All Creatures Great and Small

Our dear neighbor, Jorge, is a man who has an extraordinary affinity with animals and plants. Jorge has pursued many different avenues during his life. He was a general contractor in San José and responsible for large building projects, he is a furniture carpenter, trained as a vet tech, worked as a nurse, has 8 ex-wives and now enjoys the life of a "campesino," (a peasant farmer). As a testament to Jorge's understanding of farming, his property (after just 4 years) produces an abundance of fruits and vegetables. Fortunately for us, Jorge's generosity is unbounded and we are the happy recipients of a variety of food: goat milk, eggs, guanoabana, pejibaye palm fruit. Pejibaye is native to Costa Rica. It looks like a palm and is also called the Peach palm because it produces small red fruits that are delicious after simmering in salted water. They usually only grow in June, yet, Jorge's trees are producing now. A couple of days ago, he gave us several dozen. The flesh is sweet like a roasted chestnut with the texture of a baked potato. Many people dress them with mayonnaise and pepper. M makes a tasty pesto from our garden grown basil and that is our favorite dressing du jour. Pejibaye are very filling so a little goes a long way. We have a couple of pejibaye trees growing down by the Banana Grove. Not only are the fruit delicious but they contain a very high amount of vitamin A, as well as, other great nutrients.

Pejibaye cooked (left) and peeled (right)

Even more remarkable is Jorge's ability to care for animals and birds. His affection and respect for menagerie is evident in all his actions. His flock of birds is extensive ranging from these gorgeous baby green parrots to Mario, the watchdog tom turkey. Jorge found these 3 babies in their nest. Probably the mother was killed by a hawk. Jorge feeds them goat milk on a spoon. He gently presses on their bodies until they open their beaks. Each of the babies gurgles down the food.

Baby green parrots

Jorge's gaggle of hens, duck, geese and turkeys provide a wide array of delicious fresh eggs. The colors of the shells of these free range birds run the gamut from off-white to blue to dark green. The fiercest of them all is Mario, a tom turkey who is more of a guard than Jorge's 3 dogs. Not that Jorge's dogs are shrinking violets. Pinto, Negro and La Cuca roam about in the jungle and often tangle and kill coyotes and wild pigs. They are working dogs and protect the herd from these predators. Mario takes on the responsibility of guarding the property during the day. You really have to keep an eye on Mario. He will strut and gobble in the lead up to a charge. I usually have a stick and stomp my feet and hiss at him when he gets aggressive.

Mario, the guard turkey