Gina Errico

On Thursday, we finished our field work early and Samuel took me to meet his friends who own an organic sacha inchi farm nearby. We met with one of the owners, who showed us around the farm, where I got to meet a peacock named Azul (and his wife and babies) and a horse named Indio. She showed us around the farm and explained how they process the seeds from the fruit. Her and Samuel showed me how to harvest heart of palm from palm trees, which was honestly a wild experience. They sed a machete to cut down the palm tree (fun fact: palm trees are actually grasses) and hacked away to get to the center of the tree. They also picked an interesting yellow fruit called a rollinia for me to try, which tasted like a mild mango and looked like it came straight out of a cartoon.

A little more about the farm: Sacha inchi is also known as a ‘mountain peanut’ and is known to have a variety of health benefits. Typically you roast the seeds and eat them, but you can also make them into and oil or grind them into a fine powder (in addition to roasting the seeds at this farm, they make oil, soaps, lotions and deodorants). Because this farm is organic, they don’t use pesticides and use natural fertilizers to help the crops grow. They also plant other types of plants alongside the sachi inchi, to help promote pollination and add a variety of nutrients into the soil.

Over the weekend, I found some more cool birds hanging out around the station (see pics below!). My friend Andrea and I went out to Piedras Blancas National Park for a nice hike, where we saw some fun amphibians and reptiles and some really neat plants and trees. We had lunch at Playa Cacao, a nearby beach, and headed home just in time for the rain to start. On Sunday, we spent sometime in downtown San Vito and had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant.

That’s all for this week! Check out some photo highlights below.

Best,
Gina

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