Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Northern property


The darker green trees are acajou (mahogany) and the others are cedar.


We have land about 20 minutes north of here and we've planted cedar and mahogany trees. They are coming along nicely and will be worth a fortune in a couple of years. The idea is to show people that a tree farm, if well managed, can be a financial success and a way to prevent deforestation. Potatoes, manioc and some other veggies (that I don't recognize) are planted around the trees and cultivated regularly.

10 comments:

  1. The tree farm is a great idea.
    Can you give us some general information. How far is Les Cayes from PaP by road. What kind of airport and harbor does Les Cayes have. Do flight's come to Les Cayes from other area's besides Pap.
    This general information may help some more organized aide to get to you.

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  2. Manioc
    Le manioc (Manihot esculenta) est un arbuste vivace de la famille des Euphorbiacées, originaire d'Amérique du Sud, en particulier du Plateau des Guyanes (région s'étalant sur le Vénézuéla, la Colombie, le Guyana, le Suriname, la Guyane et le Brésil) et peut-être de Bolivie. On rencontrerait le plus grand nombre de variétés dans la région des Guyanes. Il est aujourd'hui largement cultivé et récolté comme plante annuelle dans les régions tropicales et subtropicales. On consomme généralement ses racines tubérifiées riches en amidon, mais aussi ses feuilles en Afrique, en Asie et dans le nord du Brésil (pour la confection du manisoba). Au nord du Brésil, le mot farine (en portugais farinha) désigne avant tout la farine de manioc, et non de blé (mais dans le reste du pays on utilise farinha normalement - farinha de trigo, farinha de milho etc..). Cette farine, n'a d'ailleurs pas l'aspect de la farine de blé : elle ressemble plutôt à une semoule sèche plus ou moins grossière de couleur allant du jaune vif au gris en passant par le blanc. Il existe beaucoup de variétés que l'on peut trouver sur le Ver-O-Peso, le marché de Belém. Une variété jaune et fine très répandue est appelée farofa.

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  3. Janina,

    Oops... spelled it incorrectly. It is a tubular from which we make cassava flour for a Haitian kind of tortilla.

    FM

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  4. Bravo! You have all the programs that I'm looking for in a small charity.... education, health care, shelter and ENVIRONMENT. Do you also include composting in lieu of pesticides? I hope that you are into true ORGANIC FARMING. This helps reduce garbage. How do you recycle plastics, metals, cardboard, wood crates. Where is the nearest town dump? Elsie

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  5. Thanks, Elsie
    Yes, we compost but we are not 100% organic yet. That's my goal. There's no town dump!! Folks here and the municipality use the ocean. I know, I know. GROAN!! We recycle everything but plastics which we bury.

    FM

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  6. I recall seeing vetiver plant waste being used for mulch and was told it keeps insects away.

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  7. Thanks for finally responding one-to-one to me, Fr. Marc. It matters a lot in my commitment. I recall from my research on one of the garbage dumpsites at Payatas B in Quezon City, Philippines that VETIVER GRASS planted on top of the garbage would help and holds down the hupe piles that can turn into mountains causing landslides. I shall find that link for you with diagrams. Pete Seeger, the Father of the American Folk Song, said that it takes a lot of small charities to save our planet. He quoted Rene du Bose: THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY. He and his friends had built in Maine, the beautiful sloop, CLEARWATER, and they held fundraiser festivals called Strawberry Fests, and stopped all along the banks of the Hudson River cleaning the banks and the river. And teaching the kids, the future generation, how to treat our fragile planet. Now our water companies are studying how to use the water from the Hudson River to supplement our water supply for the future. Maybe when all this survival phase is over, you can get some celebrities to join you and start a like-kind fundraiser. You can buy his inspiring DVD at www.amazon.com or just google him. His foundation: www.clearwater.org. I also know now that what you do there affects the quality of air everywhere in the planet and the weather. Bonne journee. ELSIE

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  8. I want to sponsor a kid who will go into CHEMICAL ENGINEERING so he/she will discover a way to bio-degrade plastics and reuse again. Those plastic bottles being consumed everyday getting thrown out into the sea or leaching in the soil. I swore that I would never vacation in the Caribbean when I saw them throwing their beer cans and plastics into the sea in Antigua. ELSIE

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  9. Father Marc are you also doing bamboo anywhere. I see all the amazing types of bamboo on the website for greenbuillding.com and the houses they can build. Even if it takes a few years to get going it would be great once it is in place.
    Rita Hunter

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