Mariposa Organic Farm

The idea of being of able to produce at least some of what we consume ourselves (and maybe even enough to sell a little tot he best restaurant in Nicaragua, the Ola Verde run by my friend Carla – not veggie but organic and with plenty of yummy veggie dishes on the menu). I write this though against a backdrop of worrying levels of drought in northern Nicaragua, leading to severe crop failures (about 60% of the maize crop has failed and up to 90% of other, less hardy crops) and food shortages to the extent that there are serious problems with hunger and possibly starvation especially amongst children.

We discovered the land through checking out land which is for sale (for a student who wants to move here). It is actually a large piece of land (for sale at around $100,000), a third of it already cleared for crops, another third planted with citrus trees – the mandarins are especially delicious – and they bring in an income of about $8000 per year. The rest is wooded hillside, with a footpath to a great viewpoint. We are renting for one year just a couple of manzanas (about the same size as the Mariposa land) and are going to plant really whatever seeds we can get ahold of! This will included seeds that we save from our kitchen veggies and fruit – such as melon, watermelon and various squashes & pumpkins. But several of our students have also donated seeds to us so we can venture into different varieties of tomato, eggplant, okra, brocoli, onions, etc etc. “Not more veggies” commented one student who is a particularly avid meat eater (we must be doing something right though as he is now on his third visit to the Mariposa !). And of course the healthy food here is what most people love!