Gratitude and Growth
The November Farm Update
It seems appropriate to write this first official farm update as Thanksgiving in the US approaches. Despite the legitimate political controversy around this day, it has always been one of my favorite holidays. Gathering with family and friends to give thanks for the blessings of abundant food and a solid, functional community has always struck me as meaningful. To me, this holiday is a celebration of the fact that together, we can pull through hard times. As I've settled into farm life over the years, the holiday has taken on even more personal significance. Maybe not the holiday itself, but the concept of intentionally pausing to give thanks.
Thanksgiving isn't really a thing in Venezuela, where there is no single harvest season. Planting, tending, and harvesting are year-round activities. It's fitting, then, that the closest equivalent to a harvest festival they have is the Dia de San Isidro, the patron saint of farmers. There's no season of rest but little risk of real hunger as long as you keep working the land. So, the farmer is honored for tending to and cultivating the natural abundance bestowed by God. It's a beautiful festival, most lavishly celebrated in the small agricultural towns throughout the countryside.
But it's not quite the same as a harvest festival or Thanksgiving. And, in my opinion, the celebration of abundance and community is an idea worth taking the time to pause for. So, in this spirit of gratitude and giving thanks, I share with you the latest news from the farm.
November 2024: Rains, Fertility, and Opening Holes
Rains have been abundant this month. Since November 9th, when I decided it was time to get serious about checking our rain gauge, we've had at least 15 cm of rain. I would guess we also had at least that in the first week of the month when the rains were more sustained and intense. We are all grateful that things have eased up a bit. It's nice for everyone to be able to work outside without getting soaked, and to be able to walk to town without getting soaked by the brush along the trail.
The rains have been perfect for the transplants, however. Michael and the farm crew have primarily focused on opening and preparing holes this last month, so there's not been as much actual planting going on compared to other times. All the same, many plants have found their way to their forever homes and are doing really well, thanks to the abundant rains.
Over the last year or so, our planting process has become fairly well-defined, if slow going. Still, it's incredible to see how much can get done in a relatively short time. First, Michael moves through the area to be planted, staking out and marking the different holes for productive fruit trees that will eventually form the shade canopy for the coffee and cacao. Then, a couple members of the team move through, measuring out and digging the coffee holes. After the holes are opened, the organic compost and biochar are distributed and incorporated into the soil before back filling the hole. The coffee plants are then distributed throughout the area before finally being planted in their new homes.
This month, hundreds of holes have been opened and prepared for planting, and many plants have finally made it out of the nursery and into the ground. For me, there's nothing more satisfying than closing the laptop, taking a walk through around the trails and seeing the plants prospering as they expand their roots and grow.
This last month we also had our small herd of animals stabled. Thanks to our rotational pasture and stable system, we are able to produce all of our organic fertilizer here. After the animals rotate through our 13 pastures, they are closed into stables for approximately six weeks. During this time, all the pasture grass from the planting areas and other parts of the property unsuitable for pasture are cleared and fed to the animals. Every day, the animals get their ration, and whatever they don't eat gets scattered as bedding. This deep bed system allows us to capture a lot of fertility, which is then worked back into the ground with each tree we plant.
As we close out this month, those stables will be cleaned out, and all that organic matter will be piled up to compost. Things will get stinky around here, but that is just the smell of fertility and abundance - yet another thing to be grateful for.
In Other News:
This month, we made soap out of about 7kg of beef tallow from the bull we sacrificed in October. I had never made soap before and was surprised at how easy it was. I kind of suspect we'll never buy body soap or laundry soap again.
We've lost a few older hens to unknown causes, but egg production is up overall. Many of our hens went broody in May, June, and July, and we experienced a welcome population boom in our flock. The younger hens are finally starting to lay, and we will likely cull a number of roosters within the next week or so. We still have some stubbornly independent ladies who refuse to stay in the chicken enclosure, and it seems like every day we find a nest of eggs in some random place.
Michael also picked up the new coffee seed we had imported from Colombia. As we wrap up the first phase of planting, he's already shifting focus to the upper pastures and planning how to reforest and plant them out. A new nursery must be built in the very near future.
We have harvested and enjoyed pigeon peas, bananas, topochos, squash, tomatoes, apio, tarrow root, papaya, green beans, lettuces, green onions, sweet peppers, collard greens, dinosaur kale, zucchini, raspberries, chayote, and cucumbers from our kitchen garden, fallow pig pastures, and diversified perennial plantings. That, my friends, is abundance. And deeply satisfying.
One of our Tungo sows gave birth to seven healthy piglets. Five females and two males. We love this breed for so many reasons, and will probably be writing more about them in the future.
And finally, our dear friend and invaluable contributor to the Fundo San Benito team, Hedisa Henao, published her annual 2025 lunar planting calendar. Her calendar is a real work of art and love that compiles ancestral and popular wisdom, gathered through years of research and practice, into practical, prescriptive information for people who want to work the land. We're particularly honored by the cover image - which is inspired by the view from our farm.
Looking Forward
I guess that wraps up the news from the farm for this month. As we move into December and the holiday season, we're starting to plan the next pig harvest and scope out the banana leaves that have made it through the windy storms of this last month intact. Hallaca season is upon us, as is the holiday party we plan on hosting for our team and their families. There's a lot of prep work to be done so everyone can take a break from our project for a couple of weeks and enjoy their holiday vacations.
I'll check back in around the holidays and let you know how everything has unfolded.
Until next time, stay grateful.