Baking with Francisco

Photography by Crystal Masters - Francisco and family with Dawna and pizza 

Francisco, our neighbor, the Panadero (baker) invites us to make bread and pizza this morning in his adobe oven. We experience the true essence of community as we enter his bake shop behind an old wooden door. The huge outdoor adobe brick oven takes up at least 1/3 of the total area and a lightly framed room in another corner houses a long wooden table covered in flour. A wall of shelving that holds the ready to bake products. All this amongst what looks like wreckage of a half built wall, a couple of trees and a lot of unfinished cement and re-bar!

Photography by Crystal Masters - Community making

Today is special because he is making pizza, not to sell, but for his family to enjoy along with his regular baking. Francisco is a father to 11 children! and husband to a beautiful wife. 5 of the 11 are with us today. The younger 2 are mostly watching and minding the smallest one, Pancho while the 2 older ones, Mario and Betty help their father prepare the bread today and 2 other times a week. Other family members attend the small tienda (store) at the corner where the bread is sold.

Photography by Crystal Masters - Panadero and baked goods

I bring along my own vegetarian toppings; sauted onions and garlic with organic tofu which I found in Solola, fresh chopped tomatoes with garden basil and oregano with pepper. Francisco offers some fresh mozzarella. As he prepares 4 other grand pizzas, with ham, fresh pineapple and his own home made tomato sauce, he gives instructions to his kids all the while smiling proudly, enjoying himself, and the task before him.

Photography by Crystal Masters - Pizza

Just as we are readying to bring the trays of languas (tongues) gallinas ( chickens), palomas (doves), bolios (buns) and the pizzas to the waiting oven, an elderly man arrives and greets everyone with grace. The Padre has come to pay a visit to Francisco from Panajachel and bless him and his baking with a long prayer. Francisco is touched and sheds a heartfelt tear. In assembly line style we begin to pass the trays from the prep area to the Master baker himself who carefully places them just right in the oven with his long handled paddle. Francisco has been baking bread since he was 10 years old, his father taught him. That makes his career as a baker already 37 years long. This is not his only skill, he is also a stone mason, and carpenter.

Photography by Crystal Masters - Assembly line with Padre

Within 3-4 minutes the first batch is ready to come out. Francisco pulls each tray out with the well worn paddle and his son Mario skillfully pours the bread off the trays and into a huge locally woven carriso basket and the next batch of trays are ready to enter the adobe oven along with the pizzas. Again, in about 4 minutes, out they come, the bread in the basket and the pizzas to the shelves in the prep room. The aroma of fresh baked bread fills the air. With all the baking complete, Francisco instructs Mario to find a bag and bring it while he selects several pieces of warm bread for the Padre along with a cold Coca Cola brought for him from their store.

Photography by Crystal Masters - Community baking 

Our pizza is cut and transferred to a wooden bread board, steaming and inviting. I offer to make some coffee for Francisco and he gladly accepts, however he does not want to try any of my pizza as he is truly wanting to gift it to us from him and his family.
Upon delivering the coffee I ignore his insistence and bring a plate with 3 pieces of pizza topped with avocado and tell him it's "Canadian style". He smiles graciously and accepts.
As we are enjoying our fresh baked pizza at our kitchen table Francisco returns our plate, now filled with an assortment of gallinas, langues, and palomas for us to sample.

Photography by Crystal Masters - Veg pizza Dawna style

We are filled with gratitude for our little community of friends who treat us like family and share the richness of their lives.

So much more than a Farm Tour

How do I shorten a long interesting story and not lose its elements? I hope i can convey the inspiration and knowledge that was gifted to me today and keep you reading.
From 8:30 am this morning when bumping along the mountain edge bordering lake Atitlan in a Tuctuc to Tzununa, the village 5 km to the east of San Marcos, until about 3pm, five of us were engaged in the wisdom spoken by Shad Qudisi, owner and hands on operator of Atitlan Organics. We began with hugs and immediately went to work separating the pink shafe from the amaranth grain by blowing it from a bowl into the wind. The variety name is worth mentioning, "Love lies Bleeding." Shad tells us it's not the best variety for these parts but still, that name......

North South Photography by Crystal Masters - cleaning amaranth, unrefined honey, avocado starter

Shad originally met his wife Colleen Donovan, a teacher at the Waldorf school in San Marcos back in 2006 at college in Baltimore. They reunited when they worked for the same company, but soon both quit to persue their personal agendas, hers to travel and his to farm. That was a reason for heading to Belize together with an intended South American travel blitz and to farm along the way as Woofers.
After Belize they headed to Lake Atitlan, Guatemala and landed on the shores of San Marcos la Laguna, one of many villages and centers around the lake. Once here they took on Hotel Unicornio and successfully ran it for 2 years. In October 2009 they bought a farm in neighboring Tzununa upon a mountain, by a river in pursuit of a vision to grow a family and live off the land. In February 2010 they moved full time onto Atitlan Organics, a 2.2 acre farm of rock, scrub and weeds, living in a mud 8x8 shack for 5 months 

North South Photography by Crystal Masters 

before building a one room homestead based on permaculture practices. They have since developed the original space adding a covered verandah, big bedroom with adjoining bathroom using bamboo, adobe, stones and wood some of which came from the land.

North South Photography by Crystal Masters 

Soon Shad and Colleen realized there needed to be an adjustment to their ideals if they were going to be sustainable. They became a 'for profit farm'. Shad offers " We need to produce something of value and not be afraid to sell it." Hence, they came up with a 3 point philosophy for Atitlan Organics. One, to grow clean healthy food for sale to their community. "we need to value ourselves and our contribution." Two, be bio diverse, by trying new things to find what is going to contribute most and produce high yields. Three, offer training and education through community garden projects and higher education.
Shad is doing just that at 4 community garden's where he brings transplants, seeds and teaches seed saving methods, earthworm bins, and composting skills. He is involved in co teaching courses offered by the recognized certified body of permaculture educators of Guatemala called EMAP along with Ronny Lec an indigenous Maya native. Shad is sharing knowledge about food production, water saving, swails to bring up the water table, soil building and food forests. He humbly says, " I am still learning, we are all capable but we must be willing to get out there and try and fail, then make it better."

North South Photography by Crystal Masters - pond systems 

Over horehound, lemongrass, violet, orisis, comfrey and purple basil tea we learned that Atitlan Organics has bee hives producing honey that will be made into honey wine and honey for eating. We enjoyed chewing some samples from the unrefined bucket of honey that included beeswax and even some bees. Delish! We learned that being a bio dynamic farm involves having plants, animals and fungus to create a balanced Eco stable farm. As we walked around the mountainside farm with the rivers song in the back ground we witnessed the plant nursery, where plant species are started, observed and nurtured until they can be integrated in the farms gardens. We toured the 'closed system' chicken/rabbit sheds that co exist as a 'multi species' housing dynamic to create the natural circle of life and its propensity to want to find balance..food in, waste out, parasites, bacteria, nitrogen that adds up to an active decay system that is healthy and self sustaining. We understood the importance of swails to keep all available water on the land, pond systems that house carp and frogs and other plant life.

The founder of bio dynamics, Rudolf Stiener fathered a wholistic approach from educating children to natural medicine, to farming sustainably by simply watching nature and mimicking environments. Colleen is a teacher at the Waldorf school whose education model for children is fashioned after these principles.
We ended the farm tour and what I would say was more a workshop, by helping pull up the chia plants that are dry on the stalk and ready to collect for that very popular super food in the health stores these days.

North South Photography by Crystal Masters - harvesting chia 

We head lastly to the goat pen, housing 10 females, 2 babies and one 'Billy'.
It's the time of day when they are chewing their cud after grazing in the mountains where they roam with a Shepard daily after the morning milking.

North South Photography by Crystal Masters 

Atitlan Organics represents a lifestyle and message that today's world needs to model more than ever. One that sustains life by growing healthy clean food, produces organic chicken and rabbit meat, fresh eggs, goat milk, kefir and cheese while teaching us to trust and buy local. Shad encourages, "Positive change can be made by each and every one of us through the food we eat and grow."

North South Photography by Crystal Masters - Shad Qudisi 

Organic food markets:
Thursday's at the Waldorf School in San Marcos 11am ish to 12:30pm. Atitlan Organics donates 10% of its proceeds to the school. On average they are supporting one child's education each month.
Saturday in Santa Cruz 10:30am to 12:30pm
Several local farmers gather at Iguana Perido right at the dock, to sell fresh produce, socialize and to enjoy community while snacking on veggie tamales, eclairs, fresh baked bread and locally grown coffee.

Good reading:
One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Sukuoka
any Biodynamic living references by Rudolf Stiener
You Can Farm by Joel Salatin
Barefoot Architect, by Johan van Lengen

www.atitlanorganics.com

       North South photography by Crystal Masters - Yos and Dawna

Life on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

Meeting Yos from San Diego was a bonus when he introduced us to Shad, the guy with the organic farm in Tzununa. Not only does he and his wife Caleen grow good greens, but they have goats to make cheese from, they make goat yogurt/kefir that is a wonderful addition to smoothies, with granola, to drink with grated organic local cacao or like last night, add to borscht as a creamy condiment.
Shad comes to San Marcos from Tzununa, the next village over every Thursday with fresh products from his farm. We caught up with him at the Waldorf School under the big bamboo forest. He had 5 bags of mixed salad greens left and 3 goat yogurt/kefirs. Between Yos and I we bought what was left. Many more seekers of good organic food came to buy, but for this week, that was all he had.
I overheard a mom of some Waldorf students ask if Shad would harvest an organic chicken for her family, but he had only organic rabbit to offer. She declined saying "my children are enjoying the tale of the tortoise and the hare, so I'll pass on rabbit, thanks."
We are invited to the Atitlan Organics farm tour which Shad and Caleen give each Friday at 9:30 to 12 noon.
I have a hand drawn map that Shad patiently draws out for each and every interested farm tour participant as to how to get there. In a nutshell you either take the launcha (boat) or a Tuctuc (3 wheel taxi)  to Tzununa, cross the blue bridge and then walk up the mountain trail for 5-7 minutes staying right, then staying left until you arrive at Atitlan Organics gate. There you will be greeted.

Shad and Caleen-Atitlan Organics 479 530 49