Retirement in Costa Rica – Fruit for the Picking

“No one will ever starve to death in Costa Rica” I’ve heard it said, and these days I see why.

Lush, ripe fruit hangs from trees this time of year. Mangoes measuring 7″ long by 4″ wide, red and ready to burst with sweet and juicy flavor, entice passersby. Branches from trees, which stand firmly in someone’s yard, hang over property lines, and anyone with a stick or a rock can shake the branches to release the ripe fruit.

Even though you can buy three kilos (6.6 pounds) of mangoes for 1,000 colones (almost two dollars) at the feria (weekly produce fair), getting them free is a much better deal.

Young and not-so-young laborers on their way home from work spend a few minutes coaxing fruit down from trees. Once successful, they eat their bounty as they walk toward their buses, never minding the sticky residue. The sport of shaking the branches is so much fun that I participate, too. Fresh fruit is the reward that I put in my morning shakes.

Other trees bear fruit this time of year, too, but mostly I just pay attention to what’s growing in my neighborhood or in my tropical yard. There are two kinds of limes (limónes), a dark green one and a small yellow one that resembles a key lime.

I don’t know the names for either, but from a distance one tree looks as though it’s growing yellow gumdrops. Whenever a recipe calls for a lime or a lemon, I go into the yard and pick a few from the nearest lime tree.

The fun fruit that Santa Ana is famous for is the jocote (pronounced ho-CO-tay). It measures about 2″ long and 1″ wide. My Spanish teacher, Iris, told me about this fruit, and said that the soil in Santa Ana is particularly well-suited to growing jocote trees.

This time of year you see roadside stands with bags full of jocotes, just waiting to be bought. There are three stages of maturity of the jocote: verde (green and unripe), pintón (green, brown, yellow and red), and maduro (red and yellow). People eat all three, but I prefer the maduro. The fun part is the sound it makes. When you bite into a jocote, it makes a sound like thunder, and is called jocote tronador (jocote thunder).

Avocadoes (aguacates) also grow in my yard, but they became ripe a couple of months ago. One day my doorbell rang. Juan, the guard/gardener/honey-do, was standing there with his arms full of avocadoes for me. It just so happened that I had to bring a dish to a potluck dinner that night, so I whipped up some guacamole. I used culantro (cilantro) from my yard, but the rest of the ingredients were store-bought.

I have friends in this country who grow much of their own food, and organic farming is becoming very popular. With a little plot of land, or even a few containers like I have in my cuarto de pila (laundry room), you can grow herbs and vegetables. In one pot I grow two tubers – ginger and turmeric. In another pot I grow lemongrass and collard greens.

The collard green plant is about one-and-a-half years old; I harvest the leaves and cook them, and the plant keeps producing. A third pot contains basil, which I share with my three neighbors. Also for the taking in different areas of the yard are pineapples, rosemary, oregano, mint and a few herbs that are used for medicinal purposes.

With a rainy season that lasts about eight months, even though it doesn’t rain every day, and usually not for long when it does rain, Costa Rica produces an abundance of food at cheap prices. Anyone can pick fruit from the public part of a private tree, so no one has to go hungry.

Written by Margie Davis who is retired in Costa Rica.

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Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.