COSTA RICAN EDELWEISS?????

Is there such a thing as Costa Rican Edelweiss?  I doubt it but I am not sure how else to describe the small flowering plant that our next door neighbors have in front of their house.   It is a small short plant with long thin leaves.  About every 3 months the plant will produce a pinkish white flower on a thin stem.   This plant has a bulb and reproduces quite rapidly.  There is one flower per bulb.  They all flower at the same time and it is very beautiful to see a large group of them.

Our neighbor, Sonia, has planted many of these bulbs in the planters just inside the Monte Azul gate.  Like other bulbs, you simply dig them up and separate the bulbs and replant them.  Unlike other well known bulbs like tulips and crocus, they do not need a cold dormant period and bloom several times a year  They have already started to spread and to flower in our plnaters.  It is very exciting. 

Obviously this plant is not in the edelweiss family because edelweiss is not a bulb and grows at high cold altitudes.  However the look of it and the thought of running through a field of these flowers with our flock of goats brings to mind the movie the Sound of Music and the song Edelweiss.  Maybe I have been out in the country a bit too long. 

COFFEE BLOSSOMS

It is that time of year when the coffee plants at Monte Azul begin to bloom. This flowering season varies by type of coffee plant, altitude and weather. For our small coffee patch, I am not calling it a plantation because this would be a grand exaggeration, we picked the last of our coffee bean about a month ago. This harvest was later this year than in previous years because the rains lasted longer, well into December, and we had a very dry summer season.

But the spring rains have started appearing late in the afternoons and with it has come the waves of coffee blossoms. It is a beautiful site to see the dark green leaves of the coffee branches covered with clusters of white flowers. Then there is the fragrance, the entire area is filled with the sweet scent of these flowers. This aroma is a cross between jasmine and gardenias.

Unfortunately these flowers only last a few days. Then a few days later another wave of flowers appears on different plants. It is amazing to think that it will then take 9-10 months for the small coffee beans to grow and ripen from these flowers. The end result will be another season of Monte Azul’s Organic Quick Monkey Coffee.