7/12/08
We had heard there are two organic farms
Just a little ways outside of town.
One of them is near San Miguel Viejo,
A small rural village
where the town was founded in the 1500’s,
and the original church still stands.
At the fork in the road, you go right,
and keep walking about another half mile.
You pass a school on the left,
Farms and ranches on the right,
Perhaps share the road with bicycle riders, walkers,
And an occasional man sitting on the back of a donkey,
His shopping bucket in front, cantering along
The whole walk must be about 3 miles from our house,
Down the hillside, onto the Calzada de la Estacion,
Competing with the cars, buses and trucks
For a space on the busy road to the train station
And out into the countryside
On a rocky cobblestone road.
We were wondering how much further it could be
When a couple who were walking their dog
Pointed the way.
Sure enough, you can’t miss it,
“Rancho La Trinidad”
With it’s arty brick and rock fence
Lined with cactus.
It’s been raining for the last two weeks
This morning the sun was shining through big black clouds
As we walked along, the clouds cleared away
The sun came out and everything is crisp and green.
The pathway into the farm is an idyllic tree lined path
The ranch House sits along the left side
There are 3 hectares planted in vegetables
Little nopalitos, not quite ready for picking
The vegetables have already been picked,
Washed in large concrete tubs
Then placed in buckets to be purchased.
If they don’t have what you want,
They go out in the fields and pick it for you.
Waiting for John,
who is photographing the rock wall
And me
Walking back,
I discovered these two rock footsteps
randomly nestled in the cobblestone road
We watered them down for the photo.
And then we found an exclamation point!
On the way back to the house,
We passed the Saturday market at the train station
We purchased fruit, onions and cilantro,
Ate a mango with chili and lime
And was carved into a flower,
Then sat down under the blue tarp
And ordered a pork torta.
Here’s the organic vegetables
That we purchased for 80 pesos (about $8)
A humongous bunch of chard,
3 bunches of dino kale,
celery and anise root,
2 types of basil, 2 heads of lettuce,
2 beets, 4 heads of garlic
4 cucumbers and arugula.
This probably would have cost about $40 at whole foods.
And from the Saturday market – for 60 pesos (about $6)
A large papaya, 2 mangos,
5 bananas, 15 limes,
2 large and 4 small onions,
8 tomatillos and a large bunch of cilantro.
The mangos and papayas are in season,
Excellent right now, you can just eat them all day!
And last, here’s a little video of the farm
and it’s morning sounds (coming soon)
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And last, here’s a little video of the farm
and it’s morning sounds