What's in this Issue:

• Solstice Reunion ~ Inaugural Newsletter!
• TrueNatureCommunity.org Springs Forth!
• Recipe's from the Village ~ Tortillas
• The Power of the Tree
• Tico Times
• Gratitude

 

SOLSTICE REUNION
INAGURAL NEWSLETTER!

Blessings on this Summer Solstice! (to us here in Costa Rica it’s winter solstice)...So far, winter in Costa Rica is clear and beautiful during the day with showers and dramatic lightning storms in the evenings.  Kristin “Luna” and Joshua just returned to the land to reunite with Allison who has been doing solo stewardship the past 2 months. This winter we have been enjoying our first new structure, a hexagonal gazebo, where we often eat meals and do yoga overlooking our ocean vista and the new land we now call our home. I hope you all enjoy our first newsletter. As always, we would love your insight and feedback.

Gracias!

 

TRUENATURECOMMUNITY.ORG
SPRINGS FORTH!
by Joshua

We are truly excited about the launching of our new website. Our website will serve as one of our main branches of connection outside our immediate community. Our website will be an interactive forum where we will be welcoming creative expressions, information, and personal writings to be submitted.

The site also will include our vision, photo gallery, goods and services, and links to other community resources.

Along with our website we are also excited about the completion of our first on-site video which will be on the web soon. We would like to thank Michael Joseph Ferguson, our good friend, singer-songwriter, and incredible web-designer, for his work on this site. To see more of his creations and to contact him go to designsbymjf.com

 

RECIPE'S FROM THE VILLAGE

"Tortillas"

2 cups corn flour
1 cup of water
2 pieces of banana leaf or plastic
(cut into 7 in. diameter circles)

Place flour in large bowl, add the water gradually and stop adding when the dough doesn’t stick to your hands. Knead for 10 minutes. Place a small portion of the dough in the center of the circle and start shaping by pressing the dough gently and rotating the circle.

Heat the skillet. Cook for 3 minutes, flip it, cook another 3 minutes...cook until the center rises….

Buen Provecho...

 

THE POWER OF THE TREE
by Kristin Luna Ray

The power of the tree, a true giver of life, shelter, fruit, shade, patience, endless abundance…

As the second part of our rainy season sets in, we have begun to prepare for our first tree planting mission here on the lands of True Nature. We are learning lots about the different varieties of trees that grow well here in the highlands, and have mapped out our first fruit orchards which shall give us life. By late July we plan to plant nearly 200 trees (a shade less than we planned) including many varieties of fruit givers, hardwoods, and bamboo. We’ve been blessed to receive much guidance and knowledge from our tree loving friends Jenny “Hardwood” Smith and Benji Evrywhair. In addition, many of the trees were gifted to us from various farms. We are so grateful for all the help and the experience of connecting with and learning from the trees of Mama Earth.

Thank you. It’s an honor and privilege to do this work.

 

TICO TIMES
by Allison

*Welcome to Tico Times. This section is dedicated to the local culture, the Native Costaricans, which in this country are known and loved as “Ticos”.

Our joy and comfort here in the valley have been multiplied by our many friends and neighbors. There are seven Costa Rican families here in our part of the village, and many others on further hillsides. Each of them have extended their warmth and hospitality to us in their own way. The Ticos here in the ‘campo’ or country have a very different lifestyle than those living on the main road or in the closest city, San Isidro de El General.

Life here is extremely ‘tranquillo’ as people go about their day and love to invite us into their homes and fill us up with fruit drinks and ‘comida’. Being a largely catholic country, it is common for families to number seven to twelve people per household. Children attend a very local school from ages six to twelve. ‘Colegio’ is an option for older children, only if families can afford it.

The day begins for most Tico families around 4:30am when they eat breakfast and the men head off to work. All the men of La Florida work on nearby farms, mostly owned by Gringos (foreigners). Our friend Joaquin works his own farm and sells his heart of palm and beans at the farmers market an hour away in San Isidro. The ‘mercado’ takes place each Thursday and Friday and is a sight to behold. Over 100 vendors of exotic fruits, curious vegetables and tubers, baked goods, honey, cane sugar products, soap, and dairy products sell their wares. There is even a section of organically grown produce, tofu, soy yogurt and other surprises.

The women of La Florida are homemakers. Mothers and daughters spend their days cooking, baking, sewing, gardening, washing clothes, and cleaning the house. The women in the valley do not know how to drive. Until three years ago, when electricity arrived, cooking was done on an indoor fire. The staples of Tico meals include rice, beans, yucca, squash, plantains, salads, quickbreads and tortillas. Most families raise chicken and cattle, Joaquin slaughters a pig every Saturday morning, and several Tica neighbors sell milk, eggs and cheese.

We feel so blessed to be co-existing with these gentle, humble, very comedic and reverent people. Life here, as everywhere, is so rich and beautiful that it is hard to know where to begin in the telling of this story. My hope is to give some feeling of the culture and lifestyle here with a sense of the love and appreciation that I feel. Please feel free to e-mail me with specific questions or areas of interest.

Gracias and ‘Pura Vida’!

 

~ GRATITUDE ~

As we move forward in our first year of True Nature we continue to acknowledge each day the amount of love and support which has filled this project. We would like to take a moment to honor just a few of the many that have reached out and been there for us in these beginning stages…

Lee and Marlene Canter, John and Beverly McCarthy, Mike and Donna Moore, Andrew Jones, Liz Faler, Drennan and Pura Suerte, Diana Christian and the FIC, Deininger Family, Adam Wolpert and the OAEC Family, The village of La Florida, John Chapman and the Tree of Life, Michael Desantis, Johnny Mcarthy, Marge McCarthy, Lil Mikelman, The Lower Hutt Woman’s Center in NZ, Nadia, Michael Joseph Ferguson, DJ, Jimmy, Jennie “Hardwood” Smith, Terril Shorb, Prescott College, Dawn Moonfeather, Benji Evrywhair, Sean and Rachael and the Mendo. Family, Sikamat Rinpha, Troy, Paw Tawn, Pathom Asoke Sanga, and all the rest of you that haven’t been mentioned...Endless gratitude from us to you!!!!

~ Gracias a Dios. ~