It is summer here in Alta Verapaz and with the heat
comes some of the most interesting and delicious fruit I have ever tasted.
My favorite fruit is changing about every two weeks and most recently I
am happily feasting upon Injerto (Green Sapote), a green-skined, acorn-shaped
fruit with deep orange flesh. My host family has a large tree on their
property, so I am well supplied.
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| It's good! |
Though I am working from dawn to dusk, I am
beginning to see some of the vegetables of my labor. We are harvesting a
few vegetables from the gardens. The first plantings of cabbage and
broccoli have been cut. Cilantro and radishes are harvested weekly.
And the students are happily snacking on carrots each day after their
work period.
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| Wormless red cabbage (the worms seem to prefer the green cabbage). |
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| The broccoli is coming. |
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| The squash. Notice the difference between the 2 rows? The secret ingredient is cow urine. |
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| The squash are coming! |
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| The greenhouse chili is my pet project. |
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| The fruit! |
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| New seedlings. |
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| New onions. |
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| Natanael and Julio sorting green beans. |
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| Julio, Elfedo, Edgar and Matio harvesting radishes. |
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| The organic garbage collectors. Natanael and Raymundo faithfully gather the leftover food and kitchen scraps for the pigs and compost pile each day. |
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| Carrots! They are small, but tasty. |
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| Jorge, Ernesto, Roberto, Minor, Mateo, Simon, Allan and Elfedo happily eating carrots and showing off their soccor jerseys. |
We are also focusing on reviving the banana plants
around the school by trimming them and applying compost. My first batch
of compost is finished and ready to be spread around the farm.
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| Albaro, Juan, Hector, Jaime and Mauro spreading compost on the newly planted bananas. |
One of the new developments here at Bezaleel is
that I now have a nickname. The boys from Segundo Basico gave it to me
the other week while we were working together. As we weeded the beds of
carrots and onions, they shared their nicknames with me and wondered if I had
one. I explained that the only nickname that I could remember was the
term "Veggyman" given me by the chiefs when I worked in my college´s
cafeteria. What kinds of vegetables do I like, the guys wanted to know.
I like practically all vegetables, but one of the vegetables or rather
fruits that fascinates me here in Guatemala is the tree tomato or tamarillo.
This member of the Solonaceae family is a perennial tree that produces
light-red, orange fleshed fruits with a sweet, mild flavor. I read about
these tomatoes in grade school and now am finally able to see and taste them.
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| Chet pix! |
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| One of my chet pix seedlings. |
So now when walking around the school I respond to
my nickname: "Chet pix" (Chet pish) which is the Kekchi
translation for tree tomato. We have 30 tree tomatoes started in the
greenhouse and this week the Segundo Basico guys transplanted them out into
rows.
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| Mauro, Jaime, Cesar, Hector Tiul, Juan and Moises carrying their tree tomato plants. |
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| Hector Raul carrying his plants to their new home. |
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| Moises, Jaime, Hector Tiul, Hector Raul, Mauro and Edgar busy planting tree tomatoes. |
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| Cesar with one of the tree tomatoes he will be caring for. |
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| One of Edgar's tree tomatoes. I assigned 3-4 plants to each student. They are responsible for keeping the tomatoes watered and weeded. I am hoping this will give them a sense of ownership of the tomatoes and ensure that the tomatoes will be cared for over the long-term. |
By the way, my favorite way to eat tree tomatoes is
in a sauce with dried chile peppers and spread on a flaming hot tortilla fresh from the comal.
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| Yummy! |
