Agricultura

Lex

Miercoles 9th Enero

Finca la Flor is an Eco-friendly place. Everything is reused or recycled. They try to grow as much food as possible using environmentally friendly techniques. They even use the moon to tell them when it's best to plant.

Today we went to work in the vegetable patch. When we arrived I couldn't see any vegetables because there were so many weeds. We had to hack all the weeds down with mini machetes. It was all pretty good fun until we came across an ants nest. The vicious ants attacked mum's arm and now it is swollen. Trust me it's big - almost the size of her leg!

Next Dad had to turn the ground over with a hoe. Then we scattered compost mix ( fertiliser) all over the ground. Later on I learned that the fertiliser was actually made by worms. After that we had to plant the baby lettuces. They had to be planted in a triangle. Finally we had to scatter mulch around the lettuces. The mulch of leaves created a seal ( microclimate) which kept all the moisture in to protect the the plants in hot weather( always!) then dad went back to weeding pineapples. Did you know that pineapple plants take up to two years to produce one pineapple. I thought that pineapples grew on trees not spiky single bushes.

After we had a juice break we went to the Lombrono - the worm house. (By the way the juice is not from a bottle it's crushed fruit. I prefer it when sugar is added. ) We had to water the worms. I thought that sounded really weird at first. After we had watered them 3 times precisely we had to collect all the soil that the worms had turned into compost. We actually filled 3 sacks. Then we watered the worms again and we were finished for the day.

I also helped the men on the farm to harvest vegetables, some for market and some to eat. Using secateurs I cut lots of herbs including thyme, chives, rosemary, lemongrass and coriander. I also harvested vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, yucca and a vegetable called a cahiba that seems like a cross between a cucumber and pepper.