What Food Is On Your Deserted Island?

Traveling in a campervan – The Rainbow – for 10 months across South America with two kids and a dog; Nico Parco, our contributor, reminds us that with such limited space, the question of food is important.

However, as they roam from country to country, from culture to culture, the pantry changes in appearance: a bag of aplanchados in Colombia, the finest chocolate in Ecuador, rich gourmet sauces in Peru, empanadas in Chile, pizzas and pastas in Argentina.

The Cloud with a Silver Lining

In October 2016, two Tolima coffee lots ended up in the top five at a country-wide coffee cupping festival, including first place, surprising judges and the public. The victory and recognition comes at critical point for coffee producers in the southern part of the department. Though geo-climatic conditions favor the production of specialty brews with unique flavors, coffee producers face obstacles in processing, accessing financial mechanisms, and finding new markets.

The Weight of Water

In Columbia’s strategically located region Montes de Maria, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) roamed the countryside and destroyed entire irrigation systems, stole kilometers of pipelines, and stole or destroyed the pumps that fed the system from large water basins. Fear and destruction dissuaded many farmers from returning to their lands.

The Sweetest Grapes Hang the Highest

The Phoenicians are credited with many things, but delivering the gift of wine to the shores of southern Europe is something for which mankind will always be thankful. Like the modern-day Lebanese, the fearless seafaring Phoenicians had an urge to meet distant horizons with zeal and brought grape growing and wine making in their wake.

The Apple of Lebanon’s Eye

Liban Village was founded in 1992 as a farmer cooperative and grew to a small company that employs more than 50 people each year. Today, Liban Village works across the apple value chain, from production to sorting, packing and storage, as well as providing extension service training for smallholder apple farmers. Liban Village works with over 300 apple growers that employ thousands of laborers on Lebanon’s apple orchards.

Expanding Organic in Lebanon

For several years, Fady Daw has studied how foreign products beat out local products on Lebanon’s high-end, organic foods market. He suspected that much of it had to do with packaging. So he adopted a new strategy and ordered some bottles from Italy.