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As the official gardener for the house in San Miguel, my task is developing the land in the back yard and front yard for use as organic gardens. My landscaping plans are coming together in the forms of sketches, and my list of what plants to grow continues to grow with every day I spend in San Miguel.

Recently, Mirian took Chase, Emily, Sebastian, Mimi and me to her friend Deyanira’s house. Deya owns a large amount of land and utilizes it for raising pigs and lots of free range chickens, as well as many organically-grown fascinating plants. Mirian and Deya took us on a tour of the property, showing us many edible plants, like pepper (ají), Chinese lemons (limón chino), guava (guayaba), cinnamon (canela), roselle (saril), and the ever popular, tamarind (tamarindo). See below for a few recipes with these plants.

The organic garden back at the homestead is coming together nicely. I have planted two plants that Mirian gifted the group, a rosemary plant from La Feria Agrofolclorica de San Martín, and a mastranto (West Indian sage) plant from her very very own garden. So far, in addition to these plants, I have planted several plants that were already growing at the house, as well as several groups of seeds.

Plants that were already growing at la Casita:

• green onion
• white rose
• magenta rose

Seeds that have been planted:

• watermelon
• cantaloupe
• roselle
• a beautiful, low-growing, white-flowered plant that I have yet to identify

Now, no organic garden is complete without a compost pile. Compost is ESSENTIAL to the development of an organic garden. We have a brainstorm cloud overhead, and should have the compost up and decomposing in the next two weeks. I have developed a shallow plan for scavenging for the compost at the San Miguel house, which will include asking the local fondas (restaurants) to keep their plantain peels so I can throw them into our compost. Plantain peels are roughly 40% potassium, so this will be very helpful in developing our compost and growing our healthy veggies, flowers and herbs. I also plan to ask the woman down the street who cuts hair if she will save her hair clippings, because hair is carbon-rich. Mirian has told me she can get her hands on some cow and horse manure, so that crucial ingredient has been taken care of.

As Kalu Yala’s official organic gardener, I feel the pressure, but it won’t break my stride. I hope to see results by the end of this month! I will continue to read up on organic techniques, as well as my new favorite book: “The Organic Gardener,” penned in 1972.

Ya know, some things never change… like old school organic gardening techniques and how our food should look and taste.

Recipes from Mirian

Chicha de Saril (cold tea): boil 2 pounds of the red roselle petals in one gallon of water until they are drained of their rich color, remove the now-white petals, add ground ginger and sugar, chill for one day then enjoy for months

Té de Canela: fold and crush freshly plucked cinnamon leaves, boil in water for 10 minutes, add sugar

Sour sore throat treament: put a little bit of water in a glass and add two pinches of salt, squeeze half of a Chinese lemon into the glass and gargle