Casa de Montaña August and September 2014 Newsletter
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Transcript of Casa de Montaña August and September 2014 Newsletter
July,2014
VOLUME 2-14 AUGUST SEPTEMBER, 2014 HTTP://WWW.CASADEMONTANA.COM/
Rare Isthmus Honey
is 2 years old. It was
inspired by my
tasting honeys given
to me by a local
beekeeper. Although
I knew little about
honey, I realized it was something
special.
This was the inspiration for an
experimental year with the beekeeper to
see if there was any interest more broadly
in the concept.
We now have three different licenses to
sell honey. We can retail creamed honey,
honeycomb as well as liquid honey. As far
as we know we are the only company in
Panama with licenses for cream and comb
honey.
The range of flavors, colors and textures
continued to fascinate us and we used the
2013 harvest to start experimenting.
Working with Chef Patricia Miranda in
Volcan to develop dishes for the honey.
Patricia has great passion for sustainable
food and healthy creative gastronomy.
The honeys show case her creativity and
passion for using unique local ingredients
and allows us to demonstrate the gourmet
potential of so many varied flavors.
Over the past 12
months, I started
to expand the
colonies out in the
field and with the
help and support of
some great friends
had an excellent
harvest last year. It takes a brave sort of
friend to let you keep Africanized bees on
their farms. Without them, I could not
have got the momentum we have now.
As the number of colonies expanded and
we started to train and bring on our
Indigenous workers into the bee business.
The Indigenous are outstanding out in the
field. They understand plants, see snakes
before I do and can carry some very heavy
equipment, and never complain about
being stung. In the plant, I also have the
help of a wonderful Indigenous lady who
is also completely un-phased by the hard
grueling work of spinning honey, getting
sticky from head to toe and stung on her
fingers as she picks up the frames.
We also received helpful support from
MIDA (the Ministry of Agriculture) in
David. Erick Delgado, who is head of
Apiculture in David, has enabled me to
register apiaries and is always available
and willing to help. Other beekeepers too
have come to the rescue on a more than
a few occasions. One of our landowners
got into the Indigenous bees on his farm
and donated the hives on the tour. The
daughter of the first beekeeper in
Panama kindly donated her father’s
smoker, which is a real historical
treasure, and sits in the honey house.
The support and help has been quite
overwhelming.
As I started to take on the field work of
working the bees out in the Apiaries, I
started to realize that not only is the
honey here varied, but it is also highly
medicinal. I was noticing that our bees
were much healthier than the bees I kept
in the USA. Out in the field it is striking
to see the choice of food that our bees
have. There is a culture of medicinal
honey in Central America that dates back
Let’s talk about the birds and the bees Excerpts from Emily Haworth’s website
Boquete, Panama
USA 952-931-9770
PA 507-730-9472
Email: http://www.casademontana.com/contact-us/
www.boquetebees.com
to the Mayan period. Many of the plants
here in the sub-tropics and tropics are
medicinal, we may not know what they all
are but the bees do! They have a real
choice of fodder here and the resulting
honey is highly bioactive.
Honey production in Panama is very
superior to most parts of the developed
world and more reminiscent of how bees
have been working for thousands of years.
In most of Europe and North America bees
are used to pollinate vast crops where
they have no choice in what they eat. The
resulting honey is far less healthy and the
bees too suffer. Here bees can select the
best nectars and feed from the medicinal
plants. They forage for optimal nutrition
which benefits them and benefits the
quality for the consumer as well.
We recently sent some of our honeys to a
laboratory that tests Bioactivity in the
UK. All came back with significant
bioactivity and several exceptional levels.
We continue to do this testing on honeys.
We aim to produce a very high quality and
healthy product.
And there was more. As we got
interested in the culture and history of
honey we learned that Central America
has a tradition of keeping the indigenous
stingless bees in fact it is one of the oldest
agricultural traditions in the world and it
is dying out. We started playing with the
indigenous bees and found that the
pollination impact on our coffee and
other fruit trees on the finca (farm) was
very profound.
As the rains started in Boquete, and our
harvest was all in, it was a good time for
reflection. I had had one of the most
interesting years of my life and
discovered many things about bees and
honey that I thought would be of great
interest to more people. I had learned
things that are important for our health
and for our environment and found
something I was truly passionate about
and in turn wanted to share.
We want to teach people about the
importance of bees and the uniqueness in
terms of the enormous range and
medicinal value of this very special
Panamanian product. We also want be
able to employ more of our Indigenous
workers in the tourism industry working
with a natural product that intrinsically
they understand very well being more in
tune with nature and plants than most.
To date, our main customers and most
important buyers are well established
Panamanians, who value a uniquely
Panamanian quality product. We have
had mentions in La Prensa, food
magazines and Panama 980. We do sell in
the Tuesday market as well and serve the
local community through selling in Mort’s
bakery as well as a limited line in Sugar
and Spice. We sell to some other gourmet
stores and food box type businesses in
Bocas and the City and send out personal
orders frequently using courier services.
We now offer a tour of our finca (farm)
along with honey tasting. This tour needs
to be set up 24 hours in advance so talk to
Andres, Terry or Manzar at Casa de
Montaña to book your tour. Or you can
reach us at:
Are you interested in bird watching? The regions of Boquete and other regions of Panama have unique birds. These birds have spectacular colors for example, birds like Tucan and Quetzal. Michael Mullin lives in Boquete Panama and has developed a Birding App for both iPhone/iPad/etc and Android. You can download this app at the following link:
http://birdingfieldguides.com/panama.html
Emily Catherine Haworth
Email: [email protected]
m
Twitter: @EmilyBoquete
Web: www.boquetebees.com
Phone: 67130043
25% off of your entire stay
Specials
Offer valid through October
UPCOMING EVENTS
August
Centennial of Panama Canal
August 15
International Book Fair – Panama City
13 to 23 of August
Place: Atlapa
September
National Festival of “La Mejorana”
23 to 29 of September
Upcoming events 2015:
Boquete coffee and flower fair
(Second week of January)
Boquete Jazz Festival
(First week of February)
November
November 3rd Independence of Panama from Colombia
November 4th Flag Day
Did you know…?
That we have memory foam mattresses
That we offer an International Breakfast
That we have onsite Massage Available
All this available at: http://www.casademontana.com
Our Team needs a break to be fresh for your stay starting in
October. We are taking a break the entire month of
September
I have studied in
Panama and in the
US and in my
personal experience
both are similar in
education. Panama
is continually
improving its education system,
and a person graduating from
Panama schools will have the
same knowledge as a person
graduating from another country.
Of course you and your child’s
efforts are a key piece in the
future of your child and his or her
development. I am writing this
article so that anyone interested
in moving to Boquete area with
their children has an idea about
what choices are available to
them for their child’s education.
The Panamanian education
system is divided in two levels
which are universal, free and
mandatory. The Panamanian
government funds the public
schools and continues to invest in
research related to improving
delivery of public education as
well as building and maintenance
of school buildings. There are
plenty
of public schools around
Panama, places where it is hard
to get access to, all the
indigenous
Regions, cities and more. For
example if you are traveling to
Panama and decide that you
want to visit the indigenous
regions, you will see a lot of
indigenous kids are really into
their classes wanting to have
good education. Schools in rural
areas are much more basic.
Depending upon the number of
children they may be just one
room where often the numbers of
children in each class can be
high. It is hard to get teachers to
work in remote areas as the
facilities are not the greatest.
There are many volunteer
opportunities for teachers in this
area. An increasing trend among
expats who are living outside the
main cities is to home school their
children. On the other hand,
better option for your kids if you
come from another country.
Private schools are all starting to
provide bilingual education
(Spanish & English) with a well
prepared curriculum. There are
four private schools in Boquete
and a few public schools. Part of
this brand new school in Boquete
is opened with over 400
registered students.
Panama Education System: Does it prepare you for College or University? A spotlight on Boquete
http://www.aib.edu.pa/web/
By Eliecer Andres Lay
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rp-KNzqGcg
Watch this video
There are two levels of education in Panama:
Primary education includes:
Pre-school with two levels: pre-
kindergarten and kindergarten. This is
the only level where attendance is not
compulsory.
Primary or Elementary School: This
level lasts for six years.
Secondary School: Ends after three
years with a school-leaving
certificate.
High school: Lasts three years. At the
end of high school students receive a
diploma (Diploma de Bachiller) with a
specialty (sciences, literature,
business, technology, or agriculture
and livestock).
Secondary or university education
The academic year of public Panamanian
schools and universities begin during the last
days of February and finishes at the end of
December. Most private schools also follow this
calendar, however, it is possible to find international
schools that follow the Northern calendar
(September-June school year).
From an article in Panama Education and Schools
Education in Panama was elitist until the USA took
over the Panama Canal and began to influence
matters. The policy prior to this was to offer the best
education to those in the higher classes of society.
Education became progressive under the
US influence and numbers of children enrolling in
primary school by the mid-1930s doubled. Levels of
illiteracy among adults had been very high but
dropped to below 50% in less than 10 years, dropping
to less than 28% by the mid-1950s and levels are now
less than 8%.
In secondary schools children are taught science,
math, different languages and social studies for their
compulsory years. In recent years, technology
subjects have begun to be taught. Extra-curricular
subjects at most schools range from languages to
sports, with crafts and dance very popular too.
Government-run schools also follow a very similar
syllabus for all subjects, so that the standards of
education across the country can be monitored. A
number of bilingual schools are now in existence in
areas where the expat presence is high and there are
schools where children can be taught through the
mediums of French, English, Italian and Chinese, as
well as Spanish.
Panama has several ‘Special Education’ schools for
those children who have special needs. The cost of
private education varies, depending upon the school
and the location, but it can be around $6000 per year
or more.
There are both American and British International
Schools located in Panama City. The Balboa Academy
(in the Clayton district), the Oxford International
School (central Panama City) and the Crossroads
Christian Academy (the Curundu district) all follow a
standard US syllabus. The Oxford School, which can
be found in the Edison Park area offers a British
syllabus and an international examinations program.
This gives children of expats the chance to earn
qualifications which are widely accepted.
In their home country if they intend to go to
university there
Finca dos Jefes is located in the highlands of Boquete, Panama and is proudly owned by Richard and Dee Lipner, formerly of Berkeley, California.
Richard and Dee purchased the farm in April of 2003. It had been abandoned as a working farm because of the low coffee prices during the 1990s. At that time, small farmers could not continue to farm and distribute to the global market.
The farm, originally planted in 1986, needed a great deal of work to bring it back to production quality. Once soil analysis was completed, appropriate and approved certified organic inputs
were added to the soil. The fertilizer process started with guayanasa, chicken manure and various nutrients to strengthen and increase the growth of the coffee cherries.
Finca dos Jefes continues with the traditional, hand processing of the beans as they are peeled with mortar and pestle. Finally, the green beans are ready for the perfect roast.
Coffee Tour
www.boquetecoffeetour.com
Richard will personally pick you up from Casa de Montaña and has either a 9 AM or 2 PM tour that lasts 3.5 hours. Casa de Montaña can help you set up the tour.
Excerpt from Fincas Dos Jefes Website
Excerpt from Bid4Boquete Website:
Bid 4 Boquete is an all-volunteer fund raising organization which supports charitable and civic organizations in Boquete, Panama. Organizations supported by proceeds from Bid 4 Boquete events include those providing assistance to the handicapped, elderly, and infirm; those that feed the desperately hungry; and those that promote health, literacy, education, community security, and control of the animal population within Boquete and its environs.
The organization which supports a number of local charities and civic organizations needs your help. Bid4Boquete runs on a steady supply of donations. About 80 percent of the funds raised each year come from your donations which, in turn, are then resold or auctioned.
The success of this year’s drive depends on everyone contacting previous, as well as, new donors to ask for their support. It is vital that we build the base of donors if we are to continue to provide the necessary funds to groups and organizations who make daily living so much better for so many. What can you do? You can contact everyone you know who might be able to provide goods and services, or clothes and artwork etc. In the past, people have offered everything from resort stays to pet care, to so much more. Maybe you can teach cooking or horseback riding or party planning? The point is to get as many donations as possible so Bid4Boquete can continue its vital work in our community.
Local Businesses
by [Article Author]
Casa de Montaña donated a 2 night stay last year and this year we have donated Breakfast for 2 and a Romantic Dinner for 2.
http://www.bid4boquete.com/
25% O F F
I N C T O B E R