Women and Sustainable Farming in Costa Rica

The women of Barrio La Argentina, near EARTH university, north-east of the capital San Jose, have started something very interesting. They have created a network of small sustainable farms, so diverse they plant everything they can get their hands on. And not only do they plant, but they reuse, recycle, create, and regenerate.

I stayed overnight at Doña Ana's house at Finca Maria Jose (Finca=farm, her daughter is Maria Jose). Every morning Ana gets up to make her husband's breakfast and lunch at 4:30am when he leaves to work in the nearby pineapple plantation. Then she gets to work on their own finca. They have an entire medicinal plant garden with labeled plants for every ailment, and a drying shed so she can package the herbs for teas.

She has parceled her land into several small crops from bananas to yucca to beans, corn, sugar cane, papaya, cacao, citronella, you name it. Plus she has a greenhouse for all of the vegetables such as lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes etc.

She raises pigs and chickens too and uses the manure for compost which is made through a system of worms and mixing with other agricultural wastes. AND she has a biodigestor for the pig's excrement which is connected by a long pipe that goes into the kitchen and is used for cooking!

Her friends, part of the agro-ecotourism association, have similar farms, some with different crops, one with cacao who makes chocolate on the property. I had a fresh hot chocolate while I was there! These are some creative women. And it doesn't stop there, they also make soap to sell and have started making shampoo. There are lots of farms like this now throughout Costa Rica. Talk about sustainable. Working with EARTH, volunteers can stay on campus or in one of the ladies' homes and work on any or all of the farms, learning about organic, biodynamic and sustainable farming.

Read more about my visit to EARTH university