Today the workers at La Ecovilla harvested tilapia from their 3 ponds. I did not know if we were going to use poles or drain the pond and use small nets? When the fisherman showed up with a wheel barrow ad large net I realized we were harvesting NOT fishing. It took about 2.5 hours to catch and gut just under 100 nice size fish. This was divided amongst the 12 families currently on site. I am sure we all ate fish yesterday, some had fish tacos, others made soup, and I cooked mine on a cast iron skillet. It was the tastiest fish I have consumed in some time, the kids were not into the bones and didn't eat much, more for me !
Couple things suprised me; the fish after over an hour out of the water were still moving and apparently are so strong they could be tossed back and survive!
and the fisherman make tossing the net look very easy...but its not.
After dinner we roasted our cacao beans and made organic chocolate bars. I have a new respect for things like chocolate and coffee after realizing how much work goes into producing these treats. The kids enjoyed peeling the skins off the beans. At that point the beans went into a Blendtec blender, these blenders are famous for making short work of anything you put in them and it did not disappoint. The ground cacao beans went into a milk and sugar mixture and simmered for 45 minutes. It was delicious but definitely not Godiva by any stretch.
