While my last blog was also on Costa Rica featuring fauna and flora and a paddleboard trip through the mangroves, this one will highlight going up the coast to visit a spice farm and inland to where they grow vegetables and fruit.
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The sense of smell in Costa Rica are unbelievable . The casita of my cousin has two ylang ylang tree and their essence is in the air day and nighttime ; most especially though after crepuscule and when it rains . It is very flowered and rather airy and it distract one ’s mind every so often . One is right next to the pool so it is a rather alien experience to float around with that fragrance wafting around .
One of my main desire was to travel to Villa Vanilla Spice Plantation , which is a tropic research lab for sustainable agriculture with 27 acres of agricultural prodcution and 125 acres of primary and secondary rain forest . We had to travel about 1 1/2 hours to the spice farm and one-half of that was on the coastal highway and the other one-half on gravelly scandal roads at about 5 to 10 miles an minute for about 14 kilometer . It was bumpy and hot and dusty , specially with the windows down . There was a tour of duty and I ’d say there were about 12 other hoi polloi . We had a handsome young Costa Rican pathfinder named Roy and he was very knowledgeable and did a great job explaining all of the processes of cultivate vanilla extract bean orchids , cacao trees , Ceylon cinnamon , pepper vine , chile chocolate , Madagascar pepper , cardamom , pep , Curcuma longa , allspice , and Tulsi basil – all crop that they cultivate and process and sell . We saw fresh vanilla beans and fermenting ones drying in the sun ; cacao tree beans drying in the sun and white and blackened peppercorns as well as turmeric root ; we determine as Ceylon Cinnamomum zeylanicum was barked ; and we saw cacao pod on the tree and suck on the bonce covered with a wet , tricky membrane , then tasted the dry bill and some chocolate made there .
I took so many photograph my camera ran out of battery and used my Iphone for the rest of the salary increase . We hiked up the Epiphyte Trail through planting of vanilla and pepper vines , pep , cardamom and Curcuma longa plants , waist - high-pitched tulsi sweet basil plants , to an overlook with an candid - air building ( bodega ) , which had an incredible view of valleys and swarm - cut across mountain top where we tasted a shiny red- , iced Ceylon cinnamon decoction which was straight off refreshing ; vanilla bean plant cheesecakes ; chocolate Pimenta dioica cooky with vanilla bean sparkler cream and chile - steep hot burnt umber with cacao tree nib shortbread cookie . Yum and a spice and refined sugar bombilation ! I thoroughly enjoy the go and the fascinating newfangled info and exposure ops besides the delicious spice - infuse desserts . Many flora like the vanilla orchid and the pepper grow on host plants ; it is amazing how they grow native crops interspersed with the exotic spice and they act upon symbiotically . I was delighted to be able to buy organically - grown , Costa Rican - grow whole vanilla beans , priming bean and extract , cinnamon bark , whole cacao bean and beak , ground cacao , and mangosteen selection at the little shop there.www.rainforestspices.com
For another jaunt , we drive to San Isidro de General which is in the central vale and they have an candid air marketplace there under cover since it would bake the green groceries sit out in the blistering sun all 24-hour interval . The drive there was up a windy mountain road and as we ascend the air became immediately cool and the flora became more lush and greener . We passed the common medal of every character , banana tree , bamboo , hibiscus and heliconia however then we see huge Brugmansia in shades of coral , brilliant bougainvillea , frangipangi and more .
The mart had every type of veggie from immense Daucus carota sativa , beet , cabbages , cauliflowers and Brassica oleracea italica , radish plant , taro plant – they grow spate of onion here and potatoes along with camotes which are similar to white potato only they expect like a white angelic potato – they are buckram and more or less sweet . And then there were piles of all of the tropic fruits like mango , Carica papaya , watermelon , cantaloupe , banana , Musa paradisiaca , passion fruit , etc . We had to control ourselves from buy too much , since we had forthcoming travel plans to go to the rain forest .
The perfect way to end the day was lovely brilliant rain nourishing the parched world – watering all of the crops , tree and prime , which we had see on our expedition – then baby-sit on the veranda with a tropic libation and watching the cloud and the waxing moonshine on the sea . Pura vida !
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Vanilla bean orchid growing on a host plant at Villa Vanilla in Costa Rica. The farm is certified organic and demeter biodynamic. Each vanilla bloom is hand pollinated with a small stick and the vine is marked with a colored tag to note date of pollination… it takes pods about 9 months to mature and they will split open if not harvested at the right time.Photo/Illustration: Susan Belsinger
