Today, we looked at the production of crops from a different angle. We got to see a family farm and how they function as a business. Our host, Francini had opened up her farm to agrotourism with the help of her mother and aunt. She also lives on the farm and was able to build her house from scratch, piece by piece. It can be difficult for small family farms to open up their properties to tourism because of the limited land, workforce, and lack of resources compared to the other commercial tours that we have been on. Even with these barriers, Francini and her small crew are able to offer a great experience to tourists or people wanting to learn more about agriculture.

While small, they are still able to grow eighteen varieties of bananas which strays away from the three main varieties that we see in supermarkets in the US. The farm we visited was organic, so they don’t use insecticides like large corporations such as Dole. At the conventional farms, they would cover their bananas that are growing on trees with plastic bags and then use insecticides inside the bags to prevent insects from eating the bananas. Francini showed us how the process in how they would turn their bananas into flour once they were harvested. They went through a drying process either from the sun or a machine. They are then sent into a grinder to turn the dehydrated bananas into a gluten free flour. We learned that only green bananas could be used for this flour.

After having lunch at the banana farm, we then visited another plantation where I started to get eaten alive by mosquitoes. This farm was a nonprofit meant to educate people in the community while also providing food for them. Here, I learned that mosquitoes actually have a purpose and that they are the primary pollinator of cacao trees. I also got to try my first peppercorn off the tree and had some delicious coconut water and meat.