Sunny Morning

Someone reminded me that I haven't written in awhile. It seems like nothing exciting has happened. Of course, in many ways, each day is exciting in its own way.

The last two days have been cool and drizzly. For boys brought up in sunny Alberta, a few days of overcast weather and you are really anxious to see the sun. Wading through sticky mud isn't that much fun ... although on the steep streets it is an adventure. So far the seat of my pants have not gotten muddy.

Yesterday Santiago and I took an hour to prune the trees and bushes in my yard. We began planting some shrubs and seeds nearly two years ago and, now that they have gotten established, they are growing profusely. We have done some trimming on a couple of other occasions but yesterday was time for a major cutting. (Rather like the haircut after a summer of freedom when I was growing up.)

We have several hundred cuttings now ready for planting elsewhere. The sun is hitting my wall for the first time in a few months so it will be interesting to watch things recover. Lest you think we cut huge numbers of trees - well - no. Only needed to cut about fifteen to get that many cuttings. By March we will have even more cuttings for planting. A year from now, many of these cuttings will be two to three metres tall so it will be great to see that. Just have to organize where to plant them.

A week and a half ago Santiago and I spent a day planting Vetiver grass. We are making a Vetiver nursery for the city of Santa Cruz. They have many places that need the grass for erosion control but do not have a seed stock. We planted 800 sections of the plant so will see how they grow. They should (based on every other location) increase tenfold in the next six months. Then we will have a real task ahead - where to put 8,000 plantlets. My goal is to see the city have an area of one or two acres in Vetiver grass. That would give them enough seed stock for some fairly major projects.

Vetiver grass nursery

Amaranth flowers and seeds

Saturday I helped my workers on another project plant a few hundred plants of Arachis Pintoi - a ground cover. They have a couple thousand more to plant this week. If we get any type of growth then we should have plenty of seed stock in the next six months.

We are harvesting amaranth seed fairly regularly now. So, last week we tried cooking some of the seed. It makes an interesting porridge drink. I suspect it is best in a soup of some sort. We also tried the flowers with scrambled eggs. Fairly good results there. I have two bunches of seeds drying in the office so each morning I am greeted with the fragrance of Amaranth as I open the door.

We are harvesting seeds of Ceylon spinach as well. We have planted some and are waiting to see how they do. Rabbits have been preying on a bunch of the plants so I really need these seeds to be viable so we can continue increasing our stock. The seeds have a wonderful purple covering. It is the stuff of dreams for kids to play with. Maybe a cosmetic industry???

Friday we took another computer out to Las Delicias. They are going to have 40 students in January. Our program has made such a huge difference in the hopes for that village. We are so grateful to Trinidad for his efforts to help his community. He is, as well, very knowledgeable about agriculture and a lot of fun to talk with. My delivery stop only took about two hours - five minutes for the computer and 115 minutes to talk about other stuff. As always, I learn a great deal ... and hopefully so does he.

We tried making a flour from soya beans, maize and cinnamon. It turned out fairly well and we tried using it to make a nice hot drink. We added hot chocolate mix to the drink and it was very well received. The nutritional value of this drink is outstanding and we wanted to see if it would work with the local grinder machines they have here - used for grains (different from ones for meat).

Tomorrow I hope to learn how to make the masa (the maize base for tortillas). Julia has promised to show me how. I know the recipe but have never tried it. The traditional way of making tortillas provides a great deal of calcium. Using machine ground flour is easier in some ways but has no calcium. Since one of our workers is pregnant, we are trying to get more calcium into her diet and, through her, into the diets of others.

Spent an afternoon walking around the grounds of an orphanage nearby. That may turn out to be a place I can try some new project ideas. The kids need a great deal of experience in just doing things. It would be nice if they can learn to make some money in agriculture as well. But, most importantly, they need to be kept busy.

I had company on Sunday evening so made a cake. The office staff was happy because they got a couple pieces each yesterday. How to win friends - chocolate cake is a good first step.

Not much else to report.

TTYL

BB