Zephyr Eco

Thanks to my good friend Jennifer Smith the Zephyr Organic and Natural Foods Market is BACK! When: This Saturday, January 29th, 2011 – 8am – 11am This market has had many phases, faces and products; we keep learning, and it keeps getting better!  Jennifer is now taking on the responsibility of bringing Tamarindo a variety of organically grown (some organic, some local, all wholesome) foods. We are super thankful! We hope to continue the support and keep education moving forward for » »

The Zephyr Eco Project would like to give a big thanks to Guanacaste’s Pollo Frito Rico Rico, a locally owned chain of fried chicken restaurants located in the following communities of Guanacaste: Huacas Belen Sardinal Santa Cruz (2) Nicoya (2)   Pollo Frito Rico Rico has 6 locations in total, all restaurants specializing in fried foods. The amount of cooking oil they use is immense! Fortunately, the owners understand the importance of recycling their used cooking oil and contribute all » »

Blue Zones are regions of the world containing the highest percentage of active centenarians (people who live beyond 100 years).  Scientists and demographers have classified the following regions as Blue Zones: Sardinia, Italy the islands of Okinawa, Japan Loma Linda, California Icaria, Greece the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica  It is fitting that a sustainable lifestyle educational movement like the  Zephyr Eco Project be located in one of the world’s 5 Blue Zones (Alemania, Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica). Residents of Blue Zones » »

As we develop this blog (and really, the Zephyr farm), we are putting many of our eggs into the permaculture basket.  What does permaculture mean? Permaculture: a word created by Australian ecologists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, it is a contraction of “permanent agriculture” and usually refers to the inclusion of perennial agriculture (tree crops and food forests). Permaculture is a series of design strategies that can be applied to home gardens, large scale farms, metropolitan urban areas and the » »

The Zephyr project purchased a backhoe and a dump truck 2 years ago.  We have kept this equipment on our farm in Alemania and have used it extensively to: build and maintain our gravel roads construct multiple water crossings with drainage culverts dig/bury a gravity-fed water system that travels throughout the 133 acre property create/maintain building platforms and other work space Over the last two years we have learned as much as we can about sustainable earth-moving and applied these practices » »

Zephyr Eco is a project dedicated to self education and providing solutions for sustainable living.  These include sustainable construction, organic farming, and free trade relationships originating from our home town (in Tamarindo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica), and our 133 acre off-grid farm (in Alemania, Guanacaste, Costa Rica). #1  We strive to be constantly researching, learning, and sharing. Planting various crops, building chicken coops from discarded materials and raising chickens, producing biodiesel, making organic surf wax, and supporting community projects that share our » »

Today was a really good day for the Zephyr Eco project.  Eduardo Valverde has returned to Guanacaste and will again be working on a variety of projects with us.  Eduardo was our former manager in charge of operations for Zephyr 2 years ago.  He was instrumental in early Zephyr constructions such as managing the construction of the roads we built on the farm and the earth bag construction we built in Tamarindo.  I am very excited to have Eduardo back on » »

Freshwater shrimp can be found living in rivers, streams, and creeks throughout Costa Rica.  In Spanish they can be called “camarones” or “langostinos”, and I think they taste great (better than saltwater shrimp hands down!) If you like to hunt or fish, try your luck with the river shrimp using only a spear.  All you need is a diving mask (though a cooler full of beer would make it even better).  Catching river shrimp is harder than you think, but » »

If you are anything like me, you have more things than you probably need.  This can be helpful, especially in Costa Rica during low season when we find ourselves without any money and searching for used materials that can be used for new projects.  This month at Witch’s Rock Surf Camp we have been working on a new surfboard workshop and we needed to make more surfboard racks.  Instead of going to the hardware store and buying new wood and » »

Saturday evening my family and some of our friends had a big pizza dinner at the Best Western Vista Villas.  I spoke briefly with their manager Jonathan Muir and explained how the Zephyr Eco Biodiesel Collective program worked.  He was pretty sure they could begin donating their restaurant’s used cooking oil to the program, which was great to hear. We would like to give a big THANK YOU to the following businesses for donating their used cooking oil to the » »