Estaciones Experimentales: Time to Hit the Farm

Wednesday and Thursday we headed out to two experimental stations run by INIAP. The first, Santa Catalina, was where Victor works, to the north of Quito. The trip took about 45 minutes; el trafico is terrible, and a landslide had closed part of the interstate, bringing six lanes of traffic down to three. It was wonderful to get out of the city and breathe some fresh air- it's amazing to get a full view of the mountains. This station focused on dairy production; milk is not allowed to be exported from Ecuador due (I think) to diseases in the cows, therefore all production is focused on meeting national demand. They start from the ground up, experimenting with different mixtures of rye grass, alfafa, clover, etc.

We then got a looksie at los terneros, the calves. There are about 180 cattle on the farm in total, plus two bulls. They are working hard to get the quantity produced per cow up, and their average is well above the national average, but far below the US.  (I wish I could remember specific numbers for you, but alas, that was two days ago, and I've heard far more agricultural statistics in Spanish since then...)

Thursday we went to a station towards the south of Quito, focusing primarily on fruit production, chirimoyas, duraznos, mora, narajillas, aguacates, and one more that I can't remember to save my life. The station was only 16 acres large, but stuffed full of the most tropical fruit in one place I've ever seen. We also proceeded to stuff our faces full of most of the fruit we could find; avocado straight from the tree-nom nom! They also had this strange crossed fruit halfway between an orange and a lemon that apparently no-one at the station liked; we decided it tasted just like the old lemon warhead candy.

We learned a lot about chirimoyas; the researchers at the station essentially speed up nature to produce this sweet fruit highly valued in the market for both eating and juice. 

The duraznos (peaches) were not quite as ripe as they could have been, but still pretty juicy and delicious. The experimental station had a rotation of trees, some who were flowering, some with fruit, and some who had finished producing fruit and were beginning the cycle. The trees continuously produce throughout the year with some help from the scientists. They are focusing mostly on peach production because of a niche market in Chile from January to April; peaches are not available during that period there and the Ecuadorians are looking to help fill the gap in production. 

Las naranjillas were the strangest plant I've ever seen. It is a plant native to Ecuador and used in juice, and unfortunately I can't even really describe the taste to you. It is kind of sweet but mostly tart I think. The fruit itself is round like a tomato, but with an orange color. 

I was quite excited about visiting the mora  (blackberry) patch. In Ecuador, a family of five with a farm of 500 blackberry plants can live quite comfortably, providing all the home, food, and education they may need, and because of this the experimental farm is interested in breeding the best varieties. Unfortunately, they aren't quite what I expected- they are not nearly as sweet as the blackberries at home; rather, they just taste off. Oh well, you live you learn. This morning we did have mora juice at breakfast, which was delicious (I'm pretty sure they added way more sugar than one should have to in order to make it sweet).