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Article 9
Here are some more quick, personal updates from our patio garden and mini-zoo. We harvested the head of little bananas (bananito rosa) that was growing over the roof; I was worried it was leaning on...
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Feeding the Soil for a Better Coffee Harvest
As organic farmers know, it’s much more important over the long term to feed the soil than to feed a plant. Using nutrients that a plant needs only in the moment (essentially what chemical fertilizers...
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Why Garden? Says Who?
This past year I helped to write and execute a project promoting urban gardening in the small town of Nagarote. Around the world, kitchen or community gardens are popular activities for organizations...
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Travelers, Tourists and Voluntourists Post
Many people – friends, folks who have encountered my blog in a search, friends of friends – contact me when they are planning a trip to Nicaragua or other latin american countries asking for advice....
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Baho Reprise
To celebrate Nick’s birthday this past week he decided to do another Carne en Baho, a traditional Nicaraguan dish that we first tried making two years ago. The party was planned in a casual,...
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Excuse me?!
Teasing is an important part of Nicaragua humor. Sometimes people say the opposite of what they mean, and if you are lucky they’ll accompany it with a smile or a wink to convey it’s a joke. Usually I...
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A Votar!
This year we weren’t the only vehicle offering rides to members of the village – so nearly everyone had a space if they wanted to ride! The focus of the last few days for both Nick and I has been to...
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Black Gold
Yesterday (October 19th) was the United Nations’ designated World Toilet Day. While it is maybe not the most appealing over-the-dinner-table subject, there are many many reasons to devote time to...
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To El Salvador, for the Other Black Gold
Fresh picked El Salvadorian organic coffee In December I had the opportunity to represent the Social Business Network on a trip to northern El Salvador to piece together the puzzle of helping a small...
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Castaña, or Breadnut
The boiled nuts are high in protein and low in fat. Every now and then I have come across some nuts in the market, tied into plastic bags. In León it’s rare to find them. They have a brittle brown...
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Pollinator Week
This week, July 21-27, was designated by the USDA as national pollinator week, and there are events and classes highlighting the important work these insects do for us all around the country. I’ve...
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Huerto Tropical
I decided about six weeks ago that I have lived for much too long now without a garden of my own, and it was time to put some of the tropical farming knowledge I’ve absorbed in a year and half in...
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Pure Indulgence
I am a proud, devoted local food advocate, small farmer supporter, and former farm worker. And I admit to having a weakness for asian food. In former days my organic eating hard working farming...
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Long term farm planning with Microcredit
SosteNica’s pilot reforestation project with CEPRODEL in Nicaragua is not just about planting trees. There are many organizations and government initiatives reforesting Nicaraguan hillsides. What...
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Sherrod: Victim of Cyber-speed Culture
I’ve been catching up on this weeks frenzy over the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, former USDA Director of Rural Development for the state of Georgia. There are several things that I find remarkable...
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Waves of mud
Have you ever seen mud that has been trampled on by hundreds of cows? Their hooves begin to slip into the same places over and over again, perfectly spaced to a cow’s pace, until the mud is formed...
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How the Dragon Fruit got its name
I recently discovered how the Dragon Fruit (called pitaya in Nicaragua) got it’s name. Pitayas are bright crimson red, shaped a bit like an artichoke. They peel away from their thick succulent rind...
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Micro credit addresses climate change
For SosteNica´s promotional tour this fall I´ve made a short video highlighting our environmental work with borrowers. Tell me what you think.
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10/10/10 in rural Nicaragua
On 10/10/10 people around the world joined together in efforts to reduce carbon emissions, pollution, and contamination. We decided to use our 10/10/10 to visit a rural Nicaraguan community who have...
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Following Nicaraguan exports
Everyone is familiar with the current trend of tracing processed or imported food down to its origins. From imported coffee and wine to the carrots in your nearest grocery store, now everyone wants to...
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Nicaragua, Nicaragüita in pictures
On a recent trip to the isletas in Granada, I nearly completed my quest to find every fruit and flower mentioned in Carlos Mejia Godoy’s famous song, Nicaragua Nicaragüita (lyrics at the end of this...
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When Living in the Future is Not Fun
The town water system in León was shutdown for nearly 48 hours last weekend. Rumors were that an electical plant failed to provide the energy needed to pump water. The water stopped before dawn on...
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Honey-bees beat pesticides
Right now the Occidente of Nicaragua is flush with flowers. This year the rainy season was particularly heavy, and the remaining moisture in the ground – unusual for early February – is reflected in...
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Summer Days in Nagarote, Nicaragua
The Nicaraguan summer, or verano, is November through May, during the dry season when it doesn’t rain. The only crops that survive are perennial crops like fruit trees, crops that have been well...
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Lizards for Lunch?
One of Nicaragua’s national newspapers, El Nuevo Diario, ran this article yesterday, linking two things I had never put together before: the Catholic Church and the threat of extinction for iguanas in...
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Ode to the Mango
The only possible thing to do after coming home from the market with this glowing fruit was to dig out some dusty pastels and spend a half hour focussing my attention completely on its color and form....
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Breaking down Micro-Credit for Farmers
Doña Yamilette taking care of a calf whose mother she purchased with a loan, and who died giving birth. Yamilette is paying off the loan with help from her family, instead of from the intended milk...
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Alacrán? Check.
So, excuse the lag in posts to a very time-consuming but fun and exciting new Urban Gardening project in Nagarote – a post on that is promised soon! Meanwhile, about a week ago one of my greatest fears...
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Remembering Wangari Maathai
Wangari Muta Maathai (1940 – 2011) will be remembered and honored by millions of students, youth, environmentalists, professors and heads of state. She demonstrated to the world that the eradication...
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more remembering…
Thanks to a high school classmate of mine, a version of the entry I wrote below was posted on Turnstyle Youth Radio’s blog here and on the Huffington Post’s Green blog here. Thanks Charlie!
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Si nos quitan el pan!
In honor of World Food Day, October 16, an entry on one of the most important staples of culture and cuisine in the western hemisphere: corn. Anyone who attends a concert in Nicaragua, especially at a...
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Planting Two Dimensional Gardens
When two volunteers asked to come and work with SosteNica a few months ago, we and our partner organization saw an opportunity to shift the nature of our work in Nicaragua and focus on bringing some of...
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Creating the Future
Recently the Reforestation Project I work for organized a workshop at a primary school in one of the communities where we have worked with farmers to diversify their farms. The topic of the workshop...
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Mi Huerto
It’s summer, the dry drought filled half of the year in the western plains of Nicaragua. Dust invades your life and your respiratory system as the green fields along the highways turn into brown...
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que vive el huerto…de nuevo!
The end of the dry season is here, finally the heavy hot humid nights have a chance of breaking into real rain. Two nights ago we fell asleep to such a pleasant soft rain – a gentle beginning to what...
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Women in Agriculture
As a woman who has dedicated much of her education and career on farming and farming related activities, many organizations and programs directed toward women in agriculture have caught my attention....
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Strengthening Local Food Networks
A colorful array of locally produced products in Achuapa, Nicaragua from sesame oil to carao syrup to nancite wine! Once upon a time I believed that creating and supporting healthy local food systems...
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Fair Trade Month meets World Food Day
October 2013 is Fair Trade Month, when consumer advocacy groups, companies, and certifications raise awareness of the reasons why fair trade is important, and promote buying and using socially and...
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Getting down and dirty
I receive many comments from people who want to come to Nicaragua and get dirty – volunteer on a working farm or with an organization promoting sustainable farming or gardening. So here is a quick...
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Giving Thanks for Grandma
My grandmother on the porch of her house in Pennsylvania, Spring 2013. I try to keep this blog to topic: farming and sustainable living anecdotes from Nicaragua and Latin America. But this time I’m...
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Thanksgiving
Continuing the Thanksgiving Theme, here is my favorite table grace in Spanish: Gracias Señor por el pan. Da pan al que tiene hambre y hambre de justicia al los que tienen pan. Gracias Señor por el...
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Article 0
This is a re-post of my latest entry at the Social Business Network blog: This year, in the face of the leaf rust blight that has devastated coffee farmers across Latin America and the added insult...
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Soil Fertility, Sustainability and Farmer Democracy
The ground seems fertile for new sustainable agriculture markets, pun intended. A recent estimate places a $4.5 billion value on the “green agricultural technologies” market over the next decade,...
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Roots in Revolution
We are published! Nick wrote an article for the Fair World Project, which I edited and selected photos for, and it’s out! Online or available in the publication For a Better World available in Whole...
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Fastnacht Dienstag
The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday was celebrated as Fastnacht Dienstag by my grandmother. She explained to us that you had to use up all the sugar in the house because there were no sweets during lent....
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Celebrating seven years!
It’s hard to believe – it’s been seven years since I first arrived in Nicaragua, excited to learn everything I could about tropical sustainable agriculture. Although I’m living in the states now, I...
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Motos y Abonos Verdes
A few weeks ago, as I was planning this trip, the current director of SosteNica‘s projects in Nagarote apologized that they had a workshop scheduled for my first day in Nagarote. I was thrilled. To go...
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School Gardening in the Tropics
Wednesday I spent the morning on the back of a motorcycle driven by Fanny Mercado, a graduate of the UNAN Agroecology program who is working for SosteNica‘s EcoCentro and is in charge of helping six...
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Biodiversity, Technodiversity, and Scaleversity
OK, I realize that the third word in the title doesn’t exist, and that the second one is a stretch. The connection between high levels of biodiversity within an ecosystem and increased stability and...
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Not the kind of solidarity we choose
47% of New York State was in a severe or moderate drought in July 2016. This summer, western New York saw the worst drought since 1943. Farmers have been hit hard. Dairy farmers, because they rely on...
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