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I am having a terrible time growing sweet corn here in CR and my husband loves it. Anyone have suggestions?
(Don’t know if the seed is GMO and don’t care)
Victoria, have you watched when locals plant it? They know when to do it … so follow their lead.
If you have a choice, use ‘short day seeds’.it is really hard to grow good sweet corn here because of the short days. and you should care if it’s GMOd or not because the farmers are fighting like crazy to keep GMO corn OUT of the food supply here — corn is their patria, they don’t want trans-genicos to contaminate their heritage crops.
[quote=”maravilla”]Those things are readily available in my area, but down there you might want to contact Pura Vida Pantry. She might be able to help you. also check the macros — they carry some of those things. almost all grocery stores carries every bean you would want. seeds and nuts are plentiful here, grocery stores carry them and the macros have them.[/quote]
Maravilla,
Thanks for the information in regards to Pura Vida pantry. I see that the store is located in Herradura. I will check it out to see what products are available for sale. Excuse my ignorance on the term “macros”. This newby does not know what that means.
I have looked in the Super Mega’s, Pali’s etc and have not been able to find nuts and seeds other than in small packages.
ThanksMaravilla said…
i have pineapple oranges, strawberry oranges, blood oranges, navel oranges, valencianas, and two or three other varieties that i haven’t yet identified, plus clementines, tangerines, mesino limes, and key limes. not having to buy citrus here saves me about $3.00 a month! jajaja
I’m very interested in growing different varieties of citrus fruits. I have six acres in the southern zone close to the beach so the heat would be a factor in what varieties to choose from. I planted some grapefruit, starfruit,key lime and hsve other well established fruit trees but am intrigued by pineapple, strawberry and other unusual orange varieties.
I would really appreciate it if you could pass on the spanish names for these varieties and if you have information for heat tolerance.Strawberries won’t grow near the beach. They need cool weather.
Pineapples are ‘iffy’ due to the humidity.Chances are slim to finding nuts and seeds in anything other than small packages.
macros are macrobiotics — health food stores. you won’t find what you are looking for in the stores you mentioned — except maybe for some beans. nuts are too expensive here for most ticos to buy, although i have seen nuts in mega super and in peri mercado. i don’t know if PVP actually sells anything in bulk, but i think she has a source which she would probably share with you.
as for a variety of citrus trees, you would have to check with your local vivero as to which varieties will survive the heat and humidity. the names of the funny-flavored oranges, are, i would assume naranja de frases, naranja de pina, naranja de sangre, etc. i live up in the mountains at 4000 ft so my climate is totally different than yours but my citrus trees are producing like crazy — and just yesterday i saw buds on the grapefruit tree and the blood orange tree. the sweet lemons are wonderful, but they are BIG producers — i have never seen ANY fruit tree produce like this. the navel oranges are called Washingtonians here. My crop this year was every bit as good as any orange i ever bought in the states. The navels here are usually imported from either the US or Chile, but my tree did exceptionally well and now it is budding again.
Previously, when on the farm, we grew many varieties of citrus plus many other fruit trees at approx.700 mts.
[quote=”maravilla”]when you go to the vivero just ask for yellow sour lemons as opposed to the yellow sweet lemons that are ubiquitous here. i forgot to put those on my list of citrus trees — i have two sweet lemon trees and already off each tree i have given away more than 500 lemons, eaten at least that many, and there are dozens on the ground. the Ticos love the sweet lemons; the gringos won’t touch them, but i think they are great, and they are very high in all the nutrients of a regular sour lemon. you can eat them as you would an orange.[/quote]
I knew I had seen the yellow acidic (American) lemons mentioned here and thought it was you who named them but I was mistaken.
They call them Berdelli lemons in Costa Rica.
I had previously posted the we grew ‘real lemons’ but never did have a local name for them.
If you ask for sour lemons at the vivero, you may get [i]limon criollo[/i]
Try asking for [i]ácido cítrico[/i] or [i]limon ácido[/i]It’s great to read a lively discussion about eating and food on here! What we eat obviously creates the base of our health.
I have followed a plant based diet for 30 years, eaten what they call today super foods during this time as well. The “mainstream” has adopted many ideas about diet that were considered extremist, “hippie” in the late 70’s until just recently.
I remember a conversation with the “dietitian” at NY Hospital in 1983 where my mother-in-law was for kidney failure (caused by blood pressure meds she had been on for many years).
I began to discuss diet with her, she quickly became annoyed and told me “What you eat has no relation to disease”; I think she may have even implied on health? We have come a long way.
Just factoring in the number of diabetics (one of the biggest drags on our health care system) and obesity the costs for treatment of the disease as well as subsequent diseases related to these conditions is staggering.
Still we mostly want to treat the disease and not focus on the cause, not much money in keeping people healthy:)
The high cost of healthcare is directly tied to these preventable conditions (perhaps we can’t stop all of the cases, but I think it is agreed we can prevent most).
The eating of these awful foods is akin to being addicted to drugs and the big food companies know this.
The high fat/sugar/salt/chemical laden foods become addictive and like a cigarette smoker/opiate user, the consumer of these products can’t get off them easily even though it is killing them, making them obese.
This is why most diets fail, we need detox centers where we focus on the emotional and physical aspects of this “addiction”. They have you hooked and like most addicts…you are in denial.
The big processed food conglomerates may be worse than big pharma. At least some of the drugs developed can be useful (maravilla may disagree:))
Keep it simple: Eat fresh foods. It’s better for you and the environment. Next topic; the destructive effects factory style farming have on the earth. Look into the pollution caused by pig, cattle and chicken factory operations.
IMHO this is something to get fired up about, even more so than worrying about hoarding gold for “the collapse”.
my mother used to say to me, “Stop eating that hippie diet!” (back in the 70’s) jajaja it is so easy to eat healthy here in costa rica. with the plethora of cheap fruits and vegetables and beans, rice, and other grains, it’s really sad to see so many Ticos suffering from the same diseases that fast/junk food wrought on the US and the rest of the world. something that is starting to take off here in Costa Rica is the Slow Food movement, which started in Italy in 1989, but i was doing slow food before it ever was a movement. there is a chapter here in San Jose and you can find out about joining at http://www.slowfood.com
My neighbor’s guanabanas are almost ready to be picked and he offered them to me because he finds them too sweet. I’m wondering what to do with them besides making juice. Any recipe ideas would be greatly appreciated. It was the first time I see them on the tree and was surprised to see that they grow right on the trunk of the tree and not hanging from branches.
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