my way back. It was quite an adventure.
Aside from the wonders of rain, I saw toucans for the first time yesterday! There were about ten of them flying around in the forested area behind the kitchen. I also saw from the observation tower one that was flying over the main house. Although it looked like its large yellow beak would weight it down, it was quite graceful. Iti, our lovely lodge manager, and Steven tell me that toucans in this area are everywhere, kind of like pigeons back home, so to them toucans are nothing spectacular. Iti even claims to dislike toucans because they aren’t the innocent fruitarians that many are led to believe—they eat other birds and their young! I can’t wait to venture into the trails some more and see what other wildlife creatures I’ll see. One of the guests saw a jaguarondi a few days ago. In a twisted way I would love to be face to face with a jaguarondi, but in a saner way, maybe I’d like to just see it from a distance.
On a quick side note, I mentioned rambutans above and I must explain what they are. A rambutan is an incredibly delicious fruit that looks somewhat like a very large and spiny strawberry and when you peel the off the outer peel, inside it looks like a lychee. It also tastes somewhat like a lychee. Delicious! Right now it’s rambutan season so the guys are hauling in crates of it all the time. This is one fruit that I don’t think I will ever get enough of!
Organic Farm
In addition to being simply captivated by the rain, I also love the thunder and lightning. Back home in California there are no episodes of lightning like there are here. In the evenings from the dinner table I love to watch the lightning off in the distance. It’s an amazing light show. From the observation tower at night the lightning lights up small sections of clouds against a foreground of fireflies. The thunder is really incredible too. Yesterday on a walk through Juan’s Garden I was happily strolling along, munching on rambutans that I picked off trees when I saw a bolt of lightning that didn’t look too terribly far off. It was immediately followed by a boom of thunder that I felt deep in my stomach—the same way that a loud bass at a concert would make you feel. It was soon followed by another set. When lightning is close I heard that one should avoid clearings and avoid standing next to tress. Since those were my only two options I was at a small loss of what to do. In times of doubt I look at animals and mimic them because they always seem to know what to do. Luckily there were some goats nearby and through the whole encounter they did not seem very alarmed and just went about munching on leaves. I decided to follow their example and not worry about being struck by lightning while I made my way back. It was quite an adventure.
Aside from the wonders of rain, I saw toucans for the first time yesterday! There were about ten of them flying around in the forested area behind the kitchen. I also saw from the observation tower one that was flying over the main house. Although it looked like its large yellow beak would weight it down, it was quite graceful. Iti, our lovely lodge manager, and Steven tell me that toucans in this area are everywhere, kind of like pigeons back home, so to them toucans are nothing spectacular. Iti even claims to dislike toucans because they aren’t the innocent fruitarians that many are led to believe—they eat other birds and their young! I can’t wait to venture into the trails some more and see what other wildlife creatures I’ll see. One of the guests saw a jaguarondi a few days ago. In a twisted way I would love to be face to face with a jaguarondi, but in a saner way, maybe I’d like to just see it from a distance.
On a quick side note, I mentioned rambutans above and I must explain what they are. A rambutan is an incredibly delicious fruit that looks somewhat like a very large and spiny strawberry and when you peel the off the outer peel, inside it looks like a lychee. It also tastes somewhat like a lychee. Delicious! Right now it’s rambutan season so the guys are hauling in crates of it all the time. This is one fruit that I don’t think I will ever get enough of!
Organic Farm
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Welcome to My Luna Nueva Blog!
I can’t believe I’m in Costa Rica! It’s been two years since my last trip to this amazing country and I’m stoked to be back. I just started working as an intern at Finca Luna Nueva and having been here only a week and a half I must say that Luna Nueva is incredible. The pictures on the website do not do justice to the beauty and sheer awesomeness of the place. While looking out from the dining area, I really feel like I’m in paradise. For the entirety of my stay at Luna Nueva I will be writing a blog so that family, friends, and those interested in the adventures I am sure to encounter can follow.
I arrived on the same day that a group came down to celebrate a friend’s birthday. It was a very fun welcome to say the least. On one of the days we hiked out to the Children’s Eternal Rainforest and as a group we planted 80 trees in a corridor that will soon link two larger areas of forest. It was an incredible feeling to be a part of something that will maintain diversity. It also just felt great to be out walking through mud and forest.
At the moment we have a group hosted by New Chapter staying here and they are all such interesting people. I am learning so much about the power of herbal remedies from them. Today, after trying to help one of the girls who works here, Rocio, with something that looks like a nasty boil erupting on her stomach, I recruited some help from the New Chapter group. In almost no time most of the group got wind of her affliction and came to the rescue with a variety of herbal remedies in the form of antibacterial creams, anti-inflammatory pills, colloidal silver, and even garlic pills. It’s been a pleasure to see them in action.
Yesterday I went on several tours of the gardens and I was amazed to learn about the great diversity of edible plant species in Juan’s Garden. Being so accustomed to romaine lettuce, which tastes much like water, I had forgotten how much character different plants actually have. We sampled lots of plants, some of which tasted like wasabi, cinnamon-basil, and lemon grass. A majority of the tastiest and most aromatic plants, like the basils, oreganos, and mints, came from my favorite plant family, Lamiaceae. Some of the plants weren’t quite as pleasant, namely the jackass bitters, of which I took too big of a bite and had to suffer through the remainder of the tour with a lingering bitter taste in my mouth. I now do my best to avoid the bitter plants despite Steven teasing me because he is a fan of the bitters.
It’s a little surreal that I am going to call Luna Nueva home for the next four months, and maybe longer. Each day, on my walk back from the farm to my homestay, I walk through the medicinal plant garden until I get to a field where I pass chickens, cows, a baby calf, a few meandering ducks, and even a rabbit, whose purpose on the farm is still a mystery to me. It’s always a different set of animals because part of the nature of a biodynamic farm is that both plants and animals are rotated to different spots every so often. Just yesterday a small herd of sheep were added.
Again, I can’t believe I’m in Costa Rica! I love everything about this place: the sounds, sights, smells, heat, rain, insects, food, plants, animals, people. Todos! Everything from the language I can’t quite fully understand to the pesky mosquitoes. Well, maybe not the mosquitoes, but they are much more tranquilo than the ones in California!
Much love to everyone back home and pura vida!
Hotel Luna Nueva Lodge
I arrived on the same day that a group came down to celebrate a friend’s birthday. It was a very fun welcome to say the least. On one of the days we hiked out to the Children’s Eternal Rainforest and as a group we planted 80 trees in a corridor that will soon link two larger areas of forest. It was an incredible feeling to be a part of something that will maintain diversity. It also just felt great to be out walking through mud and forest.
At the moment we have a group hosted by New Chapter staying here and they are all such interesting people. I am learning so much about the power of herbal remedies from them. Today, after trying to help one of the girls who works here, Rocio, with something that looks like a nasty boil erupting on her stomach, I recruited some help from the New Chapter group. In almost no time most of the group got wind of her affliction and came to the rescue with a variety of herbal remedies in the form of antibacterial creams, anti-inflammatory pills, colloidal silver, and even garlic pills. It’s been a pleasure to see them in action.
Yesterday I went on several tours of the gardens and I was amazed to learn about the great diversity of edible plant species in Juan’s Garden. Being so accustomed to romaine lettuce, which tastes much like water, I had forgotten how much character different plants actually have. We sampled lots of plants, some of which tasted like wasabi, cinnamon-basil, and lemon grass. A majority of the tastiest and most aromatic plants, like the basils, oreganos, and mints, came from my favorite plant family, Lamiaceae. Some of the plants weren’t quite as pleasant, namely the jackass bitters, of which I took too big of a bite and had to suffer through the remainder of the tour with a lingering bitter taste in my mouth. I now do my best to avoid the bitter plants despite Steven teasing me because he is a fan of the bitters.
It’s a little surreal that I am going to call Luna Nueva home for the next four months, and maybe longer. Each day, on my walk back from the farm to my homestay, I walk through the medicinal plant garden until I get to a field where I pass chickens, cows, a baby calf, a few meandering ducks, and even a rabbit, whose purpose on the farm is still a mystery to me. It’s always a different set of animals because part of the nature of a biodynamic farm is that both plants and animals are rotated to different spots every so often. Just yesterday a small herd of sheep were added.
Again, I can’t believe I’m in Costa Rica! I love everything about this place: the sounds, sights, smells, heat, rain, insects, food, plants, animals, people. Todos! Everything from the language I can’t quite fully understand to the pesky mosquitoes. Well, maybe not the mosquitoes, but they are much more tranquilo than the ones in California!
Much love to everyone back home and pura vida!
Hotel Luna Nueva Lodge
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