The Agulars are good friends. Nery works on the farm, heading up the crew Monday through Thursday. He has five girls and two boys (both of the boys now work on the crew as well). So on days when the girls are out of school, they come to the farm to hang out for the day. Often, this turns into a cooking extravaganza! One of the last times they came, we made dukunu, or tomatillas in Spanish. Here's how it works: Fresh corn is harvested, at the base of each piece, the husks are cut with a knife all the way through, the tough outer layers removed and put to the side, the inner layers bagged for ot... [More]

Our neighbor, Bob, has been keeping a bull on the farm for several months now. He came by last Wednesday to ask if we would be up for a slaughtering this weekend. So Bob and his wife, six men, one woman and three children show up for the event. The bull is cornered, shot behind the ear, and the throat is cut. It was a crazy few minutes! One man stands on the stomach to help the blood move out. The bull is then hooked to the tracter and pulled a few feet to lay out under a tree. The lower half is skinned and a very large stick is placed between the back two legs. A rope is then tied on each leg... [More]

Friday is movie night here in the jungle. So last weekend we settled in with our popcorn as usual. Around 10pm the dogs started going nuts, and moments later we hear "POLICE! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP! POLICE!" What??? So we grab flashlights and look out to see who's messing with us. But this was no joke. When they saw the flashlight, they were not happy. "Don't shine that on us! This is the police! Come out with your hands up!!" So I was officially freaked out. Justin stepped out on the (under construction) deck with his hands held high. I stayed inside yelling "you have to show me somethi... [More]

Bamboo! It's an amazing plant. Beautiful and useful in countless ways. We have 16 varieties growing on the farm now, with a few more arriving last week. This, of course, is a production, and this past shipment was even more involved than normal. Typically the new plants are sent via American Airlines in boxes of moss as cuttings. Last week, however we had plants as well as cuttings so they were sent by ship. In order to prepare for any new plants, the crew takes the tractor and trailer out into the bush and gets a load of nice black soil from the jungle floor. Then, they load the dori on the t... [More]