Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,
Been too long you all!! I know everyone is trepidatiously awaiting a laundry list of excuses. Only one though. After almost 5 years of bulletproof service and hard work my apple G4 died an honorable death. Cause of death:broken motherboard. Gracias a dios though a skilled Nicaraguan computer tech was able to convert the hard disk into an external hard drive. The computer's data was backed up by the best and most recent copy is in the USA.
Well and oh well to that. Bona Fide has been a right busy busy place in the last 60 days. Please allow me to elaborate:
Renovation and expansion of Bona Fide educational and dormitory facilities:
Hilton rebuilt with new posts and foundation work, new roof and floor in process, will house 2-3 people year round. Oven structure built from Bona Fide wood and bamboo, tarp roof, will be used to generate microbusiness with oven, demonstrate oven's utility, entertain and inspire visiting groups, diversify and support food processing year round on site.
Creation and execution of processing aspect of Bona Fide's work in post harvest handling:
BF purchased large pots, 250 jars, utensils, and spices to begin making jams and chutneys. 2010 has seen 150 jars filled with jams and chutneys and 2011 is projected for 800-1000 as well as marketed label and website for BF economic on farm independence.
Tree planting:
Reclaimed 2 acres of secondary growth BF land, all ecologicaly important trees left on said 2 acres, rest planted in conjunction with fromer cover crop, velvet bean with pigeon pea as quick overstory crop to shade emerging trial orchards of: rambutaan, pulasaa, and pili nut. All 3 south east asian nuts (1) and fruits (2) are experimental for the region and have food security and economic promise for Ometepe. Further more hundreds of native fruit trees, thousands of native legumes were also planted as part of our guilding and forestry initiatives on the land. 700 grafted fruit trees as well as the BF nursery are also now available to the community as well as technical advice for their use as of July 5th 2010.
Service learning groups:
Univeristy of Vermont, UC boulder (Colorado) McMaster (Canada), Frederick High school and Al-Campo international have all passed through and participated in planting, community service, and other support.
Layout of new experimental species and plant combination trials at BF land:
New plant species interactions, new species especially legume trees intermixed into the annual grain polycultures and new management and pruning techniques are being trialed this year.
Expansion of Bona Fide's land use on the farm for new crops experiments:
Pruning, planting, and harvesting for a BF future :)
Thanks to the generous donation from WHY and the Hard Rock cafe Bona Fide has cranked up a number of notches our facilities to host overnight guests, students, volunteers and interns. Interns and volunteers alongside our paid local staff are an extremely important part of our work. Through a well thought out division of labour much of our tree planting, new crops systems layouts, and all our food processing is done by volunteers. This division allows our local crew to maintain existing systems during the lush growing season as well as the dry season.
BF looks forward to the last half of the wet season (so far so MUCH rain !!) for planting understory and root crops and receiving new volunteers and programs as we move into the 'fall.'
Thanks to everyone for their ongoing support and confidence,
Chris Shanks
Co-director and Farm Manager
