Category Archives: Food

Fun with Guests and Party at the Grocery Store!

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We have been very busy these last few days. Having guests to show around is always a lot of fun because you get to show off the highlights of your town and area. In addition to showing them around our property and the waterfalls in San Sebastian we also went out to eat at some of our favorite locales: Tamboo for lunch overlooking Sandy beach, La Copa Llena for the most delicious food to celebrate Britton’s birthday, Villa Cofresi for a game of pool with “Piratas” or creamy rum drinks made inside a fresh coconut and The English Rose for breakfast in the “hills” overlooking the ocean.

Villa Cofresi
Sunset happy hour at Villa Cofresi

We swam in the marina, went to a fun party, checked out the lighthouse and watched the surfers in Domes Beach and sat outside admiring the stars in the middle of January after cooking chicken on an open flame. Overall we had a great time and it reminds us that we definitely live in a vacation spot. But we have been so busy that we haven’t had much time for much else like boring life things such as laundry and groceries.

So we went to our favorite little grocery store in Rincon, Edward’s, to pick up a few groceries on Saturday and were greeted with a huge “Customer Appreciation Party”. Not only do the grocery stores in Puerto Rico sell alcohol unlike in Colorado, but they know how to throw a party! There was a pig roast, rice and beans, green bananas in garlic sauce, ceviche, bacalitos, sausages and all-you-can-drink rum, beer, and wine along with a live salsa band! Apparently the party just doesn’t stop in Rincon!

Edwards Party

 

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Here’s a short video for your entertainment. At first it looks like you are at some sort of festival or something and then…voila you are in a grocery store. lol

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Chopped

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The theme of the last few days has been Chopped. Chopped is one of our favorite shows, so we download it and watch it on the laptop when we need a break. It is a fun show that starts with a mystery basket of four strange ingredients and the chefs are supposed to create tasty, creative meals with them. It is a lot like how we cook here. You never know what new interesting ingredients will be at the store or what they will be out of or what we will find on the property, and since we have no stove, we always have to think of creative uses. Lately it has been chopped veggies, rice, fish and ginger all thrown together in the rice cooker for lunch (and sometimes dinner) and chopped coconuts (and coconut water) and starfruit with coffee for breakfast.

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Farm-fresh breakfast!

But beyond TV shows, the Chopped theme has been present in other ways as well. Britton managed to process all the wood from the torn down deck bathroom by separating the good pieces that will be used for the chicken/turkey coop and chopping and bagging all the unusable pieces.

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Lots of bags=lots of work

Kitty and the saw
Kitty even helped out a little in his supervisory capacities making sure everything was safe with the chop saw

When that was all finished, we went on to the next chopping project of chopping down more trees to clear the land for our orchard and poultry. Britton had been doing it all by hand with just a handsaw or bowsaw and while he was getting much stronger and faster, it was still a slow process. At Home Depot we saw a chainsaw marked down from over $200 to $99 and so we thought that would be very helpful. It also makes the job inherently more dangerous and while Britton took safety precautions, he still managed to chop a little portion of the tip of his thumb when we was adjusting the chain blades.

But that was a much better warning than if the machine had been on. One day we worked for about 6 hours under these trees. I used the loppers and took down the small trees and vines that are under 2 inches in diameter and cleared the area for Britton to work chopping and piling. I also took the hose around to all our baby transplant trees. This property will take everything that we have, but it is becoming more and more manageable every day and we enjoy the work, believe it or not.

BK Saw
Like a hot knife through butter…the work is much easier with a chainsaw

Trees
We still have lots to do -all these trees need to come down (Britton is in white below)
Click image to enlarge

 

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Celebrating the New Year in Maricao, PR

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This year we rang in the new year in a small agricultural town in Puerto Rico called Maricao. Maricao is mostly known for its coffee production, cooler temperatures (about 10-15 degrees cooler than lowlands) and slower pace of life.

Waking up
View from the mountains of Maricao where we stayed

However, while it is considered a very rural community, they are well-known for their New Year’s Eve celebration. The mayor’s office hires a live band, has a fireworks show and used to even have a pig roast in years past. Rincón doesn’t even do this and it is about 2-3 times the population (about 15,000 people) as Maricao (around 6,000). We thought it sounded like a great time when our new friends invited us to come to the fiesta and then stay the night at their 100-acre finca. And indeed it was.

Band in Maricao

We had a lot of fun dancing to the merengue and salsa music, eating a great meal and ringing in the New Year 3 hours earlier than we did last year.

Fireworks

Our gracious hosts then showed us around the farm in the morning and we admired all the beautiful tropical plants. We also noticed that while Maricao is only about 20 miles away as the crow flies from Rincón, it is actually quite a bit different when it comes to vegetation because of the climate differences. It really was quite a bit colder than in Rincón. Britton and I both had to snuggle under two quilts to stay warm! Maybe we are just getting acclimated, but it was the first time in Puerto Rico that we were a bit chilled.

Heliconia
Beautiful plants like this heliconia

It was also our first night away from our property in Rincón and it was fun to get away for a night. Seeing what a mature finca with 10+ year’s worth of growth looks like also reinvigorated all our efforts around the property. Plus thanks to our hosts, We went home with more starts to plant. What a great start to 2014. We hope you all have a Prospero Año Nuevo con mucha felicidad.

Gracias por visitar a Maricao

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Festival y Caravana de Yuntas de Bueyes

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Britton and I had heard about the Festival and Oxen Parade that was to be held this past weekend. Apparently it was the 7th Annual Caravan and is meant to recreate and celebrate times past when the farmers would bring their sugarcane and other goods down from the mountains to the coast.

It was held on both Saturday and Sunday (Dec. 21-22) but we just went on Sunday. We thought we could catch the parade as it passed through the public plaza after the morning Farmers’ Market, but after waiting a while and not knowing when it would start, we decided to walk from the main plaza and go check out the whole festival down at Plaza de la Amistad across the street from the Econo grocery store.

Pincho CassieEnjoying a piña colada and a pincho (grilled chicken on a skewer)

It was raining off and on, but it was a fun time. They had live music, Puerto Rican street food and lots of artisanal booths. We even talked with a beekeeper from Ciales who said he could help us start our beehive (in a designated space besides our house -ha)!

After walking around and ducking under the tents when it would rain, we were about to head back to the truck around 3pm when we saw the caravan making its way to downtown Rincón.

Britton and OxenBritton and some white bueyes (oxen)

It’s pretty cool to see all these local traditions come to life in the present. The parade was somewhat similar to when we had the longhorn cows during the Greeley Stampede Parade, but the Stampede was much more organized and controlled. Here cars were still driving on the roads while the parade was in procession and just about everyone was drinking something. We saw people pouring whole cups of Bacardi and drinking them while they towed people with their tractor or oxen. It was also very loud, especially the vehicles in the rear of the parade with sirens and blaring music. Everyone seems to be in high spirits (literally) this time of year.

Caravana Cassie and los bueyes Ox Sugarcane

Overall, it was a great day out and we had a lot of fun. We were also happy to get back to our quiet little finca tucked up and away from all the loud celebrations going on for the holiday season. We hope you are all enjoying the holidays as well.

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