Growing Organic Sustainability And Clean Energy Through Solar- Hydro- And Wind Power At Rancho de Caldera, Eco-Hospitality Project, Boquete, Panama

[Rancho de Caldera]

The word "nursery" I think, can't be fully appreciated unless one has spent time either in a maternity ward or in a greenhouse raising food from seed. It is not just about planting a seed in the soil and waiting for the food to come to fruition. It involves compost and organisms, calculating requirements and transplanting with ever-richer soils. The preciousness of farming goes mostly unrecognized.

Many people believe that anything can easily be grown in a tropical climate, a statement that is not entirely true. While many exotic fruits thrive here and can actually be seen to grow daily, many vegetables need extra care and attention in order to produce. Most problems concern soil quality. Tropical soils are notoriously poor. Overuse, heavy rain and intense sunshine deplete the soil of its fertility. Native plants have solved this problem by harvesting most of their energy from the sun and storing nutrients within themselves. This is why most tropical plants have shallow root systems, lush succulent foliage and nutrient dense fruit. One of our challenges has been to increase the value of the soil through soil building. Composting, cover crops, charcoal, animal manure and mulch are all things that we use to add organic matter and carbon material to the soil. This takes a lot of time and energy and for the last 50 years or so has been accomplished in the United States and elsewhere through chemical fertilizers which require much less time and far more energy in the form of petroleum. The problem is that such fertilizers (along with fungicides and pesticides) leave the soil so depleted over time that it becomes nothing more than a sterile vehicle holding the plant upright while chemicals are added to increase growth and decrease harmful diseases and pests. The result is a picture perfect, disease free specimen with virtually no flavor or nutritional value.

Healthy soil is a living thing. A handful of good soil should hold billions of bacteria, millions of protozoa and other microbes, thousands of tiny arthropods and hundreds of larger organisms. Worms, insects, bacteria and fungus all help to aerate soil and make nutrients available to plants and in turn provide nutrients to us as well as flavor. If you have any doubt about it, taste test a store bought hothouse tomato along with an heirloom variety purchased at your local farmers market. Anybody can make this distinction. The farmer must emphasize flavor and nutrition instead of a product that travels well so that he may spend less on transportation and chemicals and more time developing local markets which is at the heart of being sustainable.

Sustainability has become a popular, if not trendy, word in recent years as the world wakes up to find our wants and desires out of balance with the raw materials from which they are derived. And it promises to be on our lips for some time considering sustainability is becoming less of an option and more of a necessity.

One of the greatest strides anyone can make is moving toward energy independence. No small feat for an operation like Rancho de Caldera yet we have already accomplished this by drawing our energy from hydroelectric, solar and wind power instead of being connected to the national grid. Our off-the-grid approach doesn’t mean sacrificing luxury for our guests and all of our cabins are equipped with air-conditioning, an iPod docking station, and television. We want our guests to be comfortable but also to be aware of energy consumption, so you’ll find small reminders asking you to please turn off electronics when not in use in order to conserve the small amount of energy we produce which is shared by everyone.

On-site electricity production is just one of many components that make Rancho de Caldera a sustainable operation. We produce much of our own produce on the property by growing fruits that are adapted to this climate. For those things that require a more delicate environment i.e. tender greens, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, we use greenhouses constructed from that great renewable grass... bamboo. Bamboo is truly a gift to humankind. Giant bamboo can support more downward force than steel, can be made into plywood that is harder than oak and its fibers can be woven into soft and extremely durable fabric. It is the fastest growing plant on earth and some varieties have been reported to grow as much as 47 inches in a single 24-hour period! We use giant bamboo as support columns and beams for our greenhouses that protect our crops from the rude sun and ruthless heavy rains that can rip seedlings from the soil. We have large areas of newly planted bamboo so that in three to five years we will be able to harvest our own for future construction projects.

One form of organic fertilizer we use is produced in nearby Boquete and is a rich mixture of composted coffee beans inoculated with Tricoderma.Tricoderma is a fungus that grows naturally in the environment and grows on and around root systems protecting plants from the harmful funguses that cause root rot and some foliar diseases. We use this in all our planting to be sure that Tricoderma is omnipresent on our property. In many areas, such as our fruit orchard, compost is laid and then covered with layers of mulch in the form of wood chips from our shop or water hyacinths from our pond. Because of their very rapid growth water hyacinths run the risk of becoming invasive so we treat them as a farm product and thin them when they begin to overwhelm our pond, using them to lock organic matter in the soil.

Our goal at Rancho de Caldera (www.ranchodecaldera.com) is to be completely self-sustainable by producing everything ourselves; electricity, biodiesel, produce, meats, cheeses and animal forage. We want to serve as a model for those interested in independent living in a world of dwindling resources. The road to that goal is long and bumpy but information is plentiful and like-minded people are all around us, graciously offering their knowledge and skills. We are thankful for them as we continue our journey towards sustainability and encourage you to join us for a time, so that we can share what we have learned with you.

For pictures and more info visit www.ranchodecaldera.com