Ranchito Del Mar

Instead of the usual Thursday hike, we all were invited to take a tour of a local organic farm that specializes in greens and fresh vegetables.  It's operated by a woman, Britta, who has only 2 regular helpers..  sometimes recruiting others when needed.

Our tour guide is David Graff....

That's David in the straw hat, standing on the wall, telling us the plans for the tour.

David and his wife, Jacque, invited us on a tour of their place a couple of weeks ago.  They maintain a sustainable agriculture type farm, and also help others in this area learn how to practice that way of farming.

This was the largest hiking group yet...  somewhere between 30 to 35 folks hiked the 2 or so miles from the town plaza, over to Britta's farm.

It's called "Ranchito Del Mar".  She sells her produce to restaurants in San Pancho, Sayulita and La Penita, as well as selling at their tianguis on market days.

Look at those beautiful rows of lettuces!  Several varieties of lettuce...  I recognized a few, especially my favorite, romaine.

We tried for a group picture...

But... as usual, the bright sun light got in the way.  But this does show that it was a large group.

I peeked into this lean-to....

Flats of seedlings are growing there, but are protected from the scorching sun.

The workers had picked several kinds of greens for folks to buy during our tour.  Here are Kathryn and Chris, putting some arugula in a baggy to take home.

 This worker had just picked all these varieties of lettuce.  He's rinsing them off and arranging them in a bin to be sold.

 If you wanted, you were allowed to go out into the fields and pick your own.  I was tempted to pick some okra, but got sidetracked and never went out.  I looked at what other folks bought and saw some beautiful eggplant (another of my favorites).

Here's some of the group checking out the produce....

Tamara brought a lovely basket she'd bought somewhere else in Mexico...  it was just perfect for her purchases!

David and Britta both talked some about the efforts folks are making here to encourage organic farming and sustainable agriculture.   They help by teaching, working with, and sometimes even help fund other farmers.

Bill and I had a small farm...  he had a beautiful garden before he met me, and then we worked together for 18 years growing organic veggies, so we know it's a lot of work.  But, we also know how much better that food tastes and how much better it is for you.  So we could really appreciate this tour today.

And...  that's the way we celebrated Bill's birthday... which is today.  Happy Birthday to my Sweetie!

That's All For Today!