The latest Bolivar Garden was a huge success with over 22 students from middle school social service coming along with their teacher and the middle school principal, Mr Rob Millet. Some volunteers came as well as some High School students in detention. In the three hours we worked we did a lot. We pruned a […]
The second High School Sports day competitive coffee collection event occurred this Friday. A huge number of 9th grade students won the competition by collecting over 6.5kg of coffee. My two tenth grade students, Mariana Vallejo and Sara Mejia, came second with over 3.5kg, the three 12th graders came in with 2.5kg and the one […]
In planning for the upcoming Bolivar Garden I went to the garden to see the progress of the remaining beans only to find that a massive trunk of a Chiminango tree had broken and smashed into the terrace, destroying the roofing, plastic posts and fencing, plus beans and plants. The destruction was huge, not only […]
We recently harvested the maize that we planted in November last year. Not all the maize grew well due to the landslide that occurred, but we did harvest a variety of maize that is ready to be re-planted. It will be re-planted but in a different way – using rows and guide stakes to help […]
On Tuesday the 24th March a group of children from the Nido were accompanied by their teachers on a visit to the garden, where they saw the greenhouse, collected some coffee and saw the biodiversity that we have grown and managed in the garden. By all accounts, and by the look of joy […]
On the 15th March the Don Simón Club once again supported the 5K race, this time providing hot chocolate for race competitors. On the day members of the club learnt how to make hot chocolate in milk and water, making five liters of the delicious liquid for people to drink. Positive reviews of the […]
Recently we have been harvesting, fermenting, drying and roasting our cacao produce. Once we had then peeled the cacao roasted cacao beans the agricultural students learnt how to add value to the cacao nibs by processing it. This involved setting up an grinding machine used for grinding maize to produce arepas, and then, grinding the […]
In agriculture class today my students and I planted six new banana plants in the cacao plot. Essentially, these will grow to provide more banana fruit but also to provide shade for the growing cacao trees, whilst also diversifying the garden. One of these new banana plant´s suckers was cut from an existing banana plant, […]
This last week saw us finish the fermentation of our cacao harvest and its subsequent drying in front of the science department building for all to see. This was then finished by roasting the beans in the oven at a slow and steady temperature of between 110-140°C for 30 minutes. Now we have to peel […]
This week our new terrace got a severe beating from a minor landslide which deposited a lot of rocks and soil debris onto the terrace. Not only was material pushed through the terrace, the result were at least five plastic posts that had been cemented in blocks completely fractured, the door to the terrace broken […]
