New Tools, Fences, Fruits and goodness

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

I am updating you all from the city of Granada, in the midst of the national hipica, a horse/cow boy culture centered gathering that consists of beautiful horses with usually drunk riders prancing about in the street much to the adulation and joy of the rest of us. Hipicas are held all around the country and many are still extremely traditional and a true cultural experience. This one seems to be more like a beer commercial, but I digress.
The first foto featured is one that celebrates a 20 month process of building a home here amongst the place and people I came here 7 plus years ago to serve. Everything in the house has been done by hand and it has been a joy to work with the 3-5 men who have helped as well as dozens of others who have contributed in many other ways. It is going to be one heck of a house warming in August when we are done.
The gratuitous shot of new growth on an avocado celebrates the coming of the rains and honors the goodness of all things that grow green.
The two fotos below feature a new species of Theobroma that I found yesterday buying plants for BF and the community among others. It is related to cacao for sure, what it is exactly I am not sure. There are 5 species of Theobroma recognized in Nicaragua. Two of them I know well, the other three this one initially does not seem to be. Apart from this in the region I was in the fruit is well known, especially by the older generation. What I do know is I am am planting a lot of it in the nursery. This may be a rare sub-species or undescribed botanical gem. Quien Sabe?





For those of you who know our kitchen manager, Clemencia, well your lucky as she is one of our most valued staff members and friends. Clemencia is featured with scores and scores of suriname cherry/pitange/Eugenia uniflora. This fruiting shrub bears 2x yearly and this year we have scores of bushes fruiting, THOUSANDS of fruit, our biggest harvest EVER!!!

The group foto featured here shows our UVM agroforestry course with volunteers and local staff showing off our much valued and appreciated donation of a top of the line Japanese pole pruner with a 20′ extension, Felco loppers of two sizes for tree pruning, plus loads of replacement blades. This donation was made possible by Michael John Sullivan and his family. THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH.

Last but not least. HUGE THANKS to Charlie and Vienel, a team of one US citizen and one local stone worker, working 5 days a week to finish the community fence for the BF community Center. Thanks you two. Big thanks to Charlie for spending a month of his university vacation wrestling concrete posts and big stones. Vienel you rock, congrats on your leadership on this project.

Thanks to all you all out there in the big WORLD,

Chris Shanks
Co-director Project Bona Fide

Education and RAIN at BF

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

This last week and half saw a visit from ten students from the University of Vermont who completed a 3 credit course on agroforestry at BF. Instructors Chris Shanks and Mike Blazewicz were on hand to utilize the living classroom that Finca Bona Fide has become. We were fortunate to have the rains fall during the course and we were able to do some plantings as well as see cover crops we planted spring up. The processes observed between dry and wet season was informative for the students as was the different ages and concentrations of different trials systems on the farm. BF was happy to work with local restaurants and local lodging options to spread out the funds we brought to the island and we enjoyed the hospitality of Doña Coco and Doña Inez in their tropical homegarden systems. Bona Fide is excited to work with the University of Vermont further and to offer up more courses to expand our educational offerings as part of the vision for our work.

The beginning of the wet season has been early this year, it actually began to green up in mid April which is abnormal to say the least. Rain for the last week has been key to putting all winter wet season plans into action. Seeds are sprouting everywhere and volunteers are busy rescuing seedlings and getting them potted up for plantings. We have already planted pejibaye or peach palm to replace those damaged or killed by rats in the dry season, one of our main cover crops, pigeon pea has been sowed in the dry times and now it has already sprouted, literally many thousands of pigeon pea are growing all around the farm, at this time of the year, the growth is fast and daily. Amazing to see.

Best to all,

Chris Shanks
Co-Director Project Bona Fide
Chris@projectbonafide.com

2009 Bona Fide Seed Exchange

On Sunday, May 11, the annual “Intercambio de Semillas” – Bona Fide Seed Exchange – took place on the streets of Balgue. With the help of countless hands, from Javier hauling a truckload of plants from the farm to town in his vintage 80s Toyota 4×4 to the grandmotherly Doña Ines blasting Nica pop to attract people in the heat of the afternoon, everything went off well. Key to the show were Nevis, Maria and Aleyda of Escuela de Campo, who prepared numerous treelings, seedling medicinal plants, and packets of seeds to exchange for bags of rice, mangos, cacao beans, and most interesting of all, a freshly caught fish!

Every year the seed exchange offers us a direct opportunity to share some of the research and work we are doing on the farm with local communities. Posters and flyers placed in key towns on the island advertise the event – though quite a few of the people who come are those simply walking down the street who stop by to see what is going on. From the nursery, we share both locally popular fruits like nispero and mamey, as well as new varieties that are doing well on the farm and hold potential to be good food resources and opportunities to improve plant diversity in the area, like jackfruit and pitanga. As many people are unfamiliar with these plants, we explain to them how they are grown and how their fruits can be used – for example in juices, which are extraordinarily popular in the hot days of summer. From the garden, we share a variety of legumes that grow easily here and add nitrogen to depleted soils, in addition to different herbs and vegetables that we have grown and collected seeds from. And from the medicinal garden, we share plants that broaden the selection of natural remedies available and can be used to combat common illnesses.

While we hope eventually to attract crowds of people eager to discover the latest varieties of plants and trees coming from Bona Fide, the highlights of last Sunday came in small doses. Watching a 12-year-old girl come in search of a specific plant and then go down the line of trees and name almost every one of them – something not even I could do at the beginning of the day – is inspiring. Or seeing the delighted smile as a gentleman walked off with four trees he had come specifically seeking in a bucket on his shoulder. Or best of all, spending the day managing the various exchanges while out of the corner of one’s eye catching continuous glimpses of the breadfruit tree Doña Ines traded for three years ago, now rising above the roof of her house and producing fruit that, she happily explains, is “ricissimo” – absolutely delicious!

This blog contribution was written by Catherine McGill our garden co-manager and attache to the Escuela de Campo. Thanks to Cat for all her hard work. Much appreciated.