Double Digging with EARTH students

The Biointensive

The Double Dug Bed that will forever have a puddle of my sweat in it.

Here we are not double digging... just weeding

Ok even if I had a picture of me during the process of preparing the bed for the biointensive garden there is no way I would post it. Basically the biointensive garden is designed to produce as much food as possible in the least amount of space. To do this all the beds are dug out twice as deep as normal so the roots are able to go down instead of out. This makes it possible to plant crops closer together. I was really excited to get the opportunity to learn about the double digging because I think its something that can be applied at home pretty easily. However... wow it is REALLY hard work. I mean worth it BUT really tiring. I had three or four constant streams of sweat flowing down my face--of course the humidity wasn't working in my favor.

Hoeing Around

These beds got hooooed.

The Farm Cats: Camilla and Negra. They have a very love-hate relationship

Yay for meeechelle! Steps to prepare the beds for (you guessed it) MORE cilantro: 

1) Get rid of the Weed

2) Get the Hoes out and Loosen things up

3) Lather up in Compost

4) Flatten

Now the bed is ready to get laid!

Harvesting Cilantro in the Rain

A very wet Finca

Cilantro, Green Beans, Lettuce, Ginger, Asian Cucumbers, and Peppers all ready for the market

Washing and Bundling the Cilantro

As I'm sure you've gathered today I harvested cilantro and green beans in the rain, and just to clarify I don't mean an Oregon mist. I mean a torrential downpour. My raincoat that had kept me perfectly dry the whole Oregon winter was soaked through in a matter of minutes. It was really fun--and wet. 

Compost? I think not.

What do YOU think are in these bags?

Dear Robert: I can teach you a few thinks about funk while building fences...

Today: Well to start with I was brought into the circle although here in Costa Rica it's a square. Now that I'm in the square I can not discuss what's in those bags.... I can however tell you it's NOT COMPOST. I did not spend the morning shoveling the big piles into sacs. Each pile does not take about 8 weeks to go from pig poo to clean, healthy soil that is full of nutrients. That is just what these "organic" "sustainable" "people" want you to think. If I say any more the square will feed me to the worms and I WILL be compost. 

ps I built a fence for the chickens as well... watch out Roberto you have met your match.

The Purple Boots and Saturday with EARTH students

Me in my purple boots planting cilantro

The before shot
The after shot... those are some tired boots

ok ok ok here are the boots, but the truth is I accidently left them out in the rain which is why they don't look SO dirty. 

On saturdays the EARTH students go to the farms for practical experience, so today I  worked with a girl from Brazil and two students from Panama. We transplanted the cilantro from the greenhouse to beds and also did some serious weeding. 

La finca (the farm) and Los Animales

                                                They made me pay extra to get this shot

                                                             Mark the Water buffalo
                                                             "Oh yeah thats the spot..."

Cute huh... but these ridiculously photogenic pigs charged me three piles of mud for the photo shoot--nothing is for free in this world.

Mark the water buffalo is really sweet also.  

This morning I did some planting in the green house and and a few other other odd jobs on la finca. The farm is made up of about 10 different systems that come from all around the world including la mandalla from brazil and an Asian garden that treats the soil and plants with EM--a technology developed in Japan that is a careful balance of different microorganisms thats fights pests, but also provides nutrients to the plants and soil.

Bike ride I took down this path.  I just realized too that these are out of sequence as I am posting them on my blog.  (You need to start with the one that says 'here is EARTH').  And back to the story...and the final picture.  Which is one of the coolest plants I have ever seen... 

Is home!  This is where I am living for the next month or so.  It is comfortable and--contrary to previous knowledge--has hot water.  If you look closely at the left side of the house you can see my bike, actually just its back wheel. Pretty cool though huh?  Today it rained a bit, but it wasn't bad, just refreshing; as was the nice, long...

So here is EARTH.  (I know what some of you are going to say too--Justin).  It's really cool though.  Today was my first day of work, which primarily took place in the nursery: I planted cucumbers, peppers, etc.  The whole place is sustainable too!  I got to eat some of the produce for dinner also, which (by the way) was very tasty.  Next to show you all... 

My First Day and A Bike

It's my first day at EARTH University and I got the official tour, saw some sights, did a little YOGA, and got a bike which I will use to get around for my trip. The weather, well I'm in my room and sweating, enough said. But really, it's nice to have some warm weather and SUNSHINE. I start my work tomorrow and have to be up at 6am...I guess that means I'm a farmer girl now.

Oh yeah , and every Wednesday their is a little market set up by EARTH students and only the produce from the farms and what is harvested is sold!

And in case any of you forgot, I'm officially 21 now and can eat all the chocolate I want.

Getting Going

Okay, so I’m getting started. I got a picture of me (Meechelle) up for my Blogger profile and I am officially on my way to Costa Rica to practice sustainable agriculture for one month. That’s a pretty good start if I might just say. Oh yeah, and before I forget I thought I would let everyone know that I have a cool new pair of purple work boots whose picture will shortly be posted!