the food

Homemade jalapeno and onion pickles spice up any meal!

The food has been fabulous at the farm, with hearty portions for keeping up strength. La Señora Victoria is a great cook. Many times the meals are based around rice and/or red beans, which I always enjoy, and there are always fresh-made tortillas!

There are four types of bananas growing on the farm, all delicious. This huge one is a type called ¨macho¨.

La señora served a caldo when I returned for my second week. We had slaughtered one of the chickens, a chilloya more specifically, and with it she made an amazing stew with chayote fruit, yuca root, and malanga root, all harvested from the land. It was seasoned with these leaves, also from the land, called Santa Maria.

Here is the refrigerator, although I don´t think it is used all that much. It is a ceramic crock, with sand and another crock inside. When the sand is watered it keeps things in the inner crock cool.

Mandarins, sweet and delicious no matter how green they might look, right off the tree.

Chilo presents the coconut, also from the front yard, from which we harvested a full pint of delicious juice.

The aformementioned malanga root leftovers: its pinkish color inspires my jest that its flavor is 90% sweet potato and 10% pork chop. I enjoyed its flavor a great deal the second day in the stew.

Meals often included pasta, and occasionally meat. When Chilo has some business in town, he would often bring back some carne, such as was used in this fabulous meat sauce. With the addition of a little salsa la señora prepared, I just had to comment on how much I was reminded of my grandpa´s spicy southern Italian sauce.

Another great meal was served yesterday, a stew with a nice chunk of pork, potatoes, chayotes, and corn. Corn is served with citrus instead of butter as we do, and lime is fabulous. The fresh lemon from the land here is perfect for the dish.