Organic Gardening meets Indigenous Ways

These photos were taken by Jose during an I.N.A. course that he attended, together with his father, Armando, on composting and the principles of organic gardening.  The course is a required prerequisite for enrolling in all other I.N.A. agricultural courses; no matter what your interest - cultivating, grafting, fermenting fertilizers, etc. - you must first understand and practice good soil preparation.  That’s the first step.  The guys attended classes and then worked in the I.N.A. fields near Cartago, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. every Tuesday for several weeks.  They now know how to make cold compost, hot compost and organic fertilizers; how to cultivate plants using ‘organic’ philosophy; and a host of other valuable ideas to improve the growing environment at El Tigre.

Picture of Fabian Pacheco, teacher of organic gardening and a new way of thinking.  

Organic gardening is beginning to make headway here in Costa Rica but it’s been slow getting started, and there is still very much a culture of using petrochemical-based products for growing food commercially here.  I was shocked to learn that, in very recent past, Costa Rica was the champion of the world with respect to the quantity of active ingredients of chemical pesticides and herbicides imported for cultivating the food we eat here (World Resources Institute). 

Thankfully, however, dedicated teachers like Fabian Pacheco  have begun to train agricultural workers all over the country on how to produce food organically.  The secret to a healthy plant is deep, rich, composted soil.  And your yard produces all the key ingredients for making fine compost – it’s just a matter of how to use them.  You can read more about Fabian Pacheco at www.bloqueverde.com

If you also wish to learn organic gardening methods, you can take a course at the I.N.A. Centro Nacional Especializado en Agricultura Organica.  Armando and Jose both decided that they wanted to apply the knowledge that they had gained from the first course to their work at El Tigre before enrolling in other courses.  They are also keen to share what they have learned with friends and neighbors.  Their idea is to learn and then to teach – to spread the word.

I thought that I knew something about organic gardening when I first moved to Reserva El Tigre and started working with Armando.  I had learned a lot about the Rodale Press methods while living in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and thought that I could come to Costa Rica and instruct Armando on how to compost, how to operate integrated pest management, and the rest of it.  However, I began to get a clue of how clueless I was the day I bought palms and other ornamental plants from a vivero in Garita.  As I unloaded the car, Armando took one look, shook his head and muttered:  “We already have those palms growing right here in the forest!”

I then began to listen to Armando and started to learn from him.  I was especially fascinated by the importance of lunar cycles, used by the indigenous people in pruning and cultivating.  And, although he went to a whole new level by taking the composting/organic gardening course –he finally found someone who could explain the processes in a way that resonated with him; the importance of microorganisms in the soil and how to use them as a tool all started to make sense - the indigenous practices still remain integral to our farming practices.

It is not only the lunar cycle that is important, but also the custom of planting small groupings in clearings; mixing plants together (to confuse the pests); and generally taking things calmly, working with the seasons and not trying to cultivate something that belongs elsewhere.  We can’t grow potatoes or carrots here but we can grow green beans, Chicasquil and Yuca; we can’t grow large tomatoes (not enough sunlight) but we can grow the small, criollo tomatoes, which taste soooo good.  We can’t grow blueberries but the citrus fruits grow beautifully, as well as other fruiting trees – Caimito, Cacao, Guanabana, Pitanga - and it just goes on and on.  We keep experimenting and trying new species.  Of course, it takes many years for a tree to grow fully but you can clearly see whether or not it will take root and flourish within a few years.  Some plants that don’t belong at this altitude simply don’t make it.  I have stopped experimenting with high altitude plants and just accepted the reality that we live at 1000 meters – but there are plenty of plants which thrive at that altitude to keep us very busy and well-fed.

This bromeliad, Aechmea mariae-reginae, will survive the dry season just fine!

Too many people plant gardens and then have to water them during the dry season to keep the plants alive.  As the villagers have learned this season, water is far too scarce here in El Rodeo for gardeners to waste it on watering lawns and gardens.  It’s always best to cultivate native plants that can survive the dry period without water.  High altitude plants like hydrangeas and fuchsias do not belong here – without obsessive care, they will quickly wither and die. 

There are plenty of native alternatives, however, that look just as gorgeous.  During drought, the grass will turn brown but, at first rainfall, it turns green once again.  There is no reason to water grass or properly selected ornamental plants.  Y punto!  Yes, we water the greenhouse edibles but, as Fabian instructed, we just water enough for what the plant needs and no more.  It makes me cringe when I see sprinkler systems watering lawns and gardens in the neighborhood – particularly when they are watering native plants that don’t even need the water!    

Here’s a shot of  riders coming to the Carrera de Cintas in El Rodeo, taken by Krysia Peterson.  The local village school of El Rodeo organized a fundraising event – a Carrera de Cintas.  This is a sport where horsemen ride at a full-out gallop and try to thread a kind of needle through a small hole as they ride by.  It is very difficult to do but the skilled riders really display their skill and dexterity, and the whole show is really exciting.

A village equestrian demonstrates Carrera de Cintas.

  Jose usually rides Solo in these Carreras, but we had him stabled for nearly the entire past month, to allow him to rest and recover from an acute laminitis - he likely got it from whacking into something out in pasture - and yes, he's fine now and back out in pasture.  So, as Volcan is too slow and Lucero is too ornery when out in crowds, we called the farrier, put shoes back on Matchi, and Jose rode him. 

You can’t just gallop and then suddenly skid a horse to a stop, wheeling him about, without something on his feet - let the sparks fly off the shoes, not the poor horse!  Apparently, Matchi was in fine form and did very well indeed.  We were so proud!  Also, I have nothing but accolades for the new school director who has done so much to improve the village school and her fundraising efforts have brought the entire village together.  Many thanks to you Dona Maureen.

Do you want to come out to El Rodeo and go horseback riding in the forest?  There are places where you can rent horses by the hour – Hacienda El Rodeo has horses on the weekends ready to go, and Alvaro has horses also just opposite.  But, especially for English speakers, if you want to go for a more personalized horseback riding experience, I recommend that you contact Krysia at www.fincaCaballoLoco.com.  She knows how to match each rider to the right horse, and you will have a great time.

Another Birthday Calf for Gerry!
A calf was born at El Tigre on Gerry’s birthday - the second time this has happened!  Remember Little Gerry?  Well, meet Coqueta’s baby calf, also born on March 11!  It was all rather exciting because Coquetta delivered him out in the pasture, and Jose didn’t even know about it until she returned to the stable for feeding.  He immediately saw that she had delivered and went out to find her calf, which he found curled up in the grass up near our upper rancho.  So he picked him up and carried him back to the stable.  This is where you now see Coqueta and her adorable calf.  Doesn’t he look just like a baby deer?

We are thrilled.  And, yes, we are once again making yoghurt!  I got a wonderful starting culture from Jan, who brought it back from Europe.  Thanks again, Jan.  The yoghurt is so delicious!

It had to happen sooner or later.  I got a torsalo larva in my scalp!  Oh, the joy of working out in the field.  We called in our torsalo extraction expert, Armando, who can maneuver and extract it directly, without resorting to suffocating it first with tape.  Yaneth was his assisting ‘nurse’...

Both of them have had much experience extracting torsalos from the dogs, but humans rarely get them because we usually prevent mosquito bites from happening in the first place.  And, if we do get bitten, we would have to be really unlucky to be bitten by one carrying torsalo eggs (which eventually morph to Bot Flies).  Still, the odd mosquito lands on even the most covered-up of hikers eventually.  But this is the first torsalo I’ve got since living and hiking in the Costa Rican forest for 15 years.

Now, if you get a torsalo while traveling in Costa Rica, and you don’t have a village expert nearby, go to the nearest veterinarian – they are the professionals with the most experience extracting them, because of the frequency that dogs get them.  Most tropical physicians also recognize torsalos but, even here, some physicians misdiagnose the problem – one of our construction workers got diagnosed with an infection and put on antibiotics.  We knew better, and Armando extracted it – thus giving the suffering worker instant relief.  However, do not try to extract a torsalo yourself, unless you know what you are doing.  You could easily kill the larva and then you will, indeed, get a horrible infection.

Travelers coming to Costa Rica:  Use your mosquito repellents when going out for a hike and/or cover-up head to toe – wear a hat and tuck your trousers underneath your socks.  And, if all else fails and a mosquito lands on you and bites you, kill it!  It won’t help you avoid whatever it injected into you, but you will feel much better about it…

Jay Clifton Fernandes - Obituary Cocktail

Oh Yea, all those of the Grande and Secret Order of the Obituary Cocktail, whether in New Orleans or worldwide, please raise your glasses with me in honor of the late departed Jay Clifton Fernandes.  Yes, that’s spelled with an S.   Jay preferred vino tinto. 

I first met Jay at my husband, Gerry’s, 50^th birthday party, back in 1999.  I wanted it to be a surprise birthday party and so, to keep my control freak husband completely in the dark, we simply organized a Women’s Club Fundraiser Event - and that’s where he thought he was going!  In fact, it really was a Women’s Club Fundraiser because I asked that, in lieu of gifts, birthday party guests give a donation to the Women’s Club, to help fund scholarships for impoverished Costa Rican kids and supplies for schools in dire need of repair.  And so, on the big night, Gerry had to be dragged by the short hairs to the event, but, in the end, he went, and he had the biggest surprise of his life.

 And that was when I met Jay, chortling with glee as the whole episode unfolded.  Since then, I got to know Jay much better, but almost always in his loving, supporting role to Grace. 

During the years that I served on the Board with Grace and many other women, we all constantly relied on our partners to help us with some task or another.  Some husbands needed to be cajoled, pleaded with or even bullied into it, but not Jay.  He always willingly helped Grace and the rest of us achieve our goals, always with good humor, and always with an unmatched level of commitment, which the rest of us really appreciated.  The only thing that Grace could not get him to do, was to dress up in a grass skirt and coconut breasts, and dance the hula at our Polynesian Fundraiser after Hurricane Mitch.  But that’s okay, Jay, we understood that one.  Other husbands, who will remain nameless, did enjoy dressing up – and we raised a lot of funds that day for victims of that dreadful storm.

One of Jay’s very important roles at fundraising events was that of official, and unofficial, bartender.  You see Jay had a very quick wit and was extremely well-read on all sorts of subjects, both local and international.  So, if one of our busy members showed up at a fundraiser with an unhappy husband, hauled there by his wife, Jay would immediately pop over and offer the guy a drink and, pretty soon, we would see that they were talking like old friends, completely occupied, which would allow his wife to deal with other tasks. 

Jay was naturally gregarious and seemed to genuinely enjoy talking to new people, which in his world at Women’s Club, was a very common event, as Grace was always busy; she was always called when you wanted  something really important done. 
And he did so much more, also, over the years: table carrier, book hauler, set-designer assistant, ticket collector – graciously, without complaint and with open-hearted good will, knowing that all the proceeds were destined for the needy – scholarships enabling students to stay in school, books for school libraries, school supplies, and many other important community needs.

It was very clear to me, and to all of us, from the very beginning of getting to know Jay, that he clearly relished Grace’s busy lifestyle and particularly her work with Women’s Club.  He was always supportive in so many large and small ways, and I know that everybody from Women’s Club joins me in saying a big Thank You to Jay for giving so much over the years, but most importantly, for giving his unconditional support and love to Grace.  You know Grace, Jay was your biggest fan; he was the wind beneath your wings.  He was always there with you Grace, a glimmer of love in his eyes.  Now you carry him in your heart.

And Jay shall always be remembered by all of us as an avid and much cherished supporter of Women’s Club.  There are so many needs in this country and Jay understood that, underlying all of the fun times, we were there collecting resources to give back to Costa Rica, which we have made our home.  He would have wanted, without any doubt, that, in lieu of flowers and gifts, donations be made to the Women’s Club of Costa Rica in his name.

Memorial gifts may be made to The Women’s Club of Costa Rica for their educational programs:  www.wccr.org or president@wccr.org

Hike to Rio Jaris

Last Saturday, Barry Hammel came over to the Finca with Isabel and Carry, a botany student from the States, who has a particular interest in the Acanthaceae Family.  Sadly, I couldn’t accompany them on their botanical trip down to the Rio Jaris, but I understand they had a fun time.  Armando and his nieto, Danny, went along for the plant hunting, and when they returned, Marcia prepared them a nice, simple lunch from the garden – salad, picadillo de chicasquil, tortillas de maiz, arroz y frijol.  Here’s a picture Barry took of Isabel, Carry, Armando and Danny.  So that’s fine that they had a fun time, but did they find anything?

They did!  Barry writes his remarks below and includes a link to his pictures, at Flickr, of the expedition.  I highly recommend that you take a look at his pictures – he is a real artist.
Barry writes:
“We had a great trip on Saturday, found everything we were looking for and more!  Our main goal was Justicia urophylla (see bottom series of pictures in the included link) and Armando was the lucky one to see it first, just after crossing the stream before reaching the river.  We all jumped and shouted!

We also found one small population (back up by where the spectacularly odoriferous and nearly black-flowered Sapranthus palanga is in fl.) of the tiny and elusive (nearly unspellable!) J. rothschuhii.  This last one is very similar to J. isthmensis, which I had collected some time ago at your place and we now have growing nicely in our yard.  J. rothschuhii has much smaller flowers and I had missed it. I was also pleased to find and collect J. spicigera, which I don't believe I've ever seen before, cultivated in your yard.  That's a Mexican spp. not known from the wild in CR, but sometimes cultivated. Photos of J. spicigera and J. rothschuhii are on page two of the included link.

You can see my recent Flickr uploads of Acanths here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68114448@N06/

Thanks again so much for arranging this trip; the lunch that Marcia made us was wonderful.  Now we know how to make picadillo de Chiscaquil. It was great to have Armando and Danilo accompany us.”

Meanwhile, while Armando hiked with our friends down to the river, Jose scrambled around to sort out yet another solar energy system emergency associated with water.  However, by the time everyone returned from the river, the problem was solved and lunch served.   I don’t think they noticed and, as usual, I was the last to know.

We love hosting botanists and students!  This past Friday, students from the Universidad de Costa Rica College of Pharmacy hiked at Reserva El Tigre, with Armando as guide, to take a look around and to collect a bit of sap from the Targua tree (Croton draco).  Armando collects small amounts of sap from several trees on rare occasions so as not to weaken any individual tree, and feels strongly that the best time for collecting sap is at the beginning of the waxing moon during the afternoon.  His students suggested a metal surgical instrument for more effective collection but I think Armando’s ‘abuelos’ method provided the students with far more Targua sap – 100% pure and undiluted – than their classmates who simply bought vials of ‘Targua’ down at the Central Market.  One publication I read recently suggested that collectors simply cut down the Targua tree when it concludes its life-cycle, and harvest an extensive amount of sap all at once.  I gasped in shock when I read this at first but, out in the commercial world, it makes a certain amount of sense for growers, who could do this sustainably by planting successively and harvesting just occasionally, responsibly. 

This week, Armando and Jose both started an I.N.A./SIMAS course on Organic Gardening.  You can read about SIMAS at: www.simas.org.ni

Jose and Armando are both high level agricultural workers in the sense that they grew up here in El Rodeo as farmers, planting gardens and raising farm animals.  However, this organic gardening course will take them to a new level.  We have to think of the future.  We have to eat, if nothing else, and the best way is organically, responsibly.  They came home yesterday from the first class with new ideas on composting and a better understanding of the nature of the microorganisms that process and improve the soil.  They knew this already intuitively but the course instructor - Fabiano Pacheco - provided new imagery to the concept.   Already the guys have plans in the works to make composts and fertilizers using ingredients here at the farm.  We already have a huge compost pile – now we are going to organize the process more systematically.   

Last Sunday, Armando joined a few others to clean the road of trash along the route between Ciudad Colon and El Rodeo - once again, many thanks to Luisa and Bob Hughes for hauling away the trash and the bags of recycling.  Unfortunately, only a few people came to work, but all change starts with setting an example.   Armando said that passers-by provided moral support, and a few hikers even asked for bags to assist in picking up trash as they walked along the road.  It’s a start.

You can see incredible flowers here right now, especially along the pasture edge where sunlight can reach.  Take a look at this Passiflora vitifolia flower.  The literature says that the Passiflora flower, dried and infused as a tea, has a sedating effect but we’ve never tried it; everybody around here falls asleep like a rock at sundown.  Native plants survive the drought conditions of the dry season just fine but we’ve had to move around a few culinary plants that need some help.  I don’t water any of the ornamentals - some of them go dormant, others flower dramatically. 

So much is blooming right now!  Take a look at the lovely purple blooms of this Chaperno tree, a species of Lonchocarpus.  There are also yellow and orange flowering trees - Poro, Tecoma Stans, Cortez amarilla, white flowers-Laurel, violet-Bauhinia, Madero Negro and Chapernos - all these trees and more are adding bursts of color within the forest canopy.

Take a look at the creamy flower of the Guayaquil also blooming now throughout the forest.  I think it is called Albizia now but, when I learned about it, it was called Pseudosamanea guachapele.  This is a beautiful tree that many confuse with Cenizaro (Samanea saman), which has a pink flower, now also probably called Albizia saman.  Barry would know.

Back in the garden, we just managed to rescue the asparagus that Tommy gave me, by transplanting all the two year-old plants down to the springs below the house, and they have already perked back up!   And yes, they are screened in from the horses et al. that drink from the springs.

What are you doing hanging around out here?  So you’ve found a place to live nearby.  I’m so glad to see you again!  Last time we met, you were camped out in our downstairs bathroom - so we put you out.  Out - but not gone!  Tarantulas are very elusive – not at all easy to find unless you go outside and walk around with a flashlight at night.  Normally they are very shy, but this spider (or his brother) has a history.  I first hauled him out of my riding boot last November.  During the process, I pulled off one of his legs by accident and, despite my rough handling, he didn’t bite me.  That’s why I’m kind of fond of this spider.  Where does he live now?  I can’t say because, after taking the picture of him, I never saw him again.  Maybe he didn’t like the flash.  Our Swiss neighbor identified this tarantula as a Psalmopoeus reduncus and, Gabi should know.  She has a lovely, transparent butterfly named after her that was discovered at Finca Hamadryas – it’s called Greta Gabiglooris.  Most forest dwellers have a keen interest in insects.  It just goes with the territory.

In the forest snakes are far more elusive than tarantulas.  You could hunt for snakes for days and never find one – yet they definitely exist!  I mention this for the benefit of tourists visiting Costa Rica.  It is extremely unlikely that you will see a snake in the wild, so tranquilo, pura vida…  Having said that, however, snakes do need to hunt their prey, and that sometimes brings them into contact with humans.  Take a look at this boa that Jose found in the henhouse.  We normally never kill boa constrictors - they are rat-eaters and part of the forest ecosystem.  They are also useful around the horse stables for people who don’t keep cats.  As competitors for food, cats kill snakes whenever possible.  Our cats killed dozens of small terciopelo snakes until they stopped coming out of the forest.  However, if the snakes are large, then the cats (and even small dogs) become the prey!  I know this from experience.  Well, Jose hauled this boa out of the henhouse and took it some distance away, but the rascal wanted to go right back inside with the hens.  He’d found his meal ticket and mighty fine eating – so many hens, little chicks and lots of eggs!  Therefore, unfortunately, Jose had to kill it.

Take a look at Coquetta, our new dairy cow residing at Reserva El Tigre.  Isn’t she sweet?  We shall start making yoghurt again finally this June!  Gerry didn’t like the water kefir.  For those of my friends wondering what happened to our two calves – Negrito, Lola’s first calf, now resides in a pasture with four cows, three of them carrying his calf!  Little Gerry is pasturing with a larger herd and hopefully not quite the vagabond he was now that he has some company.  Coquetta is perfectly fine with us in the stable-yard with the horses, hens, et al.

Now, all of my dear friends, is your mother still living?   Yes?  Lucky you!

Have you told her today that you love her?  No?  Time to call her then and tell her, “I love you, mom.”

Treasure every moment with your mom and dad!  Lil just turned 80 this week – Happy Birthday dearest Lil!  And Robin’s mother just turned 90!  Happy Birthday Robin’s mom – have a joyous birthday and may every day be just as joyous.

What! You again?

What!  You again!  I thought I tore one of your legs off last November when I pulled you out of my riding boot?  Did your leg grow back so fast?  Or are you his brother?  Or has word gotten out…?  That this particular human female is tolerating tarantulas, so the coast is clear:  “Come on inside and chomp down on whatever nocturnal insect you can find, while the humans sleep – cricket, beetle, anything you can snatch”.  Our neighbor, Gabi, identified this arachnid as a Psalmopoeus reduncus – an Orangemouth Tree Spider.   We photographed this one on the glass shower door of the bathroom.  In the Tropics, the best fumigation method is good housekeeping, so there’s not much to eat inside the house anyway.  Out you go!   

There is so much flowering and seeding right now and the show is just getting started!  Here’s a shot of Passiflora edulis.  Armando planted this on the fence about three years ago, and I forgot about it until I saw the flower this morning.  Isn’t it lovely?  Of course, the bees are busily all about.  It stopped raining on a daily basis some weeks ago and the ground has already dried out.  Many leaves of the deciduous trees are starting to fall and the flowering season is definitely underway.  Unlike last year, Armando expects an excellent seed year.  Flowering trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants are blooming all over the place, from eye-popping trees like the stunning, yellow Cortez Amarilla or the gorgeous, violet Rondeletia, to delicate herbs in the understory. 

Take a look at this incredible flowering vine, with the flower and legumes attached on the stalk.  You can easily see herbaceous plants blooming along the roadsides and pasture edge, where they receive a good dash of sun.  Everywhere, as you walk around, you see dotting the landscape – Oh! where to start - mints, daisies by the score, Ageratums, Morning Glories, Legumes, Hibiscus, Justicias, Aphelandras, as well as a slew of flowering vines sprawling all over the canopy and causing confusion.  Is that a blooming tree or a vine?

One of my favorite native shrubs is now in fruit, Picramnia antidesma, which the locals call Caregre.  This elegant, small, understory tree, of the Simaroubaceae family, is utterly delightful, with its long, dangling racemes: tinsel-like strands of red, orange or yellow berries glittering in the forest shade.  All the berries eventually turn black and drop off, leaving the dangling string still attached to the shrub, giving a very charming effect.  I have long been fascinated by what factors in the forest determine the particular color of the berries of individual trees.  Here in the Zona Protectora of El Rodeo, we most commonly observe Picramnias with orange, orange-red or bright red berries. 

However, occasionally, we have also spotted bright yellow berries.  And the interesting thing is that, no matter what color the berry, they are all the same species, Picramnia antidesma!  Apparently, just as the human species has many individual differences, so do all other species.  Botanist and Costa Rican plant expert, Barry Hammel, explained it very succinctly in a note he sent to me: “Remember, species *do* vary, as we saw with that interesting pink version of the normally bright purple-flowered Justicia isthmensis at your place.  Also, I have Ruellia jussieuoides in a white-flowered form at our house, not seen anywhere else.  Coffee, itself, has versions with fruit color differences much the same as what you are seeing in Picramnia.  However, if you find other morphological differences, besides color, or maybe even phenological/and or habitat differences, that would be much more interesting than color alone.”

Orchids are also blooming now, although most are normally way too high up in the forest canopy to see. However, we can sometimes catch sight of both orchids and bromeliads growing on shrubs or small trees with chunky, corky-textured bark – especially the Guitite (Acnistus arborescens) - which flourish in this area.  With regular pruning, they do very well in even the smallest of gardens and can, thereby, bring the world of orchids closer to you.  We grow Guitite trees in the orange orchard as living fences – they are easily reproduced by estaca - and most of the orchids that are growing on them just suddenly appeared.  However, sometimes we rescue orchids when a tree collapses on the roadside and find them a new Guitite home!

Bromeliads are also blooming.  We rescued this Aechmea mariae-reginae a few years ago, when a tree collapsed across the road bringing down this huge bromeliad.   They usually flower way up in the canopy but, if you are lucky enough to see one up close, you can really appreciate the beauty of this magnificent plant. 

Here’s a shot of all four horses back together again after Lucero’s adventure.  The animals are all doing fine, although we had a bit of a scare recently.  Lucero, my favorite mountain-riding horse, went missing for two days a few weeks ago, and we thought somebody had stolen him!  During all the years here, the horses have always returned to the stables together.  However, often during the dry season, they prefer to stay out in the pasture for a few nights – there is so much to eat right now out there, including the delicious fruit of the Guazuma ulmifolia - and they don’t return to the stables for the special feed we use to entice them back.  Also, Lucero is normally the last to arrive and the first to wander off.  So, when only three of the horses returned one night, we didn’t think much about it.  However, when Lucero didn’t return for the second night together with the others, we immediately organized a search party.

We’ve never lost a horse here to snakebite, horse-thief or anything else, but 48 hours away from the herd was too long, and I was preparing for the worst.  Jose went out that night for hours searching the property and also first thing the next morning.  Armando and Norbert joined him in the morning as well, and searched the neighboring Muller pastures, quickly finding our Lucero frolicking and having the time of his life with a white mare owned by the neighbors.  Clearly, he seemed quite at home grazing with his new equine pal next door.  And no, Lucero did not want to go home!  In fact, he put up quite a ruckus!  I am still amazed at how Jose can handle that horse with so much ease…

Happy New Year!

Here’s a shot of Gerry and Jose sorting out the car.  We had hoped to jump-start the generator using both of our two car batteries in series – but we still couldn’t produce enough charge to get it started.  Jose even tried running the car, but no luck!  The generator battery was 100% dead!  2012 has not had a propitious start.  Our solar power system had not been operating normally for several weeks and then, on New Year’s Eve, the battery of our diesel generator died, which meant no back-up to the solar system.  Everything was closed for the holiday, of course, so we couldn’t purchase another battery until Monday.   This was an unprecedented event for us with the solar system – the first time since going solar six years ago that we were without back-up power.  Over the years, no matter how cloudy and rainy the weather, we could always charge the batteries with diesel power (normally two hours of generator power is enough to top-up the batteries).  It stopped raining weeks ago; however, most days remained overcast until…well, luckily, until just about the time that the generator failed.  Suddenly, a few days ago, the sun came out and we could survive on 100% solar power, if we were careful in conserving energy and not running down the battery.  However, the clock was ticking – we had fallen to 50% battery charge, when we realized that we would have to drastically conserve energy or risk losing power.  What that meant to all of us at Reserva El Tigre was that we had to conserve power and water!  We could only use well water and major electrical appliances during the sunniest part of the day, when the panels were generating solar power for the battery bank.  After sunset, therefore, we all had to minimize the use of power – just a few lights and no opening the refrigerator!  Gerry bought everybody candles in case we used a little too much power…  Okay, so that would mean a nice romantic New Year’s Eve dinner.  Que va! 

Our plan was to barbeque top quality burgers for New Year’s Eve.  However, it was such a windy night, that it took Gerry numerous attempts to light the charcoals; the wind kept blowing out the fire.  Finally, after nearly 30 minutes wrestling with the grill, he got the charcoals burning well and came inside, his hands black from the coals, for a well-deserved cocktail.  And then – suddenly, a big gust of wind knocked the grill right over and sent the burning charcoals flying!  So we rushed outside and put out the coals with the garden hose – using just enough water to put out the fire, of course, because of the generator problem…  We eventually calmed down, however, with the help of another cocktail, cooked the hamburgers in a skillet, and devoured them hungrily, if not romantically, accompanied by a very fine bottle of Chilean wine (Clos Apalta 2000) that tasted fine despite a rotten, exploding cork.  We then had a glass of Graham’s LBV port and went to bed long before midnight, as usual.

And now for something completely different.

Can you identify this arachnid?  I call him a ‘tarantula manso’ because he didn’t bite me even after I’d accidentally pulled off one of his legs!  I found him hiding out in my riding boot in Costa Rica after returning from New Orleans. It had been ages since I’d last gone out on the horses, so I grabbed my riding boots and shook them out as usual.  But sometimes shaking out a boot is not enough! I stuck my left foot in my boot but couldn’t quite get my foot all the way to the end because my big toe prodded and nudged at something that felt like a piece of cloth.  Had I left a sock in my boot?  I pulled out my foot and reached into the boot with my hand and groped around and felt something like a big puff of wool yarn.  So I pulled it out and put it on the floor.  And it immediately unwound and began to move away. 

That was the spider you see in this picture.  My first instinct was to scream - but in surprise, not fear; I no longer fear spiders!  My second thought was that the spider had had two opportunities to bite me but did not.  When I stuck in my foot, he could have ruined my day but did not bite!  And then, I pulled him out quite roughly and pulled off one of his legs.  He could have bitten my hand!  But he didn’t bite.  This spider must not die!  So after taking this picture – notice the spider has only seven legs left after his close encounter with me - I carefully removed him to an elevated part of the retaining wall outside. 

He later left and presumably found a cozy hole somewhere.  If anybody else from the Finca had found this spider, it would have been killed.  Hugo told me, “You should kill that!”  I asked him why – had a tarantula ever bitten him before?  No, but scorpions had stung him before.  Well, yeah!  I would have killed a scorpion too!  My neighbor, Gabi, told me that, by coincidence, a tarantula had crawled into one of her boots too!  Sadly, she didn’t realize it was in there and she crushed it with her heel. 

   

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Gerry makes Jambalaya for Thanksgiving.  His first attempt using John Besh's recipe.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you spent the day with family or friends, or at least with your dogs, celebrating all that we have to be thankful for.  All around us we face threats and problems.  So, it’s important on this day – and perhaps everyday – to look at what we have, with gratitude and humility, and to celebrate joyfully.  Sometimes, feeling this joy amongst friends, we have sudden bursts of inspiration.  Suddenly, we don’t have a problem – we have an opportunity! 

Second-Line Buddhist style in New Orleans

What a different world.  I took this shot several days ago, while sitting rather glumly in our apartment in New Orleans.  Suddenly, I heard the jazzy sound of a Second-Line Parade!  I rushed to the window and saw that it was the annual Hara Krishna Second-Line.  I got this picture but, unfortunately, missed the musicians and the crowd in front.  However, you get to see the float with the maestros sitting there being pulled by some of their acolytes…

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are today!

Jazz for Early Risers

Last night we listened to John Cleary play his magic at d.b.a. on Frenchmen Street. He’s an amazing one-man show – a legend in New Orleans – stirring the crowd of all ages and all walks of life to movement and joy, as he played that piano and sang to us – giving it his all. Pure magic! After the show, we had drinks at Tujague’s, dinner at Evangeline, and were in bed before midnight. Like some other talented musicians in New Orleans, Cleary started his show at 7p.m.

This morning, we read in the Times Picayune, that another Jazz trumpet legend, Kermit Ruffins, announced that he would begin playing his weekly gigs at Vaughan’s (a traditionally late-night watering hole) also at the very reasonable hour of 7p.m., so that he too could get to bed by midnight! We’re all getting old. We want to go to bed early and get up early. Kermit wants to walk his daughter to school in the morning. I have always been an early riser - and the world has just now caught up to my early-rising habits. We can have our jazz and rise early too! Thank you Kermit! Thank you John Cleary! Jazz makes life worth living and we can now get it live – and early!

Today is Veterans’ Day. I’m thinking of it more now, as history repeats itself. We went to the renowned New Orleans World War 2 Museum this past week, and reviewed once again the horrors and devastating losses – 65,000,000 dead throughout the world! The Museum displayed all too vividly the battles at Normandy, the bombings, the endless horrors throughout the Pacific, the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended the war. And we walked out of there feeling glum and uneasy. Humans study history so as not to repeat human mistakes, and yet we just do not learn. We just cycle around again, as if determined to self-destruct our species.

Lettuce Experiment

Rainy weather is the best time for growing lettuces - under cover.  Take a look at Jose’s lettuce experiment.  We have found that our ‘sweet’ lettuces (90% water) prefer their roots snug – as in these hydroponic bamboo containers that Jose built.  We found it curious that lettuce grows faster, and looks better, in this hydroponic-type set-up than in the compost-rich soil pictured below.  The really green vegetables, like spicy lettuces, arugula, spinach and mustards do great in compost-rich soil, but it seems that high-water-content lettuces grow better in bamboo.  I was surprised and have had to think about why this is so.  That’s what experimenters do when faced with unexpected results. 

Today is Thursday, October 20, 2011, and for the last ten days we have been in what Costa Ricans call a “temporal”:  persistent rains, all day and all night, punctuated by periods of torrential downpours; followed by thick, cloudy mist – which is the time you can dash outside and see about the chores; followed by more rain.  We have forgotten what the sun looks (and, more importantly, feels) like…

This morning, I noticed that the Pseudosphinx tetrio caterpillars are back on the Plumeria trees again!  Back again so soon?  Or perhaps hawk moths metamorphose all the time, rather than just during particular seasons.  They were here during the month of July/August and now again in October; let’s see how the Plumeria tolerates leafing out again - and again!

I’ve started reading about the Animal Kingdom, particularly those groups representing the climax of a specific evolutionary line (birds, mammals and, of particular interest during this rainy season, insects).  And, within the insects, I have become quite fascinated by the Subclass Pterygota, Division II – Endopterygota.  They undergo complete metamorphosis and develop wings from inside the body (from imaginal buds) compared to Division I – Exopterygota (eg.Dragonflies), which undergo incomplete metamorphosis and develop wings outside the body. 

Even more specifically, I’m looking at the ants, bees and wasps (Hymenoptera).  The word Hymenoptera comes from:  hymen (membrane) + ptera (wing) = hymenoptera (membranous wings).  The Hymenoptera have inhabited the planet for over 200 million years and have the second largest number of species in the Insect Class - over 100,000 species have been described worldwide!  There are some 17,000 species in Costa Rica and many live here in the Zona Protectora, El Rodeo.  Ants, wasps and bees are my focus but I’m also looking at butterflies and dragonflies.

Photo of Diaethria astala
There are myriad butterflies here in the Zona Protectora of El Rodeo, including Morphos, which are quite common.  Students and experts come from all over the world to study butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) here.  In fact, our neighbor, Gabriela, has a butterfly species named after her, which was discovered at her home, Finca Hamadryas.  I have always loved butterflies but felt overwhelmed by the idea of studying them. 

D. astala top side.
However, they really are the best way to begin studying the Insect Class, so I finally bought the prohibitively expensive DeVries books.  Butterfly life-history is an excellent example of complete metamorphosis. 

I am also studying a much smaller insect group at the same time:  the utterly beguiling Damselflies and Dragonflies (Odonata) with only around 5,000 species (compared with groups such as wasps, butterflies or beetles, which possess over 100,000 species each).  I see Dragonflies daily – glittering wings fluttering deep in the forest.  They are so beautiful!  Dragonflies are always around water.  They spend their larval stage in water, where they are voracious carnivores, consuming huge quantities of, for example, mosquito larvae.  Another reason to love to odonates!  InBio have published a nice field guide on Dragonflies and Damselflies by Carlos Esquivel.    

But I get ahead of myself.  Before tackling any species of the Insect Class in the Animal Kingdom, where you can quickly get overwhelmed, the student is wise to go back to the beginning and …read the introduction.  This is how you really get to know the author of any book and, in the case of biology, become inspired to go beyond just the syllabus, beyond just the question we have on a certain species.  And, when we do, we find that species have more in common than not.

All plants, no matter what the species, use inorganic substances to build themselves (photosynthesis).

All aerobic animals use glucose and oxygen in a process that produces carbon dioxide, water and energy, usually in the form of heat.  This process can be described in the chemical equation:

C6H12O6 + 6O2 = 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy.

My general focus during this long, rainy season is on aerobic organisms adapted to dry land.  They all have in common complicated devices to preserve their internal environment.  Animals (Protozoa) and Plants (Protophyta) reproduce and respire and have that extra something that makes them alive and not dead.  So far even a 3-year old gets that much.    

The Insect Class belongs to the Phylum, Joint-Limbed Animals (Arthropoda).   The Spiders, Scorpions, King Crabs and Mites Class (Arachnida) are not insects – they are eight-legged.  That’s for another day.  The Insect Class alone is a huge area of study – hundreds of thousands species.  Once again, it’s important to read the introduction and look at what’s in common.  In the Plant Kingdom, I have managed to study plants to the Family level, but not often can I nail the Genus and Species.  But that’s the goal.

My neighbor, Paul Gloor, reminded me that I must always remember to document not just the Genus and Species, but also the discoverer and date of discovery.   Luckily, the Swedish naturalist, Carolus Linnaeus, did a lot of the work for the rest of us.  His work, Systema Naturae, 10^th Edition (1758), became the basis of the binominal system of nomenclature employed in the classification of animals and plants.  Nowaday, you need to go to research websites like Mobot, InBio or the Plantlist.org to study the latest in nomenclature of plants.  And yes, I have been most lax in not including, at the minimum – L. – along with the species.  In Costa Rica, plants and animals are getting discovered and identified all the time.   Taxonomists might change species around within Families and Genera but the species name and discoverer will always remain the same.  You just might have to go find it in a different Family…

Why study animal taxonomy now, after years of focusing on botany, trees and medicinal plants?   Well, it started long before that day when I wanted to know the name of the hawkmoth caterpillar crawling on my Plumeria trees.  Just by looking, you can see how well-adapted insects are in this forest environment.  And with climate change, we shall see ever faster adaptations.  I am also increasingly intrigued by the relationships observed between insects and plants.  Just observing ants, I understand that they are more ancient, better adapted and will survive the human species.  They succeed by their numbers alone and exist in virtually every habitat on this planet.  Here in the forest, we might not see a collared anteater every day.  But we will see ants, wasps and bees every day, whether we want to or not…

The ants are just here now – a few feet away from where I stand inside the house in this forest.  If a child drops a few crumbs from his cookie, the ants will soon come and clean them up.  If a moth inside the house dies and falls to the ground, the ants will soon come take it away.  This is harmonic living in the forest.  All we have to do is just let the food chain be.  This works just as well in the urban jungle, where the Insect Class has also flourished and adapted.  No matter how determined the human species is in attempting to annihilate the insects with toxic, chemical warfare, the resistant insects adapt and just come right back.  Like that persistent, impertinent weed that just pops right back no matter how determined the herbicidal warfare employed.  The smart humans must learn to try a different approach - just coexisting with like-adapted successful species on this planet.  We humans are simply part of the cycle.  We study the stages in the life-history of an insect which undergoes metamorphosis, in order to understand – and to sometimes develop strategies.       

Pterygota undergoes cycles (metamorphosis) – either complete:  egg – larva – pupa/chrysalis – adult, or incomplete, as in Exopterygota:  egg – larva (nymph) –adult.  Each species has its own set of requirements to morph and to survive in the environment.  Understanding these cycles, leads to discovery, understanding, and strategies for coexisting.

So, what have I learned so far?  Well, I am quite fascinated with ‘ovipositors’ – the egg-laying or stinging structures.  All Hymenoptera have an ovipositor, that, in the case of say, worker honey bees (Apis mellifica) has been modified from laying eggs to stinging.  The sterile worker bees use this weapon much more freely than the queen, who would be deprived of the normal ovipositor function of egg-laying. 

Much has been studied of the highly structured communities of honey bees and also many species of ants.  Wasps are different – they are usually solitary and parasitic.  The wasps use their ovipositor to modify the substrate on which their egg is deposited, making it more favorable for larval development, by altering the plant tissue or by paralyzing, incapacitating or killing the host or prey.  It’s not a pleasant image of Life-History but it is fascinating.  I sometimes observe wasps ‘casing’ prey.  Among the hymenopterans, we see parasitoids, predators and, also, pollinators and agents of biological control.  We have much to learn from these ancient species.  They will out-survive Homo sapiens, I have no doubt.

It was all a joke, Little Gerry

No, no, you’re not actually For Sale.  And, yes, we all had a good laugh over it.  Of course, you didn’t laugh.  How could you?  You’re a calf.  I never REALLY meant to sell you.  I was just so mad that last time you broke into the garden – again!  You slithered right under the sturdy fencing that we had erected, just like a small dog, and then proceeded to totally decimate our corn patch – you chomped the plants right down to the root!  That crop had taken several weeks to grow, and we were just about ready to harvest the corn.  I wanted to put you on the barbecue right then and there!  And, yes, I offered you up for sale in a fit of fury!

We had a few offers too – but all too low (we wouldn’t let them insult you that way…).  Nobody understood your value.  The reality is, Little Gerry, you are not for sale at any price.  We shall keep you here at the farm, where you can continue to enjoy the pastoral life, and we have taken steps to reinforce the fencing.  However, Little Gerry, if you annihilate the garden again, Big Gerry is going to get served the best steak he’s had in his life…

No Turkey for Thanksgiving

Well, Mr. Turkey didn’t last long.  One morning, when Jose went out to feed all the animals, he found him dead in the hen house!  We were serving him a special protein-enriched diet, he was doing so well with the hens, and the weeks just went by in idyllic avian fashion.  So his sudden death - with not a mark on him - came as a real surprise.  Was it blackhead disease – Histamonas melagridas?  We didn’t go to the expense of an autopsy, but asked around if anyone knew anything about turkeys.  A neighbor told us that they are more delicate than hens; that sometimes they just keel over for no apparent reason.  Well, so much for Thanksgiving turkey…

As we have found out very clearly living here this long, you should stick with what works locally, go native….  In the case of poultry, we shall stick to ‘criollo’ hens.  The Finca hens live the good life.  They spend their days outside, pecking all around the stable-yard, helping us to control insect larvae.  The compost is produced so much faster with the hens pecking away at it, and they also add their own nitrogen-rich droppings to the mix.  Even if we didn’t eat the eggs (which we do with much gusto), we would still keep hens out at the stable to control the insects.  At night, most of them return inside, though some prefer to roost outside up in the trees.  But they stay very close; we live in a forest with predators close by…

The eggs taste ssooooooo good.  We’re just approaching a population size now where we should cull some of the flock, especially the roosters – or else they will kill each other.  In the past, we didn’t have that problem, as predators always got to them first.  I just reread the ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’, by Michael Pollan, and it just keeps delivering fresh insights.  The author found the chicken-killing experience unpleasant – who wouldn’t?  But he did it nonetheless.  The chickens had lived a good life at Polyface farm, and grass farmer, Joel Salatin, made sure that they were quickly killed and processed; very 4H.

But can I actually kill a chicken?  I don’t know.  I definitely will not pluck one – we’ll rent one of those machines I read about in Pollan’s book.  The whole thing will have to be organized with help from experienced farmers.  In any case, we can at least say that we know where our food comes from.

We mostly eat vegetables and fruit grown right here on the farm, and the animals play a huge role in improving the soil in which we grow everything.  Horse and cow manure, composted with stable bedding, chicken droppings and kitchen, produces a compost mix that, I contend, has greater value than gold.  The soil keeps getting better and better, as we continuously add more organic matter.  Gardening is something everybody can do to make his or her life a bit more enriching – in health and in spirit.  You see nature at work and you begin to deeply understand how interconnected everything is – how life circles back around through the soil.  Pollan describes this very well in ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’.  You can’t read his books and go back into the grocery store like you did before.  You learn where your food comes from; you’ve gotten a glimpse of the industrial food business and the brutal treatment of animals.  And you want to eat food grown locally, even better grown by yourself!  The gardening experience brings so many benefits.  I truly believe that, to comprehend nature, you have to go beyond observation; you have to engage in it – growing and rearing things yourself - and then you really begin to learn the lessons.  Plants and animals tell us what they need just by looking at them!