Coming up to the holidays. Still going strong!

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

Busy Busy daze here on the farm as the gardens are growing, mulch is flowing, seeds are sowing. NOTE: Huge Huge ups and thanks to Baker Creek Seeds in the US of A for their generous donation of over $650.00 in seeds to our community garden project in conjunction with Dig!, the BF community center and BF's own test gardens on site at the farm. Congrats go out to Norbert and Nevis for their hard work up in Leon training a local Leones about OG gardening as well as setting up for its second season an amazing urban garden that supports local food production for the Bigfoot Hostel.

Rains are still falling sporadically and the dry wet season has been somewhat salvaged by late season rains (and our Sorghum crop too).

This coming week is the last full workweek for BF staff from Balgue as well as our international volunteer and intern staff.

Let's keep the good vibes going for 1-2 more soakings before we set in for the DRY period.

Please be well,

Chris Shanks

Co-director Project Bona Fide

WHATS UP!! the dry season. Goodness por todos los lados

Greetings Bona Fide Friends and Supporters,

Well folks, I have been lax and I deserve at least mild castigation for being derelict in my blog updates. I hope we have not suffered too great of waning interest and I hope to win back our followers with more regular updates from now on. I am surprised by the number of folks looking in on the BF blog and I am grateful for it.

OK with that on the table let's get after it.

The month of November is always busy at Bona Fide, garden preparations, summer mulching preparations, irrigation system repair and upkeep plus planning for the upcoming permaculture course, working with new interns and gearing up for the busiest time for volunteer help. This past November and going right into the beginning of December have been no different, if anything perhaps more busy as BF forays into the support of a Commuity Garden at the BF community center, pending school groups, our biggest organic grain harvest to date plus what to do with so many papayas, bananas, starfruit and passionfruit. Eating them helps.

On top of all of this I find myself neck deep in for profit design projects. These projects not only help this almost 8 year and running volunteer pay the bill but also are opening doors for markets for organic produce and meats as well as regional connections that promote wellness, community building and right livelihood.

I find myself between the BF farm and two large design projects and little time to slow down yet the excitement of all the work we are all doing and how so much is coming together on the farm is fantastic. BF is close to developing some processing facilities for fruits (canning and ferments) as well as exploring some new building techniques to develop infrastructure as well as futher developing our local and regional community ties. Good time to be in Nicalandia with so many good folk.

A big shout out to Roundover Rachel, Cat, Steve, and Eva for ninja intern skillz and what they bring to our work. Same for our wonderful and warm local staff as well as to Michael Judd and family, (now in Nicaragua!!).

Pictures and more textual goodness to come next week.

Best to all,


Chris Shanks
Project co-Director
Site Manager

Community planting for Watershed Protection

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

This week's update features Bona Fide's leadership role and collaboration with the water committee of our local community, Balgue.

Project Bona Fide has been working with and alongside our local water committee concerning the reforestation of one of our important micro watersheds around our community.

In collaboration with community members including committee chairman, Luis Damian BF planted over 100 native fruit, nut, and hardwood trees (grown in our nursery) to provide erosion control, shade, wildlife forage, and protection for the vital spring 50 yards below that provides water for over 1500 community members. We did this in accordance with Nicaragua law, the environmental ministry, MARENA allows for plantings to protect watersheds for 50 yards in all directions from the source.

The trees were also fenced with chicken wire in order to protect them from roaming domestic grazing animals. The trees will be cared for in the dry season by BF and its volunteers.

Thanks to all especially BF volunteers and the Balgue water committee for their efforts.

Best to all,

Chris Shanks
Co-director Project Bona Fide

Healing Hands, Travel, RAIN!!!!!

Greetings Project Bona Fide friends and supporters,

I would like to almost entirely devote this week's entry to four exceptional women.

Our BF friends and neighbors, Dee and Kim

Our friends from town, Lydia and Sineada

It all started like this: Kim and Dee were housesitting for our dear Neighbors, Ben and Sarah Slow whilst they were welcoming their newborn daughter into this world. Dee and Kim were caring for the home and sharing animal care duties and other chores with Lydia and Sineada who work at Ben and Sarah's farm. All 4 women became close. Both Kim and Dee are certified and trained massage therapists. They wanted to leave something lasting and generative to the community they grew to love. Massage is what they chose to give. Over more than a month in many long and grueling sessions they taught traditional Indian Head Massage to Lydia and Sineada and worked with them to ground the program in the Community Center in town, structuring the econimic system to benefit the masseuse, the Center, and to support the ongoing work of the masseuses and their needs for materials. WELL DONE!!!

In other news:

RAIN RAIN RAIN. Por fin (finally) our rain dancing has paid off with more than a week of consistent moisture our last year's plantings are being finished and our annual crops are being well refreshed.

I am ON THE ROAD traveling in the mid-west of the US of A visiting agro-foretry sites, farmers, and friends, out to learn and absorb. Many thanks to all who have provided a place to stay, a cold beer, a good bit of conversation, speaking engagements or otherwise.

Pictures to come after the trip.

Best to all and thanks for your support,

Chris Shanks

Dry season in the Wet Season. Keep on trucking!

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

The dry season in the middle of what is supposed to be the wettest part of the rainy season continues. We received rain on Saturday and a heavy set of rains on Sunday of this past week, it felt like the entire island of Ometepe breathed a collective sigh of relief as the rains deeply refreshed important crops of rice and people's second crop or 'postrera' of beans and corn. Famine is being combated already in Guatemala and food shortages based on this surely global weirding influenced weather are already being predicted both nationally and by the United Nations via a visit here by a food security expert just 14 days ago (see Nica Times for the article).

On the positive side the drought resistant system that we have innovated at BF in the annual field trials area seem to be resisting the drought quite well, were are probably losing more corn crop to slippert fingers than drought stress, though comparison with last year's harvest will only paint the full picture. It is extremely interesting to note the contrast of this year wih last years as last year it was so wet that some bean crops rotted or were damaged by rot and now they are threatedned or have been damaged by drought. SO it goes.

As for pictures: Please enjoy a shameless shot of some hermoso maiz that Norbert and Nevis have been harvesting as well as pipian which is the white squash below, kind of like a white variety of summer squash. The bundles of drying plants in neat rows are sesame plants, harvested and drying on the concepcion side of the island ready for transport to Leon to be dehulled and then exported abroad. It is a shame we do not even have the means to process sesame on island, soley an export crop, could be a future food/calories producer for sure though if we had the simple durable machinery... Last foto, corn and rice, grown together on a somewhat steep hillside that is left in partial timber and is grazed in rotation when cropping is not present, nice local and simple and effective agro-silvo-pastoral system. Cool.

Thanks for your support,

Chris Shanks

Harvest begins...

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

Hello everyone. Well now its dry. No dry time when the usual patterns predicted and now it is dry. The coast and here in Granada from where I am updating have been unseasonably dry, Ometepe much better but this last week gave us sunny weather great for certain kinds of work but hard on planters and farmers. Good weather to dry beans though which brings me to the first foto, the START of our red bean harvest at BF. OG red beans. Whoo hoo!!

As I continue you those of you who have had the distinct pleasure of meeting our kitchen manager, Clemencia will recognize her in the foto that speaks to a big BF theme, abundance. All of the pictured food is BF grown, you will notice multiple varieties of squash and cucumber. So far so good, not buying much more than salt for the kitchen now, BF coffee, BF rice, BFcorn and VEggies. NICE work to everyone who has nade and is making this possible. One wil also notice the foto of younf cron as the elote ready, young corn that can be eateb con and all in soups or stews. Yummy or picadillo. Yum.

Lotus, oh yeah, that is the flower and plant featured in the last two fotos. No wonder it is the enduring symbol for the buddha.

Well folks, I gotta run. See ya on the isla!!!

Best to all,

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

New growth and agroforest management

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

These last 3 weeks have been busy friends, a lot of traveling for BF and for one's living, keeping the balance. The 'veranito' or mini summer has ended and now its dry. Ironic that when it was supposed to be dry it was not not and now in the supposed wet times sunny with wind, nice weather though for working and the trees are loving it. Anticipating dry weather, our Escuela de Campo students left their intercropped annual grain fields with a 'living mulch' layer between the corn and rice so our sensitive crops are still faring well, cucurbits like pumpkin, cucumber, and squash are begining to produce and the corn field is tasseling, we are just readying for the first red bean harvests, should be some pics next week!!

This week's update is all about GROWTH, now that we are about 1/2 of the way thru the wet season new plantings and older ones are all sprouting. The top two bamboo fotos feature healthy and vigourous shoots rocketing upwards on Bambusa stenostachya and what I believe may be B.tuldoides, we call it Hondureño as that is where I collected it from years ago. The beautiful red new leaves in the singular foto below is the first new growth on the cacao we planted, its looking very healthy and HAPPY!!





The last two fotos of pruned (pollarded) trees with our volunteer coordinator, Martha Fuchs in it for scale and her nice smile and the pile of pruned woody biomass show the abundant harvest we reaped from maintaining an area of planned living fence for animal/tree systems planted called the 'pig system', this site had tree planted around it over 3/4 of an acre 4 years ago and now with our first pollard we have reaped dozens of cubis meters of woody biomass. Happy bread/pizza oven for all the sustainably grown carbon neutral firewood we have produced. One has to wish others would see how easy it is to grow wood here and how you do not need to cut or gather it from the forest. Oh well, with time the paradigm will shift 'si diosa quiere.'


Thanks everyone for reading.

Best to all,

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