Country Livin'

My friends and I recently went on a couple excursions to 2 different farms; one being my friend Aida's family farm, the other being the Vice Mayor's. The former is a very low-key shanty built upon a hillside overlooking the family's rice fields. The latter is more geared towards leisure, being a couple very nice cottages next to a fish pond adjacent to a quaint river. The Vice Mayor still harvests fish from the pond, but for the most part he seems to be gearing it up to be a small resort for locals looking to escape daily life.

Elpiyo balances on the narrow wall of a concrete irrigation channel as we make the 30 minute journey through muddy rice fields to Aida's farm.

This is one way to get a 'ceelote' (young coconut). Pollard is incredible adept at climbing trees, and even took the time to cut open a coconut and drink it on the spot! 

The grounded way of doing things involves a large bamboo rod with a hook at the end. You simply sever the coconut from the tree.

And the reward... delicious, refreshing 'boko juice' (fresh coconut milk). I can't get tired of this! 

If there is young coconut, there must be old coconut. While young coconut is consumed as fresh fruit and juice, old coconut, which is dry and lacks the milk, is ground from the shell and used for cooking, often in creating the sauce for traditional fish and vegetable dishes. 

Another native delicacy... pili nuts. Pili nuts grow high up in tall trees, and are quite large.  Pollard again climbed the tree, then hacked at branches as we struggled to collect them once fallen amongst the forest floor.

No excursion with the Baraks is complete with a great meal! Rik-Rik, our chef designate, lived up to his reputation by cooking fresh fish and vegetables in the coconut sauce. Food is often served on banana leaves here, and eaten with your hands. The latter is familiar to me from Africa, but they eat much more delicately here. They found my African style of balling rice in the palm of my hands and licking it off rather odd. 

Nonoy and Pollard cut the husks from the coconuts to prepare them to carry back home for friends and family.

After maneuvering back through the sloppy rice fields, we reached the main road and moseyed back home with all our loot from the farm: fresh coconuts, native vegetables, and pili nuts.

This is the Vice Mayor's farm. The river is on the other side of the embankment pictured on the left. Water is permitted and vacated through the gate within this embankment. On the other side of the pond are the very comfortable cottages, equipped with amenities such as TV and Wi-Fi, perfect for a relaxing getaway.