Vegetables! Post by Cory

This monarch didn't want to fly right away after emerging from its crisalis.
Fritz keeps finding more caterpillars on the butterfly weeds he collects
to feed the ones in his aquarium. 11 pupating right now.

After 20 years of not being able to grow many temperate vegetables in lowland Haiti, it is fun to be in a mild climate at an elevation for great vegetables as we wait for fruit and nut trees to grow.

I was able to make a supply trip to Port au Prince last week that was thankfully uneventful.

First trip since late April. 3 hours to get to the paved road but in town traffic was good.

 Only one small detour due to a road blocked by a bus near the airport. Protests and roadblocks are increasing lately.

Bok Choy

A missionary friend that I shared a truckload of trees from the Fauche nursery early last year purchased trees I wanted from a Dominican Republic nursery last fall about the time we left Haiti.

 I was able to meet for the trees and gave him mulberry trees for another mission to deliver on his way home.

This week almost everyone in our area is very busy harvesting the bean crop.

 Beans all ripened at once due to the rainy season starting so late.

Bok choy, turnips and sweet mustard from Hope Seeds

Germination was poor but then the weather was good for the beans that did grow and open air market prices are $1 or more per pound due to the worldwide bean shortage this year.

They are also selling well because the lower elevations around us had crop failure from the drought.

Our workers said they wanted to keep working when I said my work on the terrace could wait until after harvest if they needed some time off.

Broccoli and grape tomato

First time I've grown onion from seed

Roma tomato. Hoping hail doesn't shred the garden this year.

Newest terrace construction. Not much soil on this hillside but
we have a dirt pile from the house construction behind the person in orange

Popcorn in upper terrace doing as well as local corn in lower terrace
Both planted with beans

Turnip

Trees from the Dominican Republic, left to right:cinnamon, macadamia, allspice,
santol, strawberry guava, cola nut, allspice, rumberry, java plum, jaboticaba,
Surnam cherry, abiu

Day 53 Tree planting.

As the clouds grow so do our hopes for rain.

Last week over 100 trees were planted on the property after the rains the weeks before.

Now going on our second week without rain Cory is holding off again to plant more trees, as yesterday it took 4 guys all day to water trees.

This almost emptied the small amount of rain-water that had collected in the bottom of the new pond.

The tree planting process...

Two or three of the guys walk around an area, finding a spot that looks good they start to dig with a shovel and pick.

Once they have a good hole dug they walk about 10 or 15 feet away and start again.

Sometimes they find too much rock underneath a bit of dirt and then they move on to a new location.

With the bushes and grass growing up it is hard to see many of the holes unless you are very close and can see the pile of dirt.

First a bit of fertilizer is put in the bottom of the hole.

The dirt mixed up.

 A tree selected for the hole and then carefully dirt is placed around the roots, gently in an attempt not to disturb the dirt around the roots.

Sometimes a pot from the nursery contains 4-5 trees and they need to be carefully separated to be planted individually in their own holes.

Once the dirt has been returned around the tree a second planting occurred.

An second scoop of fertilizer was placed in a line near the edge of the planting hole and mixed into the dirt.

Then 2-3 squash seeds were planted, covered up, and the dirt gently pushed down by a foot.

A small died stick marked the locations that had squash seeds.

Some trees being more sensitive or having had more roots cut off to remove them from the nursery or the pot may have received water right away.

 In addition the sod from the hole or rocks that came from the hole were placed on the down hill side to help hold the soil in place when the rains do start.

Because Fritz and I completed our third grade work on Thursday morning we helped plant on Thursday afternoon, Friday morning and afternoon.

A variety of trees were planted including: egg fruit, mulberry, apple, cherimoya [custard apple], black sapote, velvet apple, grapefruit, jackfruit, mango, sapodilla, rumberry, pawlonia (lumber tree), loquats, peach palm, asai palm, guava, and macadamia.

Haiti Visit by Cory and Church Visit Schedule.

We share about the work in Haiti:
March 24, 11am service, Central Wesleyan, Jackson Michigan
March 31,  9:30 am service Living Hope Community, Richland MI
March 31, 6:30pm service, Diamond Springs Wesleyan

The trip to Haiti went well. The country has been mostly calm the past few weeks but there are reports of potential serious trouble at the end of March. 

Broccoli and other vegetables

The politics are complicated and partly international so it is hard to predict.

Just before going to the airport on our return we had a good meeting with 3 of the top leaders of the Haitian Wesleyan Church: Pastor Denor, Pastor Doucet, and Pastor Clother. 

They advised that due to the potential problems, we wait until April 8 to decide when the Wesleyan missionaries should return. They think if Haiti is calm until then, it is likely to stay calm.

Planting the dormant apples

The time at Delice was encouraging. The nursery and small garden (irrigated due to dry season) are growing well. It was good to see many types trees and vegetables growing at a good speed. 

The cool weather slows the growth of most plants but the good side is that weeds also grow much slower than they do down in the hot areas.

The workers never had broccoli and were impressed with how “sweet” the raw stem part was. One, impressed with the diversity, kept asking if this or that tree would produce anything.

Macadamia tree 

We planted the 33 grafted apple trees, each a different variety shown to do well in the tropics. 

With all these we should have late storage apples available until the early varieties start to ripen. 

Some may even produce more than one crop per year. Varieties planted include Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Arkansas Black, Coconut Crunch, Cinnamon Spice… 

The photos are from this week.

Too much erosion from years of growing corn and beans in Delice area!

Spineless Peach Palm and Black Sapote I gave a few years ago at Clean Water for Haiti, in a dry area near the sea.

Moringa products for sale at Port au Prince Airport.

Cory's Haiti Trip..Part 2

Monday I headed back to Delice / Blessing after getting some pvc pipe and supplies in Port au Prince.

Hard cement layer over soft, rough cement floor

Resurfacing the floor is about half done, will take a few more days this fall to finish.

 Plumbing is mostly done and now a toilet works.

Planting macadamia trees

A few fruit trees, macadamias, potatoes, yacon and ornamentals are planted.

Pepino dulce/sweet cucumber has produced well the past year, along with some tomatoes that sprouted in the neighbor's yard and produced well on their own.

Plumbing challenge

Pepino dulce or "sweet cucumber"

Macadamia trees

Jackfruit at Fauche

The next Monday I returned to Fauche.

Peach palms from Costa Rica 3 years after planting & good grazing

We checked out all the gardens and most are growing well.

We spent part of two mornings weeding and trimming the tree nursery. 

Malay apple tree

On the way to the airport Friday, we stopped at Deep River Mission to deliver a few fruit trees, coconuts and see how the trees we provided a year or two ago are growing.

Many have grown fast and should start fruiting soon. 

Starfruit is already producing and had good flavor.