Our organic farm ‘Finca de la Amistad Verde’ is located in Horqueta, Boquete at the edge of The Amistad National Park, at an altitude of 2000 meters. It is naturally surrounded by crests and slopes covered with jungle forest which is protected by ANAM. Rich with a cool, moist microclimate and uncultivated for eight years the soil is waiting to produce live, vibrant and varied foods.

We started preparing the land at the end of December. First we transformed all the scrub we collected into compost called ‘Templars’ or ‘The Jean Pain Method’; we organized the earth in terraces and planted a large quantity of fruit trees like peach, apple, avocado, etc. and various berries such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries … all planted respecting the techniques used for Permaculture and Ecological Farming.

Our goal is to cultivate a large variety of vegetables throughout the year, in quantities for a weekly basket to deliver to one hundred families interested in having access to healthy food, in contributing to the protection of the environment and the reduction of pollution, and the maintenance of biodiversity with a sustainable economy at local levels.

It will take another few months of organizing before we can send to our members potatoes, strawberries, onions, chives, cucumber, zucchini, Chinese cabbage, eggplant, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, parsley, carrots, turnips, peas, kidney beans, green beans, and others in the same basket; presently, we can send romaine lettuce, greens, arugula, coriander, radish, endive, turnips, cauliflower, spinach, zucchini, green and purple basil. In late April we will have, beets and carrots, parsley and in early June broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes … We hope to soon offer organic chickens and rabbits.

For transportation and distribution, for the moment, we have an offer from transport Chaval from Boquete to Panama for $ 3.50 The cardboard boxes will leave Boquete in the evening and will be available for pickup from 7AM in three different points in the capital for you to choose.

· ATLAPA San Francisco , Evergreen building.

· Transismica frente Casa Carne

· Nueve Caledonia –perejil

Departing from Boquete we intend to align our prices approximately with those of the non-organic vegetables in the super markets (Riba Smith). The cost of the transportation and the carton box will be at the cost of the client. The cartons are used specifically for agricultural products and every 10 weeks we could recover all cartons for reuse.

We are waiting to hear your suggestions about the transportation. It is difficult to deliver to your home for the moment nevertheless we would be able to deliver to other locations for a group of clients who wish for another pickup location.

For those of you who are interested please contact us at:

amistadverde@hotmail.com

You can also get more information about our finca on our facebook page called:

Finca de la Amistad Verde

Sincerely,

Pascal Accard

it is debatable you know what you’re talking about. panama has the highest pesticide usage rate per capita in all of central america. in addition, 50% of pesticide users are those with farms under 1 hectare, and 75% with farms under 5 hectares. ie it’s mostly the small farmer’s doing this. this is a HUGE problem in panama and pretty irresponsible to imply it is not.

source:
http://striweb.si.edu/PDFs/culebra_education_eng/pesticides_panama.pdf