Organic Allotment

Day 14 - Tuesday 22nd November - INIFAT and Havana

Today we started off by visiting a community food project in the suburbs of Havana. The project is run by a retired couple called Vilda and Pepe and is situated in the ground floor of their house. The focus of the work that they do is looking at food preservation, in particular food drying in the sun, and thinking about how these dried foods can help improve the health of Cubans. Especially how using dried herbs, which are very uncommon in Cuba, can help improve people’s food choices, health and well being.

Vilda and Pepe in Havana

It was fascinating to hear about the work that the couple were doing nationally and internationally, including their own cookery show on Cuban TV for many years! They also travel all over the world talking about their work – though now prefer for people to visit them so they are not diverted from their main project in Havana by being constantly out of the country. Vilda also told me she had visited Manchester and that she studied for her Masters degree in Aberdeen!

Food dryer out in the sun

Pepe explained that he had originally been a mechanical engineer and that Vilda had been a chemist. Their project Proyecto Communitario Conservacion de Alimentos was founded in 1996 during the special period. He went on to explain that Cuba had a very interesting culinary history – culturally the country had many more influences than most other countries but their food culture has always remained a little weaker in comparison to other Latin American and Carribean countries. Traditionally their diet is an unhealthy one with lots of salt and sugar, and lots of fried food. Pepe and Vilda’s project was founded with an aspiration to help find a more healthy diet in Cuba. It is now a project that works in partnership with many other community food projects, in particular parcelas and patios, to change the Cuban food culture.

Dried herbs and spices at Pepe and Vilda's

The project uses traditional technologies to preserve food, with a basis in permaculture design in the structure of what they are doing. They work directly with local communities and also develop and deliver distance learning programmes on the internet. The three main methods of preservation that they are using are:

• The heat of the sun – sun dried food.
• Vinegar.
• Fermentation.

They also use some processes with sugar, but much less. None of the processes that they use include chemicals. There is no real tradition of using dried herbs in Cuba so much of the ideas that they are presenting are new to local people. However, dried herbs are an easy and cheap way to add flavour to food.

Another area of interest for Pepe and Vilda is the development of Cuban flours. There is no tradition of / climate for growing grains on the island so as a consequence most of the four and grain that is used on the island is imported. They have done a great deal of work developing flour from Yuca, that they feel could be an alternative to the imported flour that Cubans currently rely upon.

In the afternoon we had a lecture on harvest and post harvest food hygiene that was very difficult for me to understand! A lot of very specific language that was unfamiliar to me.

Then for the evening we went to the Old Castle in Havana to see the cannon being let off – a tradition dating back to the Spanish colonization of the country when the cannon used to signify the closing of the harbour gates each night. The castle is beautifully preserved and was well worth a visit. Including the historical pageantry that was put on as part of the event.

Then back to the hotel to start getting ready to move on as Tuesday was my last night at INIFAT.

Day 13 - Monday 21st November - Santiago de las Vegas and Boyeros

Another great day in Cuba – sunny but not too hot. We started the day with a good session on biological control of plagues and insect infestation. The basis of this work from a Cuban perspective is to think of not just managing plagues when they happen, but managing your whole site to prevent them happening in the first place. This is supported by good knowledge of different seeds that are being grown alongside good knowledge of the soil that is being cultivated. It also takes into consideration the work culture that is being implemented – with this being a culture with direct focus upon the preservation and development of biodiversity on every growing site.

Working in the lab at INIFAT

Once again one of the striking things about this was the rudimentary context in which this work was being done – in a laboratory that was outdated and run-down to say the least.

More experiments in the lab

During the lunch break I walked into town with one of my Mexican colleagues as she needed to change some money at the Cadeca but it was closed – “no hay luz” (“there isn’t any light”) due to the fact that some overhead cables were being replaced in the street outside the office. Typical Cuba that this complicated and involved job should be done in the middle of the busiest street in town at the middle of the busiest and hottest part of the day!

After this in the afternoon we had a session on animal husbandry within small scale urban agriculture. It was particularly interesting to hear about the Department of Agriculture striving to get people in cities to keep rabbits as a source of protein within urban agricultural systems. This is because they are easy to keep, can be produced quickly and cleanly adding valuable animal manure to a growing system, and provide a source of healthy meat that is virtually fat free. The problem with this is that there is no culture or eating rabbit meat on the island and people haven’t been keen to give it a try. Good to see that people are fussy eaters all over the planet though!

Rabbits in Urban Agriculture

The highlight of the day however, was a trip to a community cultural centre out in Boyeros, close to INIFAT. We had been invited there by a gentleman called Julio Gómez as there was a concert on to celebrate the centre’s birthday. So after class we got onto the bus and headed over there.

Retired Baseball Players take the stage at Boyeros

The centre itself was an old building in the centre of Boyeros, right on the main street. By the time we arrived the concert had already started so we tried to slip in at the back of the hall, however as soon as Julio saw us coming in he immediately pulled us forward and introduced us to the room to a response of rapturous applause! Then we watched as a group of famous retired baseball players signed the caps of members of Boyeros’ own junior baseball team – who were immaculately turned out in their team colours especially for the event.

I was then taken out onto the balcony by a local journalist who wanted me to do an interview for local radio. After this, to much amusement for my Mexican companeros, I was introduced next to a local artist called Rogelio Fundora Ybarra who was exhibiting his work in the centre. For his day job Rogelio worked as a farmer but he also had a studio by his field where he painted large scale works inspired by rural life.

Example of Rogelio's work

My next introduction was to two local teachers who also run a youth theatre at the centre and are currently developing a cross-generational piece of theatre to be performed in 2012. Ernesto Cancio Lazo and José Enrique Rodriguez passionately told me about the work they were doing with young people – both in the community centre and in the school where they worked which they explained was a specialist school for theatre, dance and the arts. It was interesting to hear about the context they are working in as they felt that they had a great deal of ideological support from the government, but no financial support as there is no money available. Everyone who ran the centre and the projects did so voluntarily in addition to their full-time profession.

This was followed be brief introducions to an urban agriculturalist, a sculptor, and a musician who were all involved with the project. Then Ernesto and José introduced me to a group of young people that they were working with. They were aged 12 to 15 and were just and genial and articulate as most of the Cubans that I had met so far.

The Grand Finale

Interspersed between these conversations were chats with lots of other local people who wanted to know about football and Manchester and the UK. The night ended on a high with a local group playing amazing rumba and some pretty amazing dancing from more of the local community. Absolutely classic. A real taste of life in Cuba.

Day 12 - Sunday 20th November - Varadero

Varadero Beach

The day started very early as we had a big day out to Varadero – one of Cuba’s most popular and well-known beach resorts. The resort is actually a peninsula 30km North of Matanzas that stretches out into the Florida straits with around 25km of pure white sand and gloriously warm, sparkling blue sea. As part of our visit INIFAT had bought each of us a day pass for one of the hotels in the resort. The hotel we were going to was an all inclusive place with a pool and access to the beach – my idea of hell to be honest. Firstly because my impression of this kind of resort was that it would be full of horrible British tourists whom I had come to Cuba to get away from. And secondly because, on the whole, this type of place brings out the worst of everybody’s desire to consume as much as they possibly can. Both in terms of the food and drink that are on offer but also in terms of the trinkets and souvenirs that are generally on sale all over the place.

Hotel at Varadro - A typical view of Cuba for tourists

In the context of Varadero it was interesting to think about the group of Mexicans who I was staying with at INIFAT. Obviously, Mexico is a poor and developing country but this group really liked to consume and buy things. As soon as there was a hint of anything being on offer they all wanted to know how much it cost, what it was, where it had come from… the list went on and on… They also had an insatiable appetite to know where I had bought things from in the UK and how much they cost – especially clothes. Of course, this was nothing unusual in this specifically and it is actually an attribute that is repeated over and over again throughout the consumerist capitalist world. I did find this behaviour interesting though in the context that all of this group were working as organic (or aspiring to be organic) food producers. Obviously this didn’t mean they would be different in their aspirations from anyone else in the world but it is interesting to think about the context in which they are producing food.

The beauty of nature at Varadero

In the same way that ecosystems exist within nature, food producers are not working within a vacuum. The work that they are doing is taking place within a wider cultural and social context that producers need to be aware of and respectful of. If organic food is produced in an entirely industrial, consumerist sentiment with no attention paid to the ethical, environmental ad social function it serves it is only one step away from the chemical soaked product that it has replaced.

Day 10 - Friday 18th November 2011 - INIFAT, Santiago de las Vegas

The day started slightly cooler and with less humidity which was a refreshing change. However, this didn’t stop the mosquitoes and ants biting like crazy which was really annoying and meant that my legs and feet in particular were an absolute mess. Horrible!

Collecting water on an organopónico

The first seminar of the day was a session on water management. Although a lot of what was talked about in the session was not directly transferable to the UK it was fascinating to hear the different ways that Cubans make use of water in their urban growing settings.

Cuba is not like the UK with lots and lots of rain so the food producers have got the use of water in growing down to an absolute science – not a drop of it can be wasted. It is especially important to point out that growers are not allowed to take any water from the domestic water system so every bit of water that is used on each site has to be collected during the rainy season and carefully conserved throughout the dry season. In addition to this in all urban agriculture settings careful consideration is made regarding the level of humidity within the soil. In each setting soil is analysed to work out what capacity it has to absorb and retain water. Particular consideration is made of this in relation to the potential limit of productive capacity that each soil also has.

Pumping water Cuban style

In terms of watering plants, detailed information has been drawn together to consider the exact amount of water that is needed to cultivate each different plant and this is carefully considered when deciding how much irrigation is necessary on each different site.

After eating lunch we had a brilliant session looking at the theories and methodologies of creating designs based upon, and in respect of naturally occurring systems.

Poly-cultures that reflect natural systems

In order to do this there are a number of different things that need to be considered within the design:

• The management of soil, water and other resources.
• That management happens as close to production as possible.
• That full consideration needs to be made of the aspect of each site in order to make best use of each different site.
• Recognition of the potential benefits that sustainable management may offer within an economic context.
• Where ever possible you should conserve the structure and function of naturally occurring ecosystems.
• You can only manage things within your own limits.
• You can only every use management techniques that are appropriate within your own context.
• It is essential to recognize the variability in scale and effect that may characterize any natural process.
• Recognise the inevitability of change.
• Find a balance between the conservation and use of biological diversity.
• Make use of all the different information that is available to you in order to conserve your own eco-system.
• The focus of your work should take into consideration all parts of local society as well as all the different scientific aspects of cultivation.

Day 9 - Thursday 17th November, INIFAT and Alamar

Welcome to Alamar
This was a big exciting day as we were taking a trip to visit a working organopónico! This meant an earlier start than normal as we were driving out to Organopónico Alamar which is one of the largest and most famous organopónicos in Cuba. The site itself is situated in Alamar which is a small town on the Eastern outskirts of Havana with 27,000 inhabitants in the immediate community and 50,000 more in the outlying areas.

Different growing spaces in the heart of the community

The organopónico was founded as a co-operative by four local men in 1997 and now extends to around 10 acres in total. Our visit began with one of the founders giving us an introduction to the history of the site before handing over to one of the growers, who was also a qualified agroecological engineer, to show us around. I do not know if it was a coincidence of all the people I had happened to meet, but once again both men spoke in absolute pride and positivity about their country and their community. A direct contrast to the impressions given by the British and American press that most Cubans are tired of Fidel and the socialist regime.  It was also fascinating to hear their take upon co-operatives and how they function in reality in Cuba.

After our introduction we were taken on a tour of the whole site, which can be described as nothing less than exceptional. Here’s an outline of what we saw:

• A semi-protected cultivation house where plug plants are brought on before being moved outside.
• A processing plant for making natural fertilizers and insecticides as well as breeding natural predators like ladybirds.
• Literally acres and acres of beautifully cultivated land made up of a variety of raised beds and beds cultivating the soil directly.
• Semi-protected cultivation houses for growing crops like cucumbers.
• A huge area for making compost and substrates, including worm compost.
• A preservation room teaching and practicing the preservation of fresh produce.
• A large nursery and shop selling ornamental plants.
• A punto de venta where local people could buy freshly grown produce at low, low prices.

Alamar Punto de Venta

The whole place was an absolute revelation – especially when you look around the borders of the site, see the surrounding flats and are reminded that it is right in the middle of an urban neighbourhood. That really is placing food at the heart of a community!

Breeding ladybirds and other useful bugs

After our visit to Alamar we headed back to INIFAT for a session on bio-fertilisers and bio-insecticides. This is one aspect of Cuban urban agricultural practice that I do struggle with. It is a subject that Cuba has done a great deal of research about alongside genetic engineering, although the research into genetic engineering appears to have dropped off a great deal in recent years. Their interests in the subject appear to be twofold. Firstly they have a genuine belief that these methodologies will play an important part in the future of agriculture on the island. The second motivation is that they need access to the hard currency that they can get when they sell the products that they have created overseas. I have to admit this is the first seminar I took part in where I had significant qualms or questions about any of the work that the Cubans are doing. Although all of these products originate from a natural source I do have to question the long term-validity of their semi-industrial production. I also feel there is a lack of research into the long-term impact of releasing this type of product into the natural environment. In my opinion I am much more convinced by an organic system that does not make use of this kind of industrially produced product.

New this season - taking over extra land at Alamar

Day 8 - Wednesday 16th November 2011, INIFAT Santiago de las Vegas

If I rated my days in Cuba on the basis of how much Spanish I spoke and how much I understood then this was a very good day!

Beautifully constructed organopónico at Alamar, outside Havana

We started the day with another session from Daniel, this time focusing on the construction of sustainable food growing sites. It was interesting to learn the level of knowledge that the Cubans have in constructing these things. For example, the average hectare of organopónicos ,which are growing sites using raised beds because the soil isn’t so good, includes 122 beds which are all 120cm wide, 20 – 30cm deep, no longer than 30m in length and 30cm in depth. It was also clear that there are definite benefits from growing in this way, which are also true of huertas intensivas which are the same as organopónicos but without raised beds because the soil is sufficiently fertile to cultivate:

• They allow for sustainable intensive production.
• They can include a wide variety of cultivars.
• They make use of unproductive land and vacant urban areas.
• Their systems can be adapted to different contexts.
• They only need a low initial investment to set them up.
• They offer accessible employment within local communities.

During lunch some of the group wanted to visit the Tienda Agropecuario in Santiago to learn more about the support that this resource gave to local food producers. As I was the only person in the group who knew where it was I took everyone up there, followed by a trip to the two little parcelas I knew in Santiago to look at them as well. It was nice to be out in town with the group but it was also frustrating because we are so conspicuous when we are all out together. There was something very nice about when I was at INIFAT on my own because it meant I could go about my business in town without immediately drawing attention to myself. Now, in this big group, it was very different. Illustrated by the fact that this trip into town was the first time that I had experienced any begging in Cuba, with a small boy begging from money because he knew the group were from Mexico and probably thought they would have money that they could give him. Very sad.

Advice for growers in the Tienda Agropecuario in Santiago de las Vegas

The afternoon at INIFAT was another practical session with Daniel looking specifically at Vermiculture, or worm compost, which is the backbone of urban agriculture in Cuba. However, as the class went on Daniel began to give his own perspective on the Cuban political system, which was fascinating. He revealed that he earns 23 CUC per month, which translates to about £14. Even with access to the NP economy, food rationing and state subsidy of many things this is a punishingly low wage to survive on. However, Daniel’s opinion was that he has everything that he could ask for in Cuba in terms of health, education, community…etc… so why should he want anything else or ask for anything more? Once again reinforcing the strong commitment that many Cuban’s have to their own country and community.

More Cuban vermiculture - this time at Alamar

Then it was on to the evening with more food – they feed us constantly here. There was also more opportunity to talk and hear Spanish. The next day there was a trip planned to Alamar, one of the most famous urban agriculture sites in Cuba. We also all felt ready for the trip out as it was getting quite intense for the whole group to be together at the ministry every day!

And that’s it. There I was at the end of my first week in Cuba and it felt just as great as I had thought and hoped it might feel. I like Cubans, who are on the whole generous, kind and intelligent. I also like Mexicans too though many of them are much more tied up in Western preoccupations than I had imagined they may be. I would also have imagined them to have more sensitivity to the Cuban situation than some of them did making the lack of understanding from some members of the group a big surprise.

In my first week I also discovered:

• There are lots of ways of eating eggs. Even as an accompaniment to bananas.
• Dual currencies are desperately confusing for everyone involved.
• Cuban mosquitoes love Mancunian skin.
• Sun makes you feel good – especially when the weather is hot.

Mosquitos prompt extreme fashion responses

Day 7 - Tuesday 15th November - INIFAT, Santiago de las Vegas

Today was my first slightly melancholy day since I arrived in Cuba. It started off badly as the tiredness of the day before meant I had fallen asleep on my bed the night before and not woken up until about 3am, fully clothed, on top of my bed. I was more than tempted to stay where I was until morning but instead I dragged myself up to get undressed and put myself to bed properly.

The next problem was that when I got up properly in the morning I knew at once that I didn’t have my Spanish head on. Things just felt fuzzy on that front, which was frustrating, as I had done so well with the language the day before.

After breakfast the first session of the day was with Marisol who had been so kind to me in my first couple of days at INIFAT. The theme of her seminar was the agro-ecological management of soil. This was a particular challenge as there was a great deal of terminology that was well outside my existing scope of knowledge of the Spanish language, as well as being outside the scope of my little dictionary!

Experimental Organopónico beds at INIFAT

Marisol explained that for agriculture to have a foundation in ecology it needed to be founded on a basis of animal health, human health and environmental protection. Soil came into this as a key principle component of an ecosystem alongside climate and fauna / vegetation. So what do we mean when we talk about soil?

• A structure with its own system.
• Biological, living and dynamic.
• Complete and open.
• Structured.
• Multi-faceted.
• Multi-functional.
• That has fertility.

Soil has  harmonic equilibrium that exists in its physical state, and the produces environment that permits the development of a plant ecosystem. On this basis all sustainability needs a fundamental basis within the fertility of soil with soil managed in a variety of different ways from the application of organic fertilisers to crop rotation.

Making compost - Cuban style

After lunch was a practical workshop with Daniel Balmaseda developing some of Marisol’s ideas further and looking at the production of organic fertilisers and substrates. We learnt about compost and its production, which is very different to the systems that we use in the UK due to a much higher air temperature. Interestingly we also learnt about the vermiculture techniques that have been an absolute backbone in the development of Urban Agriculture in Cuba. This technique combines composting action alongside the action of worms and microorganisms to transform organic residues, derived from farming of all types, into two different products of high quality and low cost:

• Humus
• Proteins.

For this reason you will find an area for worm composting on every urban growing site that you visit in Cuba. And the rules of where they are situated are that they need clean water, to be close to source material, to be well drained, shaded and in an area that isn’t likely to be flooded or to be overwhelmed by heavy rain.

Making worm compost at INIFAT

So that is what I managed to get through, though the language was pretty intense! By teatime I felt worn out meaning that after dinner when most of the group headed into Havana with Daniel as their guide I decided to give it a miss. On one hand because I didn’t relish the prospect of a 1.5 hour bus journey, but also because the day had made me tired and I wanted to recharge my batteries so I could get as much out of the next day as possible.  On that Tuesday I slept very, very well in my cosy little room in Santiago de las Vegas!

Day 6 - Monday 14th November - INIFAT, Santiago de las Vegas

So, the first day of proper classes at INIFAT and you’ll be pleased to hear that I actually made it! The big new challenge for me was that I was now part of a group of food producers from Mexico City who I would be tagging along with for the rest of my time in Santiago. Which was great because it meant I now had people to bounce ideas off and discuss what I was learning with. It also meant that I would be spending long days in seminars and study groups that would be delivered entirely in Spanish with Spanish speaking audience in mind which would certainly be very different to the one on one sessions I had been having so far.

My Mexican Friends at INIFAT

But before I start telling you about the programme let me introduce you to my new classmates.

Conchita ­– a housewife who grew lettuces using hydroponics and who also has horses that her husband hired out for weddings and other celebrations.

Alberta – who worked for a rural development programme with special focus upon women working in rural areas.

Maritza – who grew ornamental plants and flowers, as well as corn. She was in Cuba because she wanted to learn more about organic production.

Rosa – grew medicinal and ornamental plants.

Leonardo – a producer of pork and pigs and other related products. He was in Cuba because he wanted to learn more about the production of corn as an animal feed.

Maria – an actuary, who lived on the family small holding. Before inheriting this she had no contact with growing or agriculture.

David – a student of Agro-ecology with a specific interest in organic agriculture and compost.

Maria Minerva –a small producer of rabbits who wanted to learn how to cultivate food for her rabbits.

Alejandra – a housewife who grew lettuces and tomatoes in a roof garden using hydroponics.

Valentine – interested in capacity building around Agro-economy. Also interested in native Mexican corn species and their cultivation.

Alejandro – corn producer.

Miguel – a small holder interested in returning to more traditional and sustainable forms of agriculture.

Paula - a vet.

Alfredo – a corn producer.

Grasila – worked in community development with particular focus upon urban agriculture.

Alejandra – worked in commercialisation of vermiculture systems.

The day began with Maritza who co-ordinates international programmes at INIFAT giving an introduction to the work that they do there. This was followed by a presentation on the basic foundations of Urban Agriculture in Cuba from Dr Nelso Companioni who founded the Urban Agriculture programme at INIFAT and who remains one of the leaders in the field.

Typical urban farming site in Cuba

Nelso explained that Urban Agriculture was a key form of agriculture for the future in Cuba. As well as having a role providing food within communities it was also thought to have a role in public health and the preservation of the health of the soil and the environment. It focuses upon native crops where possible, as these are generally easiest to grow using organic methodologies. He also explained the support system that has been put in place to make Urban Agriculture possible on the island, and highlighted the fact that all of this was seen within a context of sustainable development.

The key factors within Cuba’s Urban Agriculture Strategy were explained as:

1.      Making use of mechanisms that incentivise and give interest to people to produce food and to develop their skills.

2.     Supporting a rational and intensive use of all available land, with each area having its own defined programmes and specialities.

3.     Cultivating the maximum diversity of species and varieties in each garden, patio…etc… in order to create a strong base of cultivation that will guarantee seeds for future growing.

4.     Elevating the culture and knowledge of food and the environment through a programme of outreach education for the public and for food producers.

5.     Developing a wide basis of support and co-ordination on a national level.

He also outlined his ideas on the key foundations of success and support in Urban Agriculture in Cuba:

• Inclusive participation on all levels with integration and collaboration at the heart of everything.
• The development of outreach and community support as crucial to driving the national programme forward.
• The development of a National School (where I was at INIFAT!) as crucial in its support of producers, as well as those managing urban agriculture programmes. The school has also helped develop Urban Agriculture around the world with “extensionistas” from the school allowing for the transfer of knowledge, as well as constructing a vehicle for excellence within development.
• Commercialisation is key in form that is flexible and easy with no more that 2 or 3 stages between the producer and the customer.
• Investment from the Ministry of Agriculture in an ongoing strand of research so that Urban Agriculture is developing constantly and so that it is supported with a system of control and evaluation.

Then in the afternoon Dr Rosalía González took us through the fundamentals of Agroecology within the context of Urban Agriculture. She began by introducing the concept of the Cuban Green Revolution that occurred in Cuba in the early 90s as a result of the Special Period. In their case this revolution was reflected in a desire to change the agricultural systems and technologies that had lead to misuse of chemicals, energy, mechanisation and monocultures. It also recognises the crucial link between man, the environment, society and the physical world. Finally it bases itself upon a foundation of sustainable development:

“Development that satisfies the necessities of this generation without compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own needs.”

In reflection of this definition Urban Agriculture in Cuba is regarded as a crucial part of the sustainable development of cities. The system of a city is traditionally linear and not reflective of natural systems that are circular. It is the integration of Urban Agriculture into this system that makes the creation of a circular, and therefore sustainable, system in a city possible. Rosalía then went on to explain how agroecology complemented and supported this thinking in a variety of ways:

• Through the optimisation of the use of locally available resources, combining them as part of a system.
• By reducing the use of external resources, and resources that do not contribute to the health of the producer and the consumer.
• By combating causes and not symptoms.
• By asking “what is available locally to use and to support what we want to achieve?”
• By considering the relation between the design of cultivation, its potential productivity and the local environment.
• By working to value and conserve biodiversity and make optimum use of the biological and genetic diversity of species of plants in surrounding areas.
• By valuing the practices and knowledge of local people even though this knowledge is rarely scientifically verified.

Inventive recycling in a Cuban garden

And what was the biggest revelation of everything that I had learnt on that day? That, rather excitingly, I actually managed, more or less, to follow what was going on. How good did that feel? After all the years of studying Spanish I could actually understand and be understood in the gorgeous language that I had invested so much time in. Good stuff! Good stuff indeed!

After the day’s seminars I had a bit of time in the evening to start getting to know the Mexicans, who seemed to be a lovely bunch of people. It was interesting to hear their experiences of cultivating food in a huge variety of places in Mexico City. Like Ale for example, who supported her family by growing lettuces on her roof using hydroponics. A wholly inspirational day at INIFAT.

 

Day 5 - Sunday 13th November - Havana

As Sunday was my first full day off with nothing horticultural planned at all I took a trip into Havana with Marisol and her son Roberto. We left INIFAT about half nine and picked up one of the many taxis that runs between Santiago and Havana – a journey of about 20km. These taxis are totally different to what we’re used to here in the UK. Firstly, most of them are glorious classic cars that inventive and ingenious Cubans have kept on the road. Secondly they operate almost like mini buses with strangers sharing the journey and jumping in and out along the route when the get close to where they need to go. The cost of the journey to Havana was 20NP per person working out about 50p. If you made the same journey on the very crowed, hot, slow bus it would only cost you 1NP (2.5p!) showing why this kind of taxi journey is still a luxury for the average Cuban who earns around 1360NP per month. It is certainly the busy busy buses that most Santiago commuters are using to get to work.

The Capitolio

The drive into Havana took about half an hour and when we arrived we were dropped right in the centre outside the Capitolio Nacional that is at the heart of the city. It was built as a result of money earned from sugar by Cuba’s US-backed dictator Gerardo Machado between 1926 and 1930 and still remains one of the grandest buildings in the city. It cost around US$17 million to build and was made in similar style to the American Capitol Building in Washington DC. Originally the home of the Cuban Congress, it became the home of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the National Library of Science and Technology in 1959, and still reamins their home today. From there we walked down into Havana Vieja which is the beautifully, if a little clinically, restored historical heart of the city.

This part of the city is one the best-preserved Spanish colonial centres in the Caribbean and Americas and is jam packed with over 900 buildings of historical importance in an astonishing variety of different architectural styles. Full of cobbled streets, shaded alleyways, 16^th Century buildings and leafy courtyards, the whole area was left virtually untouched from the 1960s to the 1990s. This meant that although it fell into serious disrepair and decay it also retained its historical integrity intact. We began our exploration of the area by heading down Calle Obispo that is one of the main ways of getting through the neighbourhood, and that was already packed with lots and lots of tourists by the time we got there. From there we headed to the Camera Obscura on the corner of Plaza Vieja that is one of the oldest and most beautiful squares in Havana. This was Marisol’s idea and it was a very good one because the camera and its tower gave amazing views and an excellent introduction to the geography of this part of the city.

View of the city from the Camera Obscura

After this we carried on walking, passing through the gorgeous Plaza de Armas where we sat a bit to admire the architecture, before carrying on through Havana Vieja to Centro Havana. This is a part of the city that many visitors ignore but it certainly gives a more realistic, less sterile view of what life is like for Cubans who live in Havana. It’s a much more residential neighbourhood than Havana Vieja and much less beautiful in many ways, but it’s got amazing energy and is the place you’re more likely to see children playing in the streets and people out on their doorstep chatting to their neighbours. Here we found a basic NP cafeteria to eat lunch. And where Roberto discovered much to his amusement that in me he had met his first vegetarian – a great rarity in Cuba so it seems! It was whilst we were eating this meal that the enquiries and questions started- something I was learning quickly was that as soon as Cubans feel relaxed with you and comfortable they also feel happy to start asking questions. Today it was Roberto’s turn…

“What is the average salary in the UK?... How do taxes work?... How much tax do you pay?... How much does a house cost?”

The questions are never rude or pushy, normally just genuinely curious. And sometimes with a melancholy undertone that life would have so many more possibilities if they lived somewhere else. As Roberto interrogated me I was happy to answer his questions because I have nothing to hide and no embarrassment about my country, but also because I felt it was important to reinforce my own belief that every country and every way of life had positive and negative aspects that have to be taken into consideration. Nothing is ever as simple as black and white. For example, of course it is true that Cubans earn a very low wage compared to people in the UK, but they do also have access to some of the best health care in the world. Cubans also have fluctuating access to basic things like electricity, and access to many consumer goods is limited and expensive, but their education system is top class with an adult literacy rate on the island of 100% - impressive by anyone’s standards. Of course, Cuba is the only place that Roberto has any experience of so it is hard for him to make an informed decision about whether the way of life there is the one that he wants to live. And this lack of information seemed to make this bright young man who wanted his own independence feel that he was being hindered making the decisions about his own life that he wanted to make.

Glimpse into Centro Havana

So that’s another part of the Cuban dilemma, a highly educated knowledgeable population who are hungry to know more but who aren’t able to due to lack of access to information. Almost the polar opposite to many situations in the UK where people have the knowledge of the world at their fingertips, a great privilege, but they decide to turn their back upon it. And the reason for doing this seems to be almost as though their capacity to act and react has been almost entirely deadened by the world that they live in.

As José had said the day before;

“Cuba – a country of contradictions.”

And here was another one for me to try and get my head around. Only a couple of days in and I could already see that my trip to Cuba was going to give me a lot of food for thought, and this was before my learning proper had even started at the Ministry. I couldn’t even imagine what that may hold when I started properly the following day.

PS For those of you who tune into this blog to learn more about organic growing and who have been bored to death learning about Cuba instead I promise that the next installment of the Cuban adventure will really start to get to the bottom of how they grow food in their cities. I promise it'll be worth the wait!

Day 4 - Saturday 12th November - Santiago de las Vegas and El Jardín Botánico

This was my first day free of seminars at INIFAT and it started as a rainy and cool one. After breakfast I took a little walk through town up to the CADECA to change some more money so I could be sure that I would have enough money to pay for the weekend’s adventures. Santiago Street

Santiago is a busy little town and around 9am each day stalls pop up selling things in front of many of the houses. Since 1993 it has been legal for Cubans to become self-employed and run their own small business. Initially this started with 150 different occupations but each year this has increased little by little until most recently on 1^st January 2012 when Cuba expanded its free-market reforms further to include carpenters, locksmiths, photographers and repairmen.  They will be able to set their own prices, while paying taxes and leasing their premises from the state. The measures are the latest reforms aimed at reviving Cuba's socialist economy by boosting small-scale private enterprise. This change will be rolled out gradually over the course of the year, starting in six provinces including the capital, Havana and is expected to add to the 200,000 Cubans who are now thought to work for themselves. In Santiago these changes are most apparent to outsiders in these little stalls that sell a wide variety of items from toiletries and hair bobbles to snacks and drinks. This makes for a fascinating landscape in the town that is changing all the time.

On that particular day this informal market dotted throughout the town include one old gentleman selling books from the small patio outside his book filled house. He sat out front in his rocking chair with a prosthetic leg at his side on the floor and had no qualms about engaging in a very heated argument with his son (that was far to impassioned and angry for me to understand!) whilst I browsed. Most of the books on sale were between 10NP and 20NP (30p and 60p) and I was happy to find a lovely anthology of Shakespeare plays from 1960s Cuba and an interesting book about typesetting and typography in Cuba for Jo.

By the time I got back to INIFAT the weather was starting to clear just in time for my visit to the national botanical gardens with Marisol. El Jardín Botánico Nacional is a huge expanse of parkland to the south of Havana, and about 10km away from Santiago, containing a massive variety of plants and trees. Laid out as a savannah the grounds are split into sections according to continents, including a beautiful Japanese garden donated by the Japanese government in 1989 to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. The best way to see the park is to join the guided tour that takes you around the gardens in what is billed as a trackless train but is effectively a tractor pulling a trailer, that is full of seats and that are protected by a roof. Beautiful lake at the Botanical Gardens

Our guide was a lovely gentleman called José who spoke clearly and eloquently about the park and who also had an impressively well-pitched patter with a group of teenagers who had joined the tour as research for a project that they were doing at school. I later learnt that he had been a secondary school teacher before he worked at the gardens that explained why he was so natural in that situation!

Semi-protected Glass House
When we stopped at the Japanese garden in the centre of the park there was a beautiful vegetarian buffet (an absolute rarity in Cuba!) and José joined Marisol and me for lunch there.  As we chatted and ate José explained that he was also from Santiago de las Vegas but from a different neighbourhood to INIFAT and Marisol. It soon also became clear that he was an absolute expert on the local history of the town! He explained that Santiago had been built for people who came over to Cuba from the Canary Islands and who became tobacco farmers in the area, growing tobacco for the king. These people were known as las vegas hence the name. And a very similar reason to where Las Vegas in the states got its name too! He also explained that the local village called Calabareza was named after a driver who crashed his trailer and spilled his cargo of pumpkins (calabazas) into the river. And that Ranchero y Los Boyeros gained their names from “los rancheros de los boyeros” or “cowboys of the bulls” that used to populate the area.

Most interestingly this local knowledge was backed up by a great commitment to his local cultural identity and history, with a sense of sadness that much of this was being lost to a new generation who were more interested in national and international affairs.

 “Without a local story a place is nowhere,” he explained. “So the loss of interest in these stories is always going to be a very sad thing. Santiago used to have its own philharmonic and two cinemas. It had a glorious cultural life for a place of its size. And on top of that people visited here because the town had pride and believed that there was a reason for people to come and visit. Einstein came here, the Pope, Federico Garcia Lorca. People came here and there was a record made of it. But now that kind of event doesn’t happen and if it does it isn’t recorded in the same way. And without that the identity of our town will gradually stop existing as well.”

Beautiful Cuban Leaves
Later when were about to leave the park Marisol nipped to the bathroom. Whilst I was waiting for her José came out of his office with a leaflet for me as a reminder of my visit.

 “What do you think of Cuba?” he asked, the question that many Cubans seemed to like asking.

 “I like it,” I replied. “I like the people and I like the diversity and mixture of people living together.”

 “Yes,” responded José. “We are certainly all a mixture and we are certainly all a contradiction. Cuba… it’s a country of great contradictions. That is certainly how I’d describe it anyway.”

 I liked José. I liked him a lot. He had a kindness and honesty that seemed reflective of most of the Cubans that I had met so far on my trip. Take Marisol for example, Saturday was supposed to be her day off work but she was insistent that I should not be on my own. Thus organising our trip to the gardens and our trip into Havana the next day and reflecting once again the great sociability of Cubans and their desire to look out for people and do the best they can for them, no matter how much or little they know them.

 It was also nice to spend this day with Marisol away from INIFAT and have time to talk more in the tranquillity of the gardens. I was particularly interested to hear about her experiences working in Mexico, which she had to do as part of her job. First time she visited for ten days, then another trip for three months and now she was preparing to go again, this time for a whole year. A year when she would be a way from her husband and son, with little or no easy contact with them. It was sad to hear her talk about this because her family obviously mean a great deal to her but she approached the situation without any self-pity or criticism. It was simply part of her job that could not be avoided and on this basis she would live with the situation as positively as she could and make the best out of it that she could.

 Marisol was a very nice person. A typically kind and honest Cuban, two qualities that are very common in Cuba and that I would come to really admire during my stay. She was clearly deeply knowledgeable in her own specialism of soil but also had an incredible love and knowledge of all things horticultural, which she brushed off as just being part of her job – it isn’t! I loved Marisol’s openness and positivity and hoped that one day I may be able to reciprocate her wonderful hospitality in my own city. I’m not sure how this may be possible but I’m determined to make sure that one-day it will be.