Finca Cazador adds videos to new web format to enhance customer experience.
It's summertime, and while I was shooting video footage for the new video page so we can better describe how amazing it is to be able to grow organic fruits and vegetables in our soil that has been revitalized, I thought I would give our visitors a photo preview of some of the videos.It's been a bit windy here at Finca Cazador. But nowhere near as windy as it is in Boquete or even Volcan, just a few miles down the road. Why? Probably because the way we are surrounded by mountain ranges that protect this farm from the predominately westerly winds.
We visited Boquete on Tuesday, which was incredibly a calm day, and talking to some folks who were visiting from the States, it was apparent the typical "winds of Panama" scenario had played out as predicted earlier in the week for them.
Amazingly, while we were shooting video footage on the farm, the sound was relatively unaffected by the winds. I was expecting to have to come up with a wired microphone or some other way to get the video footage with the clear sound that I needed to get. But, I was able to shoot all the videos (over 40 of them), without any wind sound at all.
Score!
Here, our fearless leader and founding visionary Ron (aka Don Renaldo), is describing how, by revitalizing the soil and using other perma-culture techniques, vast improvements are made in the areas of pest control and fertilization, without using chemicals.
The land here at Finca Cazador has been painstakingly revitalized over the last 10 years, and is now very rich in minerals, micro-organisms and nutrients. All of this has been achieved using no artificial pesticides or fertilizers.
This video will show many start up plantings of cacao and coffee. There were many of these throughout the farm, and learning about how they are used to help increase the vitality of the plantings has been a real eye opener for me. The weaker plants are culled out and the seeds of the strongest plants are used to start new plantings. That way, over time, the whole farm has become stronger and the plants more vital.
Biodiversity is a huge step towards sustainability, and will become increasingly important as international governing bodies clamp down on the use of chemicals that harm the environment and pollute ground water reserves. As a matter of fact, water itself is rapidly becoming a resource "worth fighting" for.
We fully expect to see water "wars" take place in the near future between countries, so we are preparing now by securing as many water sources as possible for the future needs of our community. We currently have a 140' well (12,000 gallon holding tank), a creek, and municipal water. We also hope to have a fourth source (fifth if you add rain catchment) which will bring water down from the higher elevations and will be used for irrigation.
The forest floor is littered with nitrogen rich organic material, which will be turned back into the soil to help add nutrients. This process has been taking place continuously for the past 10 years, and has been monitored and enhanced by the addition of specific natural compounds such as potassium.
Ron is a wealth of information about many subjects. One of the reasons I feel so good about being part of Finca Cazador is we are able to tap into his knowledge of farming, and the lessons he has learned being on this farm since it's inception 10 years ago.
These videos and many others will be posted to our videos page once I figure out how to technically do it without tying up bandwidth. I will also add it to our YouTube channel at that time.
If you are just now discovering Panama and it's beauty and charm and are looking for a tranquil, lovely temperate environment to live sustainably, Finca Cazador is pretty hard to beat.
Tours are being scheduled now for early spring, but if you are in Panama currently, you can call anytime. We will make time to give you a personal tour of the 10 acre farm, where you can pick your own spot to build a small inexpensive bungalow or larger custom home.
But, don't wait too long. When we have sold out, that's it.
Hope to see you in mountain Paradise!
