Finca Fruicion: Getting hands & feet dirty

By Diane

We have been at the permaculture farm, Finca Fruicion, for three weeks now. Gerard and Nathan are busy converting a covered camping area into a bunkhouse; Brett is working on vegetable starts and helping design a better system to grow more food for the needs of the farm. I find myself working mostly on garden projects: making new beds, transplanting plants, pruning and weeding. We are sleeping in tents, using dry compost toilets, and taking luxuriously hot outside showers with water heated by the sun.

We are sharing space and meals with an ever fluctuating number of people (12 – 20) including the main couple, their three young boys, a volunteer manager, volunteers, farm stay guests, friends, and neighbors. We all take turns cooking and cleaning up. The meals are mostly vegetarian; we are producing and eating the most creative meals I have ever seen – especially  the day before the owner goes to town to get groceries. We are all learning how to make original sauces and the many ways we can prepare rice and beans. Again, we are eating very well.

Ever since we learned about cob building last year, we have wanted to get our hands into it.  We finally got our lesson and chance to build something last week. Cob material consists of clay, sand, and fiber such as straw or rice husks. We finished constructing a wall that was not completed at an earlier workshop. Cobbing is very fun! See the photos of the process below.

Nathan and Brett mixing cob with their feet

Smoothing the cob onto the wall structure

Building a window into the wall

The toucan is our small gift cobbed onto the Center’s front entrance

The always busy kitchen

Our tent and toilet against a beautiful backdrop

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