Trips ABROAD, Black Gold, Pizza, Chocolate!!!

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

Since my last blog update we have been very busy both on and off the farm. The ‘Escuela de Campo’ group of 3 local students and their 3 counterparts from abroad traveled off island on their first field trip of 2009. The group traveled north through Jinotepe up to the Masatepe region where they visited Campos Azules one of the INTA national experimental stations for Nicaragua. The group received a tour of the site, the experiments being conducted, methods being employed, as well as techniques for post harvest handling. Afterwards the group traveled to the nursery and farm of Juan Jose, the nurseryman who traveled to Ometepe in December to teach the ‘Escuela de Campo’ a grafting workshop. The group stayed in San Marcos for the night and then visited ‘Rancho Evenecer,’ an integrated animal, worm compost, biogas, and horticulture site in the town of Ninquinomo.

Whilst folks were traveling off island, folks on island were busy whittling away at the many pre-course tasks for preparation for the 2009 Permacultue Design Course held at Bona Fide. Thanks to Tom, Jonah, Joe Kablino for helping us get ready. We expect 28 students from 6 countries. 6 Nicaraguans will be attending 5 under full scholarship plus one gentleman from Guatemala as well. Our course is structured so that full tuition students help pay for scholarships with their course fee. The course will be translated simultaneously from English to Spanish and Spanish to English by ‘Tiny Man.’ From Costa Rica.

What are those folks doing to our beloved bread oven!! DESTRUCTION AND CHAOS!! Well knocking it down after almost 5 years of loyal service was fun, a bit sad but it was time to move on, all good things come to an end as they say. We are building the better mousetrap so to speak, doubling the size of the oven and building a large 1meter by 2 meter prep table to boot, a nice opportunity to expand and have more capacity to make PIZZA!!. Talk about professional capacity building strategies, this one is made of mud.

Speaking of mud, or more to the point soil, the bones of life, the foundation of food, black gold, the web of life, terroir. Well Bona Fide is going into the business of black gold, David, Norman, and Vienel just finished the details on a worm compost bin that will be used to build fertility in the nursery and the garden. We are excited about changing our banana peels into worm castings, the most coveted and well balanced type of soil additive more or less known to soil science.

The namesake of the town of Granada, (Spanish for Pomegranate) fruiting at Bona Fide for the first time. The first fruits are only tennis ball sized but they are a great start. I love surprises.

Bona Fide chocolate? Yes. I just rode 2 plus hours on my motorcycle with 65 pounds of chocolate. Why? Many reasons. To make it short, $$$$ and therapy. Don’t ask about the latter. Funds raised from the sale of this chocolate will be dedicated to scholarship for two students from ‘Escuela de Campo’ for their university schooling. Further donations always accepted OR just eat your way to donating by buying chocolate. Thanks to the folks at El Castillo Chocolate Company for expediting our order and giving us a good price.

Hey, last but not least whatsoever. KUDOS to Nevis and Jackie and all other volunteer support on the garden. Best it has ever looked in the last 3 years.

Best to all,

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