My first organic farmer!!!!

I’m so excited to meet my first organic farmer here in México!!!!

Miguel approaches my truck just as I am loading the last of the veggie oil containers back on. He speaks with me in rapid Spanish that I understand little of, and then he thrusts into my hands two “mandarinas” that he says are organic!

I do get the gist he is very excited about my truck, organic, and hates Monsanto!

Miguel tells me he is an organic farmer. His land is by the two stunning volcanoes I drove past a few days ago, just north of Colima.

He disappears and brings what I think is a chunky sweet potato and offers it to me. I am excited, having eaten all my organic sweet potatoes, and it is heavy and soft with a furry skin akin to kiwi.

It is luscious. He tells me the name of this delicious fruit – it is the same fruit I saw growing by the road on my way here today. We eat it together. I toss aside a piece that looks like a core and he is shocked. It is the seed!

I retrieve the seed and ask if there is only one seed. He tells me there are 2 but he swallowed the other one. Hmmm.

Miguel tells me he grows both organic and biodynamic. When I do not understand “biodynamic” he goes to his car and retrieves a book by a german womon Martha Jund or something like that.

He points out the interconnected cycles of the earth, air, seed, sun. He studies here in Manzanillo three days a week, and returns to his many acres of organic food, the rest of the days.

He also has a friend with land just south of Colima, which I passed today, 4 kilometers off the highway, where he has many acres of organic food too.

We talk about Monsanto, terminator seeds, gmo, and the dangers in México. Miguel thinks less than 1 in millions of acres are dedicated to organic growing.

When I tell him about all the produce we get from México in California that is supposedly organic, he doesn’t comment but raises an eyebrow.

Miguel takes me to his car and asks me if I like avocados! Does a politician like votes? Do ants love honey? I can LIVE on avocados!

He pulls out a bag that appears to be biodegradable and fills it with more mandarinas and a grapefruit. Then he tells me to choose an avocado – there are 2 in a small box. After I pick one, he opens his back door and there on the back seat are 3 boxes full of all sizes of avocados!!!

He insists I take some, fill up the bag. He will not sell them to me – but maybe I should have insisted harder.

I give Miguel some organic seeds I have, cantaloupe and Japanese pumpkin. I am so happy. When I ask Miguel about a coffee shop with internet, he tells me the Kiosko, which seems similar to the 7/11 altho I’ve never been inside, actually sells organic coffee, much cheaper than starbucks.

I’m really looking for internet, I try to explain. He brings me back to his car and retrieves from the trunk this time, a bag of organic coffee and tries to give it to me.

I refuse. I know how much coffee costs here and I’m just so happy he knows about organic coffee and thinks it is vital to our lives.

Starbucks is it for internet and coffee – at least for today.