Almost a year has passed since my last entry. A lot of things happened. COVID reached my family and took away two of the most beloved ones. I faced this virus taking care of my grandma, but I failed and I lost her. Watching a beloved one losing breath until death is something I would never forget, and it took some time to recover from that, almost two weeks of depression and anxiety attacks. I even wanted to reject my scholarship, I didn't want to stay away from my family. In the end, my husband convinced me to accept, I don't regret it.

I am living in Athens, Georgia for almost 4 months now. I started my Master's degree in January and now I am finishing the first semester.  It was easier than I thought, the whole process of renting an apartment, moving in, going to the university, and guess what? Having COVID. All happening at the same time. I found myself stronger than I thought. Also, I love learning about Agroecology, especially about the Biological Control of Insects. Hope to say something else, soon.

A picture of Helen, GA

Quarantine

A refugee from CoVid-19

It has passed several months since I wrote the last blog. I thought I was too busy at the moment, but now I realized I was escaping from my true feelings, I knew I wasn´t doing what I wanted and if I'd write about it I would notice.

When the virus arrived in Ecuador, I had already investigated a lot, I was following its steps from January. I remembered I told my husband that it was going to be a huge thing, but he was reluctant. Those days, my mom had been sick and we drove back together to Quito. There I heard of the quarantine and I didn´t know what to do. Finally, despite my husband's thoughts, we decided to get back to our farm and stay there. 

Since the first day, I knew we did the right thing. Here we have had beautiful days full of color and nature. Today is the first rainy morning, so I felt the desire to write again. I feel blessed because of my experiences, but also, I felt useless. I have faith that everything is going to finish at some point, although, I felt like it will be just the beginning of a change, still don´t understand if it is going to be a good one, but I know more than ever that I want to be part of something bigger. This year, I am supposed to start an Agroecology master's degree at the University of Georgia, the fall semester is going to begin in September, but I´ll work for the university so I´ll start in August and I have to travel in July, and I wonder if this is going to happen...

No plans, no future, nothing has never been an affirmation, even though this is the first time I feel it as a reality. We use to forget that life is a tombola, a bingo game, it can finish at any moment. My dad has a young cousin who recently died from coronavirus, how this happened? Well, he was on vacation with his wife in Cartagena Colombia, they had been planning this vacation a whole year, so they were very happy, and they were there when Ecuador's government announced the quarantine. They came back as soon as they can, but when they arrived Guayaquil the virus had already expanded in the city. They drove through the coast until they arrived home on Sunday 15th, that day my dad saw his cousin at the town, my dad wanted to say hello, but as we were on our truck and we didn't find a place to park, we just say hi from inside the car (windows closed). We didn´t know he was sick nor he had recently come back from a journey. 9 days later he was dead. That particular thing blew up our sense of security because of living in a little rural area far from big cities.

I didn´t expect this blog has meaning, I just wanted to share my feelings and some beautiful photos to cheer up a little.

We have been sharing some time with cows, dogs, chickens, and cats

Pastora and Mocho playing

Misha and Gray 

Jaki, Telma, and Macadamia

Some chickens taking sun

We are not selling milk nor eggs, so luckily we have plenty of food. Also, we have a lot of space to walk and things to do, sometimes we can even forget what is happening...

I try to walk every day, there is 3 km (almost 2 miles) between the house and the river, so in total, I walk almost 4 miles, so the next group of photos is from the road.

I found some beautiful flowers which I didn't know. 

Also, I met some wild friends: a little turtle and a family of guatusos

I wish you the best, let me know how are you at home.

BENEFITS OF SOME EXOTIC FRUITS: JACK FRUIT (Artocarpus heterophyllus)

A few days ago, I read in The Guardian, that Jack´s fruit may be the crop for the future, the reason: climate change. It seems that this tree is capable of surviving the increase in temperature and extreme tropical climate. After all, global warming is present worldwide and will cause the loss of thounsands of hectares of cultivable land and even some traditional tropical crops such as cocoa are in danger of dissapearing.

Jack fruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)

In Rancho Ibelia, we also have seen some changes; for example, normally in september we fix the roads and fix the structures of the farm because it was known as the dryest month of the year. Nevertheless, this year september was rainy and gave us a lot of foggy mornings, cacao trees are more suceptible to fusarium (fungi infection that covers the fruit with black velvet). This takes us back to the main topic: the importance of the well adapted species like Jack fruit, bread fruit, citrics and some more. However, Jack fruit is even more important, not only for its great size (considered as the biggest fruit tree of the world) and adaptability, but also for its high content in proteins, energy, dietary fiber, minerals, and vitamins.

One cup of sliced fruit provides the following nutrients:

• Calories: 155
• Carbs: 40 grams
• Fiber: 3 grams
• Protein: 3 grams
• Vitamin A: 10% of the RDI
• Vitamin C: 18% of the RDI
• Riboflavin: 11% of the RDI
• Magnesium: 15% of the RDI
• Potassium: 14% of the RDI
• Copper: 15% of the RDI
• Manganese: 16% of the RDI

In addition, Jack Fruit is very versatile, it can be prepared in salt and sweet dishes, and it's being released worldwide. Several vegan restaurants are using the fruit as a protein option to developed "meat" on their dishes. India is exporting 500 TON of Jack fruit to Europe and the USA, and it is expected that this figure can increase up to 800 TON by the end of this year.

In this way, Jack fruit is called to become the star of the tropical crops. It is huge, it endures climate change, its nutritive and also goes with the mental trending of vegan world.

Let's grow it!

https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1930/2

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/jackfruit.html

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/23/jackfruit-miracle-crop-climate-change-food-security

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/16/jackfruit-stinking-vegan-food-trend-star

BENEFITS OF COME EXOTIC FRUITS: PAPAYA (Carica papaya)

Today, I wanted to bring you a well known tropical fruit called PAPAYA.

Toucan eating in papaya tree

Usually, I begin this kind of articles commenting you the condition of the mentioned crop in Rancho Ibelia, but the truth is that every papaya that we harvested has not been sowed for us. The main responsables of the distribution of the seeds are birds. We can not understand why, but every time that we plant a papaya tree it dies or get sick (and we belive in organic culture so we do not use any kind of chemical in order to cure them). Anyway we do have a lot of fruit always thanks to the birds! 

Same toucan resting in papaya tree

A papaya tree growing between cacao and coconuts

Health benefits

I have to admit than when I was a kid I did not used to eat papaya because I felt like it stink (I could not be more wrong). But, even now, I have known some people who do not like papaya for the same reason. Well, for all those people the solution is eating it with yogurt or cereals, or just mix it with another fruit. The important thing is to consume because it has enormous benefits for the digestive system health. 

In fact, papaya is well known to help with digestion problems; it stimulates the intestinal movements, has some enzymes that disassociate proteins in aminoacids and improve blood sugar levels, and its regular consumption accelerates the skin healing . Also, its milled seeds are used like a cheap treatment for intestinal worms, but women have to be carefull because the seeds are also used to stimulate lactation, labor or abortion. 

Nutritional content


The USDA page offers these nutritional tables for 1 cup of papaya in cubes (140g)

Calorie Information Amounts Per Selected Serving %DV Calories 54.6 (229 kJ) 3%   From Carbohydrate 50.1 (210 kJ)   From Fat 1.6 (6.7 kJ)   From Protein 2.9 (12.1 kJ)   From Alcohol 0.0 (0.0 kJ) Carbohydrates Amounts Per Selected Serving %DV Total Carbohydrate 13.7 g 5% Dietary Fiber 2.5 g 10% Starch ~ Sugars 8.3 g Fats & Fatty Acids Amounts Per Selected Serving %DV Total Fat 0.2 g 0% Saturated Fat 0.1 g 0% Monounsaturated Fat 0.1 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g Total trans fatty acids ~ Total trans-monoenoic fatty acids ~ Total trans-polyenoic fatty acids ~ Total Omega-3 fatty acids 35.0 mg Total Omega-6 fatty acids 8.4 mg Learn more about these fatty acids and their equivalent names

Protein & Amino Acids Amounts Per Selected Serving %DV Protein 0.9 g 2% Vitamins Amounts Per Selected Serving %DV Vitamin A 1531 IU 31% Vitamin C 86.5 mg 144% Vitamin D ~ ~ Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol) 1.0 mg 5% Vitamin K 3.6 mcg 5% Thiamin 0.0 mg 3% Riboflavin 0.0 mg 3% Niacin 0.5 mg 2% Vitamin B6 0.0 mg 1% Folate 53.2 mcg 13% Vitamin B12 0.0 mcg 0% Pantothenic Acid 0.3 mg 3% Choline 8.5 mg Betaine ~ Minerals Amounts Per Selected Serving %DV Calcium 33.6 mg 3% Iron 0.1 mg 1% Magnesium 14.0 mg 3% Phosphorus 7.0 mg 1% Potassium 360 mg 10% Sodium 4.2 mg 0% Zinc 0.1 mg 1% Copper 0.0 mg 1% Manganese 0.0 mg 1% Selenium 0.8 mcg 1%

Finally, I have to comment that papaya also has culinary uses, if you put the shell of this fruit on a steak, the meat will become softer, the reason is that papaya has an special enzyme named papain that degrades proteins. 

Bibliography:

• Eric Collard and Sashwati Roy. Antioxidants & Redox Signaling. July 2010, 13(5): 599-606. doi:10.1089/ars.2009.3039 (October, 2016)

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• Food Chemistry: In Vitro Comparisons Between Carica Papaya and Pancreatic Lipases During Test Meal Lipolysis. Obtained from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2008.12.043 (October, 2016)

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• John A.O. Okeniyi, Tinuade A. Ogunlesi, Oyeku A. Oyelami, and Lateef A. Adeyemi. Journal of Medicinal Food. May 2007, 10(1): 194-196. doi:10.1089/jmf.2005.065 (October, 2016)

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• Self nutrition data (2014) Papaya, raw: nutrition facts and calories. Obtained from http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1985/2 (October, 2016).

• University of Illinois: Effect of Proteolytic Enzyme and Fiber of Papaya Fruit on Human Digestive Health. Obtained from http://hdl.handle.net/2142/29416 (October, 2016)

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• Wolters K. Papaya. Review of Natural Products. Facts & Comparisons. Obtained from https://www.drugs.com/npc/papaya.html (October, 2016)

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