We stayed 2 days at Finca Santa Marta and learned a TON! Justin and Jenny (the current farm managers) and their friend Coco were so knowledgeable. Not just about how to grow plants or keep a garden, but about how to grow plants better! They were able to explain and teach us about nitrogen fixing plants, how to make the soil better, worm composting, permaculture, black soldier flies, how to use an inflatable mattress to go down a river, bamboo construction, contour planting, plants that help with soil erosion, mulching easier, and lots more.
For those of us who grew up in Ohio, we never knew how pineapples grew. Here you go!
Justin explaining the worm composting. Basically, the worms eat the garbage (your food scraps) and their stomachs multiply the nutrients. Their castings are then soooo rich and can be spread around your plants.
We planted 40 trees in their orchard: avocado, moringa, and 6 others I can't remember. Fun, but so tiring! Yari was having a blast.
Here is the end product. The little tree with organic material around it to decompose into mulch. The stick is actually part of the living posts trees and will grow into a tree itself providing shade for the little tree, more organic material to be cut and placed at the base, and it's also a nitrogen fixer.
The cardboard has a few purposes...mark where the tree was planted so it doesn't get weed whacked, smother the weeds and grass around the tree so it doesn't fight for water and nutrients, and eventually it will decompose as mulch.
One of their greenhouses.
A really cool tree.
They sell meat chickens and harvest about 15 a week. They raise them in groups. You can see the little guys in the middle, older ones in the back, and even older ones in the front.
Me, Justin, Jenny, Coco, Yari
Again, we have cool videos, but blogger is being dumb right now and won't let us upload them. Sorry.
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