Skip to main content

Man in Overalls - Food Movement in Nicaragua

By
I'm back in Tallahassee! (for two weeks). As I mentioned in previous posts, my wife, Mary Elizabeth and I spent the last two months in Nicaragua and Ecuador studying spanish, culture, dance, history, and community-based good food systems. Though we're back, there are more stories to tell.

If you need a food garden consult, compost delivery, garden design, or a couple raised beds, let me know. Send me an email with subject line "Food Gardening Work" or ring me at 322.0749, and I'll get right back with you.

- - -

In addition to the household-level food economy smarts of folks in Nicaragua, we also learned of many organized efforts to "alimentar" their communities, i.e., to ensure their communities are taken care of and are eating well. The good food movement, indeed, has many expressions!

Take the the spanish language school, Hijos del Maiz in el Lagartillo where we studied for example. On the surface, it is simply a community-based language school for teaching foreigners Spanish. Dig a little deeper, and you'll discover Hijos is a community-led economic development initiative that provides incomes for young people in the community, so they don't have to emigrate to survive, to feed their families. (The economic pressure to emigrate is the net-result of the 10-year U.S. backed and funded contra (revolutionary) war, which cost many in the community their loved ones and the U.S. political take-over of the 90s that dismantled and/or undermined small-farmer cooperatives including the one that originally drew the families of Lagartillo together. In light of these two events, most rural farming communities still struggle to make ends meet and feed their kids.) So, Hijos del Maiz is a spanish language school that provides economic opportunity to community families.

But, dig a step deeper still, and you'll learn that the purpose of the school had always been to nourish the families-- directly. Let me explain.


Everyone from the community involved in the spanish school receives payment: teachers, home-stay families, coordinators, and the bookkeeper. (As an aside, 20% of revenue is placed in a "social projects" account for "betterment" projects like family latrines, a community center & library, medical assistance and scholarships.) The hope in paying home stay families was that they could afford to purchase healthier food options, namely fruits and vegetables. After a while, leadership noticed that though incomes had increased, diets had not changed, so they changed the payment structure.
From then on, families were paid partially in cash and partially with a large baskets full of fresh fruits and vegetables. Additionally Hijos hosted cooking classes to teach families about non-traditional foods like beets. The president of Hijos told me, "Nathan, you wouldn't know because you haven't been here for the last decade, but the difference is profound. The children in our community have rosy cheeks these days." Rosy cheeks. How's that for a measure of impact?


- - - 

We visited two other remarkable organized efforts in Nicaragua tied to food: the Juan Francisco Paz Silva Cooperative and the Center for Development in Central America. Both impressed us outright and reminded us of the work being done in the north Florida region by Tallahassee Food Network, Red Hills Small Farms Alliance, Seed Time Harvest, and FAMU Small Farm's Program.


The primary product of Juan Francisco Paz Silva Cooperative in Achuapa is sesame: raw, roasted, oil, tahini and snack bars. They also aggregate and sell hibiscus wine and honey. Currently in R&D, they are experimenting with rock-powers and soil bio-enhancers akin to EM (effective microorganisms) as soil amendments for their farmers to increase yields without synthetic chemicals, which poison fields and farmers. They do farmer workshops, provide extension-like services, and maintain a retail-store for farm and family basics. They also have a women's wealth-creation program and leadership development programs for youth. Their 200+ farmers make decisions by representation: all farmers are organized into groups of 5; each group choses their delegate to attend the annual meeting.

- - -

We visited with Kathleen Murdock and Mike Woodward at the Center for Development in Central America (CDCA) in Ciudad Sandino. At the prompting of priest Miguel Descoto, they relocated their Jubilee House Community to Nicaragua in the 90s. For the past 20 years, they have been working with their Nicaraguan neighbors in the areas of sustainable agriculture, sustainable economic development, health, education, and appropriate technology. In their words, their goal is to work in partnership with communities and cooperatives to facilitate empowerment: enabling them to find their own solutions to the problems they identify and connecting them with resources to solve their problems. The mission is to enable communities to become self-sufficient, sustainable, democratic entities. They have helped start 14 coops across the country (including a number of farming coops that are USDA certified organic.) Mike and Kathleen also gave us an update on how the coup in Honduras has led to "open season" on La Via Campesina, their leaders and their peasant (i.e. small) farmer members. Click the links to learn more.

Next up: stories from our time in Ecuador.

Happy Spring!

And, come to Gramling's Centennial Celebration on Saturday! See you there,

Nathan, MIO
Labels:

Most viewed Man in Overalls posts of all time

Why Can I Eat Bread in France, but not the USA?

By
Updated 10/31/2017 as the National Organic Standards Board meets in Jacksonville, FL. This may well be the most important thing you read this year for your health. (Originally written in 2015 while I was traveling-- and eating bread-- with my wife in France.) I've got a food riddle for you from Paris, France: Why can I eat bread over here when it makes me sick at home? I'll share my best guess in a minute, but first, a little personal background. Since my senior year of high school, I've not been able to eat much bread at all. For five years, I was severely hypoglycemic, and everything I ate had to have more protein than carbohydrates. That meant, in effect, that I spent my years of college beer-less and eating lots of salad with meat on top. I ate tons of vegetables, very little fruit, basically no carbohydrates to speak of, meat, nuts, eggs, and cheese. If I accidentally ate, say, meat loaf that was, unbeknownst to me, made with bread in it, I'd spend the n...
Read more

Man in Overalls - It's Like Washing Your Dishes

By
I often hear folks joke, "Yeah, I had a garden once. I put in all this money & effort, and I only got a handful of tomatoes. Each one of them cost $27!" And they usually end by saying something about not having a green thumb. My first tomatoes of the season I smile and think about a mental model I've been working on: Growing your groceries is like washing your dishes. While they're raving about how many plants they've killed, I'm thinking, "It's not your thumbs. I bet you don't have a sink. And if you do, are you using decent soap or that garbage from the dollar store? And did you mention you've never washed dishes before in your life? And you're surprised you broke a couple wine glasses with no more experience than a four-year-old?" My eyebrows furrow involuntarily belying my thoughts, "Really? That doesn't seem all that surprising to me." But, of course, not only would saying all that confuse people, it...
Read more

Man in Overalls - The Valley of Food & Ag Startups: Warren Wilson College

By
If you're interested in tech, pay attention to Silicon Valley. If you're interested in food and agriculture, Swannnoa Valley, more specifically  Warren Wilson College , is the place to keep on your radar. Man in Overalls with (L to R) Mary Elizabeth, my wife and Rachel (Williamson) Perry, WW alum and herbal tea entrepreneuer I'm an alum and proud of it, class of 2008. I studied community organizing, wrote a 140 page thesis about social movements as my capstone. Nathan, as college Freshman on WW Electric Crew. (Look for the blue water bottle) It's a work college, one of seven in the country. Think universal work-study, so in addition to whatever one's academic track, students are also working in the cafeteria, the library, admissions, as carpenters, lock smiths, lab techs, and-- per the agricultural legacy of Warren Wilson-- as row crop, animal, and vegetable farmers, gardeners, and edible landscapers.  Personally, I worked on the electric crew a...
Read more

Man in Overalls - Growing Great Soil

By
Good soil will basically grow your groceries for you, but how do you build great soil?  The answer is that there are two options:  a quick & easy way and a DIY, hard(er) way.  So we're on the same page, I'm continuing my  #GrowYourGroceries The Easy Way  series by digging into the how-tos of growing great soil. These stories and techniques will likely make the most sense after reading Geeking on Good Soil , my last update. (I outlined where I was headed in  The Big Picture.) As I was saying, the easy way to build a great soil is to fill raised beds with a terrific compost-based soil mix like my  Magic Mix  to jump start your food garden  productivity  from year one. From there, seasonally, you simply top-dress each season before planting with another few inches of compost-based soil mix. This is how I manage my own food garden and those of my customers.  Why? Because at the root of things, I'm a lazy food gar...
Read more

Man In Overalls - My Compost System

By
Composting, they say, is an art form. But, truth be told, I'm just too lazy for all that. My own compost philosophy is, "Crap rots in the woods, doesn't it?" But really. :) Whenever I think of home gardening systems, I always reflect back on my grandmother. She gardened up until the week she died at 93. She planted by the signs and assured me that's why her collards were not eaten up by bugs and were able to grow for 3 years running and up to 8 or 9 feet tall. She had a little rototiller, planted straight rows, mulched by spreading leaves to keep the weeds down. She threw out a little 10-10-10 from time to time and kept the cabbage worms at bay with Sevin dust. She hoed if the weeds called for it. But mostly, she harvested. Her pots were always full and her freezer always stuffed with produce: collards, mustards, turnips, peas, tomato gravy, squash, you name it. Now, I don't use 10-10-10 or sevin dust, and I'm not big on tilling. However, the thi...
Read more

Man in Overalls - Summer Garden Blues & What To Do

By
Welcome to mid summer in the Deep South! If you're anything like me, you're actively looking for excuses to avoid going outside this time of year. The heat doesn't so much radiate down from the sun as it seems to rise from the side walk. Rain helps- for about ten minutes- and then simply adds to the humidity as it vaporizes on the payment, so that it feels like you need a snorkel to make it from the house to the car, but of course, it only gets worse when you turn on the AC, and that first puff of hot air feels as though someone just wrapped your face in a plastic bag - not to mention that if you cut your grass yesterday, you're going to have to do it again... tomorrow. And, lets not even talk about how fast the weeds grow this time of year! Or the insects seem to multiply! Oh, home... :) Here's the good news: If your garden looks a little worse for wear, it's okay. Really. Mine does too. As much as I aim for- and largely achieve- a productive & beauti...
Read more

Man in Overalls - How to Start a School Garden: Design

By
Before you get to build your school garden like this, before you can help kids get their hands dirty like this,  or teach kids in your school garden like this, there are a few things you've got to take care of first. The #1 most important thing you've got to do is build your team. I say- with no exaggeration-- that human infrastructure is THE most important aspect of developing a successful school garden. But, I already wrote about building your school garden team last time. Assuming you're on track with that, a simultaneous step is to begin developing your school garden design. Here are a few things to should consider as you develop a school garden design: Purpose In your school garden interest meeting, one of the first questions you should ask is: "Why are you interested in a school garden?" Interestingly, this question serves two purposes. First, it helps the team gel because there will likely be a lot of overlap in answers. This will ...
Read more

Man in Overalls - When to Plant Tomatoes

By
" Plant 'em in the spring. Eat 'em the summer. All winter without 'em's a culinary bummer ," as John Denver sings in "Home Grown Tomatoes."  So, just when should you plant* your homegrown tomatoes? Or, more generally, when should you plant your spring food garden? (For an abbreviated version of this post revised & published in Edible Northeast Florida, click here. ) Since tomatoes along with other spring favorites like squash, corn, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, and the like are "frost sensitive" (in other words, they'll die if it freezes), it's all about the "last frost date" for your area. Unless you're a weather savant and remember the last freeze for the past twenty years, you'll have to do some investigating. You could look up your Plant Hardiness Zone  on this cool "interactive" map from the USDA, and you'd learn that Jacksonville is in zone 9a, Tallahassee is in 8b, and At...
Read more

Man in Overalls - An Ode to Collards (Now with my recipes)

By
I love growing my groceries in the fall - watching the miracle of growth, having ready-access to the freshest produce money-can't buy, the many flavors, getting to try new varieties - all while the temperature drops to more and more pleasant levels. I enjoy growing most anything in the fall, but, if I had to choose just one thing to grow every fall for the rest of my life, it would be collard greens, hands down.  It's a health thing and an effort-to-yield calculation, but in the beginning, the roots of my collard green passion were seeded by family. When I was a kid about 9 or 10, just a couple years into gardening in the front yard , my aunt, the family documentarian showed me a clipping of my late grandfather from the Graceville New (or was it the Jackson County Times?) beneath his 9ft collard greens that he had kept alive multiple years, growing them into small trees. Not to be outdone, my grandmother grew a collard forest of her own. Seizing the moment, my...
Read more