Barista Magazine

AUG-SEP 2013

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC showed me four lime trees that he had planted. They were young and already had fruit on them. For the first five years of owning Finca La Paz, I could go to those trees and take a dozen ripe limes, regardless of the season. Year-round limes and we didn't fertilize, clean, prune, or do anything to them. For five years I just had great limeade and wondered what I could plant that might actually grow. Then it hit me. Limes. Last year we planted 100 lime trees. This year we will plant 100 more. There should be so many limes that Antonio has to rent a truck to move them to market. During Peace Corps, I worked in the agroforestry sector. I was trained to help farmers diversify with different crop cycles. I learned the basics on wood- and fruit-tree production, and gardening. When I got to Los Fríos, my job (which had been started, but not finished by another Peace Corps Volunteer) was to finish five community fruit-tree nurseries. Everyone was crazy over avocados. We could see a community across the valley that was making real money on avocados. The community wanted avocado trees, and it was my job to grow them (with massive amounts of help and input from the community). The clay-based soil in Los Fríos is perfect for citrus but avocado is tricky. The growing might start OK, but it will often dry up at year four or five because the roots hit that clay layer and basically die. The avocado tree could be loaded with fruit, but it starts to dry up from the top down. It looks like it doesn't have water, but the problem is in fact the opposite: it's drowning. After about the first year in Peace Corps I learned of this, so I started talking about it. There were exceptions. We were all committed to the project, and I decided that some avocados might take, but the ones that failed would at least teach a valuable lesson that this land isn't for avocado. 28 barista magazine Diomedes Galvan with his second son in his new house. He started managing Finca La Paz for the 2012–2013 harvest with his father, Antonio. He has the same gentle spirit and inexhaustible strength as his father. He will be taking over full time while Antonio's health improves. Did I tell you Finca La Paz had 495 grafted-avocado trees on it when I bought it? Well, yes, it did. The trees were 10–20 feet tall and looked great. Some looked a bit rough, about which the prior owner said that the person spraying herbicide did a bad job and the trees were in fine health. I counted on the avocado trees as a cash crop while the coffee established and grew. I now have two avocado trees left. The rest died, like so many others I've seen and warned other farmers about. The prior owner should have said I was getting 493 trees of firewood. At least it would have been accurate and honest. I told myself the microregion there had different soil and it wouldn't happen to me. Wrong again. I get to live this dual life between the U.S.A. and the Dominican Republic. One urban and one so rural there is no power and the only water comes once a day, and it isn't warm (even a little bit). But like anything spread thin, you kind of suck at one of them or both. I can't tell you how many parties, events, shows, friendships, and other things I've missed as I played beginner farmer. And to be honest it has taken me about six years to get a clear plan as to how I want things done. The last article I wrote for Barista Magazine championed the "local knowledge" in the community. But by the time the article went to press, I had already started to change my perspective. Maybe it has been living in New York City, which either suffocates people or drives them to excellence, which has been the force behind my change. Maybe it is all the travel as a buyer and seeing farms that worked and farms that didn't all over the world. I

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