Project Sabbatical

I'm writing this from San Francisco. We have just returned to raise funds and awareness about the project and look for allies, sponsors and volunteers. It's wonderful to be back although we miss the land and Shiva already. It was a very hard to decision to leave our new home. However, we need to further the project in other avenues for now so we can be successful and expand later.

We have already had a lot of interest and support. We finished the walls, up to the roof the last week before we left. There aren't pictures of this as all five of our cameras broke this year either from waves at the beach, moisture or just living in the tropics. We left with a deep sense of satisfaction for overcoming the various and plentiful obstacles we faced. We will return with more fire and vigor, and enough funding to create a better vision.

I still have a lot of content I wasn't able to post, and photos too so I will be going back through to finish all the sections and include as much data as possible. This will be some of the journal content for my book.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us and I hope we get to see each of you soon!

"Commitment is the enemy of resistance, for it is the serious promise to press on, to get up, no matter how many times you are knocked down." -borrowed from Fernando Gonzalez

We've done it! The cabin has a roof! Gracias a dios! Love to all of you who have supported us. This is the best feeling in the world. Viva la revolucion! Viva Terra Madre Panama!

7 Reasons Why You Should Grow Your Own Food

By Care2 .com
www.care2.com, USA | Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:01 PM ET

Ablestock.com/Thinkstock

READ MORE ABOUT:
Gardening | Vegetables

Not that being part of a trend is ever a good reason to start or learn something new, but if it helps you move forward by being part of the "in" crowd, then you really need to plant your own edible garden this year.

WATCH VIDEO: Organic Gardening

That's right, having your own vegetable garden is now trendy. In fact according to the 2009 Edibles Gardening Trends Research Report conducted by the Garden Writer’s Association (GWA) Foundation, over 41 million U.S. households, or 38 percent planted a vegetable garden in 2009. And, more than 19.5 million households (18 percent) grew an herb garden and 16.5 million households (15 percent) grew fruits during the same period.

The study found that there was a growth in edible gardening from both experienced gardeners and from an influx of new gardeners: 92 percent of respondents had previous experience and 7 percent (7.7 million households) were new edible gardeners.

And one-third of the experienced gardeners grew more edibles in 2009 than in the previous year. The GWA indicates that given the strong response for plans to grow more edibles into 2010, the vegetable gardening trend will continue and there will likely be a new high level of edible gardening activity this year.

Another survey done by the American Gardening Association showed a 19 percent increase in new hobby country farms and urban edible gardens in 2009 over 2008.

So, aside from its popularity, do you need some other reasons to grown your own food?

• The GWA's survey found that the main reason given for increasing or maintaining edible gardening last year was to supplement household food supply — to help them save money on food. That alone is a very powerful reason.


• There is nothing more local than food grown in your own backyard, your windowsills, or on patio containers.


• Growing your own fruits and vegetables means that you know exactly what does and does not go into your food and exactly where it comes from.


• You will get healthier in a number of ways. Not only will you end up eating more fruits and vegetables, but you will be getting added exercise. Did you know that you can burn as many calories in 45 minutes of gardening as you can in 30 minutes of aerobics? And, working in the garden reduces stress.


• You will get a bigger variety of your favorite fruits and vegetables because you can choose from hundreds of different varieties and you can grow the things you like the best.


• You can teach your children or grandchildren where their food actually comes from and that it doesn’t come from the supermarket but from the soil, the earth that we all depend on.

All four wall frames and wall boards. Designing the windows we found and refurbishing them is a challenge. Now for the roof frame!

Took a little break from the first photo (craziness and cabin construction) to hike los quetzales. So cool. Ended up in boquete and stayed with our friend Noel for Carneval, the 100th year anniversary.

Hooooawwwwww! Lift that frame boys!

Frame, walls and windows

Continuing with the frame we have 3 of the sides done and the walls half way up. Now to decide how to do the windows, Limon sourced used wooden frame windows with some of the panes missing from a taller and we found discarded glass, big cool pieces at a window and glass taller. We're using the old ones as a guide but upon more discussion have decided it's best to buy new windows just for piece of mind. The frame is gorgeous inside red mahogany, laurel and teak on the yellow laurel walls. We oiled the existing structure, floor and walls with impregnating oil, opting out of varnish or sealant. Now with a few random showers the wood is waterproof, bug-free and warp resistant (a big problem with not fully dried wood and killer mid-day sun.)

The four of us have been working hard, sun-up to sun-down and cooking on the land. Lots of fried rice and bbq's. The goal is to be done, really finished in two weeks!

We have Walls

Walls...yah.

We have a Floor

And they smell great. This is from its raw round state to the cut 4 x 4's to the 1 1/2" floor boards. So much work. But entirely worth it. Thank you to cuyler yogi, he flew down to help us build. Couldn't have done it without him. aloha floor.

First two WWOOF-ers!

Two rivers converge on a 40 hectare finca. Grassfed beef graze and free range chickens range free. We killed two chickens and made soup with onions we gathered, ajo we found and chili dulce

we picked, and the delicious weed culantro.

Traveling in Panama is great! We had an amazing time over the week and visited the most beautiful white sand beaches we've seen yet. Isla Grande on the Carribean and the water was crystal clear and the beaches were clean! I ate lobster and the boys found a boat that took all ten of us around the island on the craziest voyage of more than ten foot swells once we hit the open ocean. The Panamanians were scared- I could tell...it was hilarious.The boat was just a twenty foot fiberglass lancha and we were flying all over. Even I thought we would tip and I've survived the waters off of diamondhead! After that the caravan moved on to the 40+ hectare finca, all in the Colon region. They have more than a hundred head of cattle, 3 rivers converging, rolling hills and full grown trees as far as the eye can see. They have a rustic house there, an outdoor kitchen and a drop toilet that can easily be converted to composting. With no water running yet we talked to Noriel about a two into one pressure system where the pvc actually supplies it's own pressure without a pump- even uphill the 200'. We also discussed solar and wind and they're on board to fix it up a bit and hold retreats and presentations. This really opens a lot of possibilites and we're very excited. We're working on a presentation to give to the Villareals in hopes of educating them about possibilites at their disposal and becoming partners in the future. They're excited and just want more information and the resources to get themselves up to speed. Pretty sweet.

But the best news in months is that our first two visitors arrived! Cuyler Yogi and Limon's brother! They're here to learn, play and help us finish the cabin. We had a great dinner last night I was cooking all day in anticipation. After we ate our first round we went to see the cows and ducks and walk around the land in the starlight. When we cam back Shiva- damn she wolf- had pulled the whole roast chicken off the table and ate the whole thing bones and all. This was no small feet in under five minutes. But they brought new music and movies and energy and it feels so good. They both thanked us profusely for involving them and it made us both so happy and proud of what we've done, validated it, and really called my attention to the gravity of the situation. We're changing our life and through this affecting many lives along the way! The web has begun to spread and I'm overjoyed! Now I just need a few other choice people to get their butts down here!

We plan on starting WWOOF Panama. I have spoken with WWOOF International and we only need about 3 more farms to team up with. They have a world web of organic farms anyone can go volunteer on and room and board and opportunities to learn are always provided in exchange for work. It's swell. Go to: www.wwoof.org

Cabin Foundation

We got help from a local constructor to level, dig the holes and pour the cement as we weren't completely confident in our skills aquired online and through books. We used our initial design but in the end decided it was impossible to not use cement so we used as little as possible to construct the 25 columns on which the cabin will sit. We dug holes between 2 and 3' deep and reinforced the columns with rebar and a really rocky sand/cement mixture.

Once this is layed out we can put the 4" x 4" studs in each 5'x5' square. We managed to use 90% less cement than was proposed, in the end only 10 bags.

Happy Holidays from the Tropics

Love to you all. Please forgive me the spell check doesn't work on my comp or blogger! Oh and my ghost writer is in Italy! Thanks for reading and all the support! We love and miss you all- especially the followers...really special friends. Editing continues... 2010 will be a great year!

Orchid Hunting

Truly an amazing day. We left early with Nicho, Limon's 70 yr old uncle and went walking. We walked for 8 hrs and saw more of Volcan than most have seen, I'm sure. Nicho took us to the laguna and the bigger lake and we crossed many rivers and herds of cattle (ganado). He has an incredible eye and would pick out orchids from across the meadow, or 30 ft up in a very obscure location. He taught us the technique- he would use his machete to chop a perfect v out of a stick and proceed to carefully rock the orchid back and forth until it came to him- the "orchid whisperer".

We found the vampiro (vampire) it looks almost like a necklace, and an orange hanging orchid with tiny flowers, a large yellow one that almost looks edible, and I actually impressed our guide finding a very rare red with yellow and a small peat moss-looking variety with the smallest flowers of all! Nicho said he'd never encountered it! He participates in the annual Fiesta de Flores in Boquete and said we would probably win for rarity and might even have discovered a new orchid! We'll see in January- just have to keep them alive until then which is not easy! We also saw two more varieties of limon- limon dolce is like a water orange- crunchy not much flavor. Our favorite hands down is Persa, its big, very limey with a hint of sweetness, lots of juice, but sadly as it is a hybrid no seeds.

Creole and madarin with orange flesh, very sweet are close seconds and we have quite of few of these types growing.

Nicho says in December there are a few weekends when everyone goes down and camps around the lake and it's very safe and tranquil. We're going to go soon so we miss the crowds. We heard the coffee farm near there, instead of killing the snakes with chemicals, rounded them all up and released them at the laguna, although we didn't even see on snake, now we're going to be very cautious.

You can fish- there's trout (trucha) and carp and a few others. There's also coffee and tons of fruits- delicious oranges. It really opened my eyes up to how wonderful Volcan is. It's a veritable playground.

Lakes and rivers and water holes, even hotsprings for swimming, mountains for hiking and foraging, long routes for biking and exploring, EVERY PLANT YOU CAN IMAGINE to use for cultivation, even the beach is only a few hours away.

Seed Saving Blog

It is so empowering and liberating to plant the seeds you have collected! Seeing them germinate, sprout and become edible wonders is the most beautiful process on earth. We have been collecting and saving our seeds since a little before we left Hawaii, many did not make it however with all of the transit, humidity and a few punctured bags...but we have almost a hundred different seeds that are growing and being prepared to plant. We will now be keeping a detailed list of our plants on the blog. Limon has set his ultimate goal at 1,000 diverse plants! Also, from every batch of seeds we dry and save, we label, date and store them in our "seed catalog" for future propagation and general data. This is very laborious and kind of a pain when all you want to do is make dinner and you get to sit there cleaning the seeds our of all the veggies for a half hour- but trust me- it's worth it.

Every seed is a challenge to sack but cucumbers, tomatoes and hot chilies are by far the worst. For these you let the pulp and seeds ferment for 3-4 days then strain them and let them dry. Most things are fine to sun dry but not these- chill dry in the shade with lots of air flow or they will start to rot. Most things germinate nicely with a wet paper towel, but I prefer to start everything in my little dirt seed-starters in the greenhouse so they can have a week to get strong before the face the wind. I cleaned about 20 chilies, a rare heirloom that's as big as

ahi chombo dulce but bright yellow and as hot as a habanero. I had no idea they were that hot and wore no gloves. I literally had pink burning skin on my fingers for a day and a half! So con

cuidado! The salsa I made it a beautiful color and the hottest thing you've ever tasted! Today I also started the globe watermelon I ate last week, perfectly round (almost personal-size) sweet and lots of seeds. Can't wait for those!

Don't be a slave to big agro! Save seeds at home with every meal- especially when you find something really delicious- shouldn't you get to eat that again? Viva semillas!

Limon:

"Where am I going to sleep tonight? Who cares! What is the world doing? Have new gods been discovered, new laws, new freedoms? Who cares! But up here the primrose is blossoming and bearing silver fuzz on it's leaves, and the light sweet wind is singing below me in poplars, and between my eyes and heaven a dark golden bee is hovering and humming- I care about that. It is humming the song of happiness, humming the song of eternity. Its song is my history of the world." - Wandering, Hesse

The Big Fast

So wow. We have been in the yellow house for almost 2 weeks now. Our rental options faulted by a week and we camped on the land in our greenhouse for a week- it was rough but we made it-

and honestly it was very peaceful and we got a lot of work done. Shiva is in heat for the first time and attracting every dirty, mangy mut in a 5 mi radius! It really tested our fence and we found all the holes after a few nights. One night i left a pot of chicken soup boiling on the fire for the morning and Shiva and a friend up-sided my soup, stole the pechugas of chicken and I can only imagine proceeded to have a rowdy chicken eating-dog sex party all night. We're praying she's not preggers and are going to take her to be neutered.

So once we moved in next door (so cool) we started detox and fasting, I made it 7 days this time. Wow. Once you set your mind to it it's not impossible and if you're in tune with your body you know when it's ready, or when it's begging! My body was so ready so it was an easier transition. The first couple days are always hard and at the end when you start to get your hunger back and you have to ease back into it with straight teas, raw and fresh juices and then finally vegan meals. Yesterday I made eggplant parmigianno and we celebrated our return to the world of cheese!

So for the first days I eased myself down with lime juice, honey with propoleos (polen etc.), teas of lemongrass, lime leaves, ginger, and garlic, cayenne, and flax. We made purees of water, beet,

carrot, celery, spinach etc. We ate raw garlic- try this! whew.... and ginger and drank a lot of water, green tea, red rooibos tea (thanks Rob!), black lychee tea and lots of sage tea. Limon also got a plant that grows like a weed here, they say it cleans your blood- and much more- but it tastes terrible, lots of that too.

Once you peel away the layers its so refreshing, you feel so clean. The first hardest thing is the carbs- refined white flour, rice whatever. After this maybe you crave some fat, any kind, animal fat... a glass of wine...something...but then the worst darkest hardest thing to cut- SUGAR. You would kill for sugar- just a spoonful of honey, a flake of dark chocolate, a glass of agua de pipa

(coconut water) anything, but you persevere and after that last cruel day you're free. You crave nothing. It's total liberation. You don't need or want a thing. The next 4 days of my fast we amazing, I meditated, watched a lot of movies, read, walked, gardened. It was amazing. Once I started to feel weak I started introducing calories again slowly, just raw veggie juice, lime and teas, no honey at first, then with time, fruit juices, pinapple, watermelon, orange, avocado, and then finally whole foods again. What a wild ride. You need a peaceful environment, time and the right state of mind- and this is truly a gift everyone should give themselves. Fasting can save your life- and if you'd like more info there's a book by this name- check it out! Not to mention- you loose an average of 2lbs per day!

Fence con't

The fence is just gorgeous. Seeing the way the light changes during the hours of the day is inspiring. It creates its own shade but let's the breeze through. My beans have all sprouted successfully and are about 3" after a week. I built 2' beds with river rocks and the topsoil from the fence digging all around the perimeter (well i'm halfway through...) for the beans, other vines: squash, watermelon,

chayote, chilies hot and sweet and various local flowers. Of course Shiva's favorite place to sleep! The greenhouse is amazing for germination and sprouting- we had a slight ventilation problem, although the mesh does breathe- it's not enough so we opened up another door on the opposite side for cross-ventilation. Hopefully the breeze will keep the flow and we won't need to install fans. Our Paiu plant had a small fungus infection but we moved it outside near the coffee and it's doing great.

We are waiting for our reclaimed felled teak, eucalyptus and ceder to come in December before we can start the cabin. It's being certified reclaimed so the paper work is taking some time. It's a really good thing however, the gov. makes sure all wood cutting is legit and no wood is cut from the many reserves and forests. It's tempting for the indigenous people to sell their trees but this keeps black-

market wood sales in check and promotes recovery of fallen trees. They literally pull over all trucks carrying wood, a small victory for the pathetic panamanian government. We had another lead on some felled pine from our friend Jose, so Limon is taking a trip down to the Frontera to settle up- it looks like we can just pay to load the wood and transport it back to the land (roughly $300-400 for 3,000+').

Usually wood goes for between $1-2 per foot so a real steal!

We saw a nice wood cabin nearby that used the rounded outer edges of the trees which is a large part of what we'll be getting, it's beautifully rustic. We figure we can build the first 2-3' of the foundation and walls with all the river rocks we have and minimal cement- we've seen quite a few examples around we like. And the roof is going to be a living sod roof with self-irrigation and water-catching. We're going to install a small solar shower and a compost toilet off of the back of the cabin, both of which we have already practiced (a couple prototypes...) and are comfortable constructing.

It's so funny when you walk up to the land now it looks like an old Spanish fort, with the huge Panamanian flag dead center on a 25' bamboo pole and the impenetrable bamboo circa. It's quite formidable and impressive.

Greenhouse and Bamboo Fence

A very proud day indeed! We constructed our greenhouse. It only took two weeks days, 20 pieces of bamboo, hours and hours of hoeing and digging and a whole lot of mesh- but we did it! Sourcing the bamboo was a challenge but we had 15 pieces donated by Iris (cousin) and found our neighbor sells both green and dry. And to think we were looking as far away as Bocas! when all the while it's right in our backyard. Buena suerte! We used a model we found locally and fit it to our specifications 20 x 30 with overhangs for herbs. We already have thyme, mint (yerba buena), basil (albaca), culantro (cilantro's cousin), coffee, sweet and hot peppers, mountain tomato, onion, garlic, ginger and green onion. We hope to transplant the avocados, citrus, papayas and mangos we have inside to save them from the torrential downpours and fierce winds that come in February. I hope to have much more planted in the near future!

We used the excess bamboo to set up a shelter with our tarp and bamboo mats and now we have a nice little tent to sit out the rain or take a break from the sun. We also built an underground storage compartment for our tools etc so we don't have to transport stuff everyday with our bikes. The grass is as tall as the trees Augustine planted, over a hundred, and they're all about knee high- some are taller than both of us. The grass that took over in his absence is fierce and

eradicating it is some of the hardest work I've ever done. One shovel or hoe full at a time. But I've cleared the entire area for the greenhouse so we can build our raised beds and make paths.

The first night we left the greenhouse the wind was so fierce it ripped the roof plastic and caught on the ends of the bamboo. We had to spend the whole next day lowering the wind-bearing side by a foot to help with rain pooling and wind. Now it's stronger than ever and we have a double layer on the worst parts. The mesh works well as a wall and allows breeze and water to trickle down and water the herbs inside. Shiva is the worst gardener ever and crushed my tomato seedlings...so we attached the bottom of the walls to bamboo posts and now no humans or dogs or birds can sneak in.

With our new structure we started camping on the land during the week to build the fence as much as possible. up with the sun at 6- sunrise on the volcano is amazing...start digging, cutting etc usually the rain comes afternoon or by 4 everyday.

The fence is almost finished and although we had a few minor setbacks- mainly the rain...but we built the whole damn thing ourselves. We went with the more labor intensive method and refused to cave in and hire someone to build it. I think I filled the wheelbarrow with sand and rocks a thousand times. We cut our 25' long pieces of green bamboo into 9' lengths and dug

out a 2' trench all the way around underneath the existing fence. We stood up all the bamboo and used u-shaped nails to attach it to the existing barbed wire. We used "ripio" gravel and pounded it down level to compact it and make it structurally sound. We layered river rocks throughout and capped the bottom of the circa on both sides. Many people walking by have said it's very beautiful and it's the only fence like it in all of Panama. Not a single bag of concrete used, no carbon emitted and it will serve as a living trellis for us to grown beans, squash, berries and floral vines. Shiva is just loving the land- a true wolf at home and seeing progress is the greatest thing since pie! Any ideas why my eucalyptus have brown spots on the leaves?

The best news however is we made friends with our neighbors, a young couple who lives in the city, and they need someone to live in and watch their house for them- so starting next month

we'll have our own little house right next door to our property.

People have asked how we prepare for projects. Kent does a lot of math and I make a lot of lists- We both sketch and change our minds a lot. Pretty much as organic as it gets.

Comenciamos!

We continue to fight an uphill battle against ignorance and opposition- but this just makes us more determined!

9/23/09

we are struggling with the crazy ass grass! but we had a break-through today- IRIS offered us her old green house- so we deconstructed it. and tommorrow we'll take it to the land. this get's us so much closer to constructing the green house which we at one point priced out at $1,000. we've got to be able to forage for bamboo and something besides plastic! so we're almost there and the truck full of 25' pieces of green bamboo from the border comes on fri. to begin the fence. We're really rolling and it feels so good.

Volcan how we missed you!

Fresh Frijoles- ah muy fresca!

I think he's in love...

So he can ride a horse!

Not bad sexy...

Esmilito our 98 year old love! He can tame any wild caballo!

We settled in (sort of) to kent's cousin's house and have started phase 1. The underground storage box/food storage is dug. We are beginning to construct the fence slowly but surely. There are several tallers(woodworkers) in town and we go around and collect bike-fulls of the discarded wood, beautiful recently felled pines, cedars and teak trees are whittled down to make produce boxes and the scraps are amazing! Plus all the sawdust for our compost toilet is a dream come true! I'm almost finished constructing that as well. we've been waking up with the sun and riding to the land for work every morning. We're also fasting so we have to take it slow but its amazing how much energy you still have. And believe me it works miracles- if you have any questions consult the book Fasting can save your life, it's a real gem. But yea we've been doing great fasts (especially with kent's dad) and meditation up here in the peaceful valley.

This is my journal from one morning in volcan sitting in the grass looking at the mountain:

It's true you become aware of certain things when you fast: you're more aware of your body and its needs and ailments. You realize you can subsist on very little. You don't need money- it's meaningless. You don't need food or wine or shelter. All you need is your wits. Dependance on others or things is useless. Believing food and water are bountiful is ignorant. Seeking validation in others or things is hopeless. Your health is your greatest asset. Autonomy is freedom. True

freedom allows the pursuit of hapiness.

So yes, I highly recommend both fasting and meditation...

The New Plan: Side Project Zancudo

Just had great day in zancudo y pavones: rocks, surf, iguana

s, whales and dolphins.

We have returned from our bday extravaganza and its time to get back to work...however we have fallen into a strategic alliance with our friend norielle.

This will now be phase two. With much consideration and soul searching we both realize

the magnitude of our project and have resigned it more to a ten year plan. Phase one will now be trees and forest garden (which we have moving along nicely) and the rock fence around the terrain in volcan. We also hope to construct a bungalow/teepee for us to live in initially and a greenhouse to start seedlings, herbs, tomatoes and other edibles. We have two months now in Volcan to complete phase one. After Halloween, which is very popular here, pure hilarity, we'll

head back to Zancudo to start ramping up to open the hostel in mid November/early December until the season ends in Feb or March. While we were there for a week after my

bday we ventured around the entire bay and fell in love. The peninsula you can see across the bay from us is Costa Rica's biggest national park Corcovado, which is densely populated with endangered species of flora and fauna. The strip of land that makes up Zancudo is uniquely amazing and is the reason the bar/restauarnt is named Esteromar (we'll keep the name for the hostal too as a cohesive operation) because our backyard touches the estuary and the bar is beachfront.

It's amazing everyone has a river in their backyard and the beach in their front. We saw one piece of land about twice the size, down the beach a ways, going for 350,000. Not bad. This allows for maximum fishing. Almost every household had a lancha or motorboat and we saw a small sailboat with a retractable keel for sale...uh oh limon's getting ideas. Many families run successful tours and water taxi operations. You can go by boat anywhere around the bay including Pavones which boasts the longest left break in the world- depending on the surf you can ride the wave a half mile! The top of the mountain behind Pavones is an indigenous reserve and you can hike or repel up any of the many valleys and waterfalls to reach the peak. Many greengos live here as it is one of the best surf spots in the world. It took us about 25 min by car and the boat ride is about 45 min. We are also about an hour from the port town of Golfito and about 7 hrs by bus from San Jose or 3hrs from David, you can fly to David from Panama City for $60 (45 min).

So in this most pristine and perfect of Costa Rican beaches we will open a chill little hostal, right now we have 20 beds and we're planning to buy 5 hammocks and maybe a few cots. Our dentist friend already has it set up very nicely as his family vacation home although the caretakers aren't up to snuff. We'll be taking it over in hopes of building a good reputation and client base for the future. There are plans in the works (sadly) to build a Four Seasons and a Hilton in the next few years and although its already a widly popular tourist destination this will push it over the top and make access to the area easier.

Not particularly good for privacy and tranquility but thats the tradeoff for business. The bar and restaurant are already very profitable especially around xmas and new years.

This is an amzing opportunity- karma is good...almost too good. hehe. I feel very liberated and blessed that we can make money while down here to reinvest in our project. It's incredibly hard to get started without the necessary capital (whew i sound like my dad...) but its the sad truth, even when your plan is to be self-sustaining you have to be smart about how you get to that point- or you can easily crap out. This will "keep hope alive" and keep our project

afloat. Commencing phase 2...

It's amazing when you come to a place with an open mind and altruistic tendencies. We have been proposed two projects to either spearhead or expand. Not to mention our own project. I guess the world really is your oyster.