Los Jordan Polings Vamos al Ecuador

Cacao drying under a heat lamp Lucia and Sandy enjoying a taste of chocolate; Galo, our guide, in the background A couple of months ago, during a food exhibit at our town's annual fiestas , we discovered that there is a small chocolate factory a few miles up the road. As far as I can tell, its existence is the result of governmental programs and grants supporting small businesses and local farmers to create new markets for local products. The name of the organization is ASOPROCANAM or the La Maná Association of Cacao Production.  Each cacao, a pod-shaped fruit about the size and shape of an American football (though narrower; and with grooves), produces 35 to 50 seeds surrounded by a sweet, tangy pulp. The pulp is absolutely delicious to suck on. It rivals our oranges as Brynna’s favorite local fruit. While my whole family loves eating the fruit, it is the seeds of the cacao that are valuable to the farmer.  So valuable, in fact, that when we eat the fruit, we always preserve ...

                                                  While I am busy in the kitchen making muffins, Paul is dreaming of his next home improvement project. Sound gendered? Well, you are correct, it is. I am planning on writing about gender and gender norms in Ecuador in the coming weeks, so I won't get into the topic here except to say that this is a gender divide that mostly works in our marriage: I cook, Paul does home projects.  Paul gets great satisfaction working with his hands to improve our living situation, and, thank goodness, he quite enjoys planning and completing such projects.  One of the great benefits of living here without formal employment is that there are plenty of projects that could be done and sufficient time to complete them.  I wanted to be sure to record the amazing projects (some larger than others) Paul has completed in the la...

Living in Ecuador, one cannot help but be curious about bananas.  Did you know that bananas do not actually grow on trees? They look like a lot like trees, but in reality, bananas grow on an giant herb plant, related to orchids and lilies, with thick stems formed from layers of leaves that are bundled together to form a trunk-like structure. We call them banana trees, even in Ecuador, but this is a definite misnomer. Did you know that each banana plant generates only one bunch of bananas before it is cut down to harvest the fruit? Granted, those bunches are much larger than the typical bunch we buy at the grocery store --150 to 200 bananas in double row clusters of 10-20 bananas in each -- huge bunches. These bunches weigh an average of 35 to 50 kg (that is 70 to 100+ pounds!) Did you know that every banana plant generates what they call in Ecuador an " hijo "-- a child plant-- so that when the banana plant is cut down to harvest the bananas, the hijo is already there at the...

                                        Any idea where "Panama Hats" are actually from?  I'll give you one guess. It starts with Ec-. . . . and ends with -dor. Bien hecho,  good job . . it is, in fact, Ecuador! We just returned home from a lovely journey back to southern Ecuador with our recent visitors, GG (aka Gwen) and Jacki.  While in  Cuenca , we visited the  Museo del Sombrero de Paja Toquilla,  a small museum and artisan craft shop in the historic downtown. Not only did GG get a beautiful  toquilla  straw hat, we also bought one for Jonah's 8th birthday (shhhh, he doesn't know yet), and we learned about the curious history of the long ago misnamed "Panama Hat".  After doing some research, I found additional chapters of the long history, which I have tried to piece together here. I ask for a preemptive pardon for possible historical ...