Today we travelled over to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica to a Heart of Palm farm. We were greeted off the bus with a whole lot of humidity, much more than what we are used to in Heredia. We spent the afternoon learning about Heart of Palm and the small family owned farm that we were visiting. We learned about how Heart of Palm grows, when it is best to harvest, how to harvest and how to eat it.

We watched as our guide cut harvested a plant right in front of us and peeled back all the layers until we were able to eat it. This farm was very different than the ones we had experienced thus far with coffee. It was much smaller, much warmer and had a much different harvesting process than coffee. Heart of Palm is able to be harvested year round while the fruit is only harvested once or twice a year life coffee is. There also must be a lot of sun and water to keep the palm plant growing successfully. There is a very intricate harvesting process unlike coffee and there is many many uses for the heart of palm in recipes once harvested.

We were able try three of these recipes with a delicious three corse lunch. I wasn’t a fan of the Heart of Palm plant when we had it plain, but once it was in the food we ate for lunch, I couldn’t get enough. This was a very unique and interesting tour as I was unaware what Heart of Palm even was beforehand. One of the most interesting things I learned was the process of how the stalk becomes a tree and how the Heart of Palm stays in the core the whole time while the outside hardens around it.

After this tour we returned back to Heredia, and then we all met up at a fútbal game to watch LaLiga win the semifinals. It was an amazing experience and so much fun. We were quickly spotted out as foreigners but we enjoyed the game none the less! It was so cool to see what a soccer game is like outside the US (it was much more lively). And I will defiantly be looking in to see what happens in the finals now!