Fincas

The first couple days of the the New Year we spent visiting farms in the local community 
 

We saw some little piggies

This farm uses their pigs in multiple ways. Below is an excerpt from a paper I wrote.

"They originally adopted pigs for the use of their manure and meat. The pigs are born on the farm and kept there for a year before sent for processing. When the farm adopted the use of pigs, they discovered rooting as very instinctual to them. Rooting is a natural behavior of pigs where they basically dig their noses in the dirt. They do this to look for worms and insects to eat. They also end up eating some dirt as well which contains important nutrients vital to their health. By allowing the pigs to root, the farm removed the need to inject them with antibiotics. The farm uses the pigs’ rooting as a tilling process when clearing a patch of land for a new use.  
When this farm wants to clear an area of land, the first thing they do is install a temporary fence around the area and release the pigs into it. They just root around in the area looking for their next meal. The pigs take little time in comparison to humans to till an area still covered in brush. After the pigs are done the workers will come in with other tools to clear large brush and any trees needing to be removed."

we tasted some cacao seeds

 

 At the next farm we saw a green house that's part of a co-op growing sweet peppers on this farmer's land

 

harvested yucca

juiced sugarcane

saw the farmer's oxen

his cute-as-can-be granddaughter

who wanted to take pictures of us with her mother's phone because everyone was taking pictures of her

and we saw some toucans having a snack

 At another farm we made tortillas

el grupo