Painted playground, post madness, OAKS!

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,


Chris here saying a big 'Hello' to all. The last week or so since my previous posting has been full of a lot of good work and a lot of comings and goings. The farm has been very full with a lot of eager and helpful volunteers and we are happy to have them.

In the series of fotos featured this week we share (finally sorry all) a bunch of images of the 'West Vancouver High school' or West Van as they are known that has come to visit and support community projects in Balgüe for five years. In the last two years these intrepid students and their group leader, Greg Cormier have been very supportive in the development of the the community center the Bona Fide has in our local town. This year the group focused on helping us to begin our Pueboltel homestay program, raised money to build a VERY STURDY fence around the community center to discourage livestock from destroying all plants planted as well as support our Cafe Infantil and of course paint our new playground all sorts of cool colors with lots of local kids helping a long the way. Local kids and West Van students found out quickly how sticky oil based enamel really is. Nice handprints everyone!! As for the following fotos apart from our super cute kidz painting montage we have a pink flower and fuzzy looking fruit that is of all things, PEACH, yes real peach 'Prunus persica' I saw it at about 5500' (1600 meters) in Miraflor reserve in the cloud forests of Northern Nicaragua, ditto for the oaks leaves shown (1 of 4-5 species, true Quercus) And of course the mango featured is a early bearing variety that BF has identified as a under utilized local species with a lot of promise. Plant it up!!
Next week we will despedir some long time staff and show some PIZZA fotos of our new oven.

Best to all,

Chris Shanks
Co-director, Project Bona Fide

BLog update a long time coming...

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,



We are a bit behind on the blog these days due to high winds. High winds and waving trees contribute to spotty internet connections and loss of connections equals inability to update the blog. Nevertheless we will persist. Much is happening here on the farm, late February saw the first visit of my mother, Candace Shanks who has been a contributor to BF’s work via supporting fundraising efforts, awareness, organizing, and not the least hauling dozens of bilingual children’s books to the Balgue’s library at the community center, YEAH MOM!!!



This week’s features are Sapotaceae family DIVERSITY. The three exotic looking fruits in the posted fotos are 3 botanically distinct pecies. Trick is that only 2 of them seem to be known to general science and fruit species diversity. Seems that we may have a distinct sub species of Pouteria zapota or perhaps a different species occurring in the Masatepe region of Nicaragua not far from the colonial town of Granada. Go DIVERSITY!!!



We are all TIED UP here, that is in the ‘love shack’ that is to say that volunteers and interns have been working diligently on the new staff housing facility lovingly dubbed the ‘Love Shack’ as it is being built by our resident English couple, Tom and Eira. This building is built with bamboo from the farm, all the wood is from the farm and the thatch that will make up the roof was locally obtained. It is going to be a beautiful building. Congrats to all who helped with this effort of harvesting, drying, splitting, and cutting up a lot of bamboo PLUS tying all these bamboo members together with thousands of feet of tarred twine. NICE WORK. Pictured in the ‘Da shack’ is Shane and Jonah and pictured sawing is Sally, our new community support intern.



The last two fotos illustrate BF agricultural research and food systems development efforts. The curiously looking tomato like fruit is related to tomato but is actually a botanically distinct species. In efforts to grow tomatoes organically in a challenging climate and soil that seems especially hostile to the nightshade family save hot peppers (they are native here!!) we have been conducting trials of 8 varieties of tropically adapted tomatoes as well as 3 botanically distinct species. So far so good, we think we will have made some selections in the next month. Last but not least is the featured foto of one of our dozens of cinnamon trees that flower this time of year. Flowers bring seeds and seeds bring sharing of this valuable spice for both food and medicine.



Cheers to all.



Best to all,



Chris Shanks

Co-Director Project Bona Fide

Chris@projectbonafide.com

Permaculture course all wrapped up!!!

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

Happy birthday to Eira, thanks to a wonderfully eager staff and a small error we ended up with 5 cakes to celebrate the birthday of our resident hobbit and do all wündergirl, Eira who is the volunteer coordinator as well as the community outreach coordinator. Kudos. Thanks to small errors that bring 5 cakes. No cake was wasted in the eating of this mistake. Pictured with Eira is of course the one of a kind, wünderkind himself, 1/2 my size, twice my brain power, our Permaculture interpreter extraordinaire, my ‘mini me,’ Tiny Man, AKA Cris Fallas of Costa Rica. People of Bona Fide, we salute you Cris.

Thanks to the early risers on the 2nd to last day of the course for your help in carrying the final piece of the playground puzzle to the community center grounds over 4 months later, a barel of excuses and a lot of blackouts our playground is complete. Thanks again to the Knorr family for your support.

Who is that man in the hole? Answer: Don Agustin Contreras, our local well digger. Along with two Bona Fide staff members we have been digging for over 3 weeks, we hit water almost a week ago and now we are very close to being able to set up our pumping system. Thanks to everyone for your support.

As the course finishes up we prepared for our design projects. You will see a foto of Lydia, a young mother from town who completed the design course, she is pictured above talking about her design project to the rest of the class, also pictured, Tiny man's back. Lydia is also the woman pictured in traditional dress doing folkloric dance for the talent show, also pictured is Ebbie Slow (6yrs), local resident and comedian.

Last but not least, my ugly mug as pictured from a Jackfruit tree(Artocarpus heterophyllus). I hardly ever post fotos of myself as I am usually taking the fotos and Michael and I love this one so why not. Gotta love jackfruit, biggest fruit on E-A-R-T-H. That is the kind of tree that can feed a lot of people, One mature tree can produce over a ton of fruit/seeds annually. WOW.

Best to all,

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

Permaculture Design course IDEAS, Sharing!

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

It has been exactly 2 weeks since my last update. It has also been two weeks since our largest Permaculture course here at Bona Fide has begun. I see a pattern there. We are very fortunate to be sharing ideas, cultures, making friends and extending networks with people from: Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Canada and the good ole US of A. We are 32 folks, from 8 countries, all walks of lives, youths eager to learn and more seasoned folks eager to share, we all have a lot to offer. We are especially honored to be hosting 2 Mayan youths from SE Guatemala. These two gentleman and their travel companion and staff member, Karyn Stein come from the Asociacion Ak' Tenamit (New Town). We salute you.

As the course begins to wrap up and 5 design groups are eagerly sharing ideas and putting it all on paper we are ready for a bit of a rest before the next step. But no rest for thr WICKED (HA!!), as we will host a whole slew of course participants as BF volunteers, crank out a bunch of cool projects, finish the 'Love Shack' and hopefully get some worms into their new home we built for them.

Is that what it looks like??, red luscious and juicy, YES it is!! Bona Fide's first organic tomato produced in out tomato culture experiment being conducted by the Escuela de Campo staff and Chris. So far so good. Eggplants coming soon. Go team Garden.


Now what? What's that? Egg fruit or otherwise known as canistel, sapote amarillo or sapote mico or AKA Pouteria campechiana. An excellent fruit introduced to Nicaragua in pre-Colombian times and a hopeful one for BF food security and research work to work with and reintroduce into the local diet. High in bete carotene and vitamin A, can be made into savoury pies or blended with whole milk. YUM!

And this? Crazy looking red fruit with cerebral cortex looking yellow food matter. ACKEE!!
Blighia sapida, from west Africa, brought over by African folks who were stolen from their countries, cooked with salted codfish in Jamaica and favoured above almost all foods, perfectly drought hardy to our climate and potentially poisonous if not eaten at the right time. WOW.

Last but most definitely not least NEVIS AND MARIA IN THE HOUSE!! (or classrooom that is) Both Nevis and Maria have been participating in the PErmaculture design course as occasional students and TEACHERS, each one sharing the finding of their research projects with the class, Nevis spoke about soil fertility, the role of essential macro and micro nutrients in the soil and how to rectify deficiencies organically. Maria spoke abour intregrated pest management as a transitional system to all one to convert to organic methods w/o loss of production. Nice work! Aleida will be presenting sometime this week as well on her work with medicinal plants.

Best to all,

Chris

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

1 YEAR anniversary and JACKfruit!!

Greetings Bona Fide friends and supporters,

WELCOME HOME!!

This week that has passed saw Michael Judd, Bona Fide co-Director and US based fundraiser and administrator and family (Chris and Carolyn Judd) plus Lady Eve arrive at BF, traveling lightly (just under 500, yes F-I-V-E hundred pounds of luggage) Not all swimsuits and towels either, on the contrary Michael arranged for yet another donation of much needed vitamins and medicines for the Café Infantil nutrition program and lugged them from Maryland to here on Ometepe. Many thanks to these valiant folks especially Chris and Carolyn who not only have made numerous visits to the island and this year in the ‘El Centro’ community center gave its first quilting workshop over a 5 day period, but also work very hard in the US to support BF fundraising efforts. Kudos to all four of you for making the journey.















HAPPY ONE YEAR birthday to our community center. If you take a moment to view the before and after fotos of the center you will see a dramatic change in the exterior but the exterior is just where it begins as one would see inside the building a library on the second floor where before it was vacant and littered with refuse, one would be able to use the internet, charge educational tools/computers, and work on the center with power tools thanks to the complete wiring of the building as well as its grid connection where before there was no light or power. Much has changed both inside and outside of the building with the addition of the playground, holding of numerous classes in English, environmental education, extra help in mathematics as well as art and music PLUS library hours for the public. Much has passed in just one year and there is A LOT to go in the development of the site. Thanks to EVERYONE from volunteers and interns to local supporters and educators as well as Eira Kedward, TALICA, the Knorr family, West Vancouver High School and everyone else…W/O you all we would still be sanding the first boards on the second floor paint job. Thanks again.

Big Change BIG BOAT




I just crossed Lake Nicaragua yesterday on the new ferry, El Rey de Cocibolca (King of Lake Nicaragua). This ferry, imported from Holland is serving the new port of San Jose del Sur and will run 2x daily. Besided carrying up to 16 cars/light trucks and up to 1000 people it is owned and operated by the local government and NOT a private business like the Ferry in Moyagalpa. It is also cheaper. I highly recommend it to folks coming to the island as you will be supporting local government, spending less money and you will also be 10km closer to the Maderas side if you are headed to Bona Fide or Totoco or Zopilote or the playa or Merida. Save money, save gas, buy local. Sweet.

What is this crazy yellow fruit that looks like an alien creature recently eviscerated?

Well actually its Jackfruit/Jaquero (Artocarpus heterophyllus) Bona Fide currently has 6 trees (of about 80 and counting) fruiting at 4.5 years of age which is better than average, selections for breeding/fruit quality are already being made, featured in the two fruit fotos are from the first named variety on the farm, ‘La Hannita’ in honor of long time friend and supporter of the farm. Eating jackfruit is fun, the fruit tastes like Juicy Fruit gum, the seed lightly boiled and peeled tastes like garbanzo bean, great for soups, stews and such. Guess what? You can make hummus out of it. YES. HUMMUS. Well it may not sound like a lot since you can buy it just about anywhere in the USA, Canada, or Western Europe but here hummus is as scarce sub zero temps, well not anymore. WHO knows what crazy fun tasty recipes we will come up with with all these new fruits, nuts, veggies, seeds and leaves we grow. Nice. Very nice.


Where is this beautiful beach?



The gratuitous shot of the Nicaraguan Pacific coast is actually about planting seeds, garden seeds for the record. Chris via his business, Living Systems Solutions is in negotiations with the eco-resort community of Aqua SA to aid them in working with local farmers near the coast to begin a subscription farming/CSA venture for the promotion of organic agriculture and local employment. The BF farm school, Escuela de Campo will be involved in training locals on the coast in nursery development and garden design and implementation. These jobs will be paid positions that will show the students at our school the value of their skills.

Best to all,

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