Coronado Farmer´s Market/Feria del Agricultor en Coronado

Passing time in my wife´s hometown of Coronado, Costa Rica has enabled me to enjoy the fruits of their wonderful farmer´s market. Every Sunday, agricultural producers from around the region reunite to promote their agricultural products to a hungry public. Two years ago a study revealed that Costa Rica is home to some of the healthiest, happiest people in the world. With the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables available at the farmer´s markets around the country it is easy to see why. Rather than buying canned or frozen vegetables most people their fruits and vegetables direct from a local producer. Meals here are typically accompanied by refreshing fruit drink called refresco. The Feria provides a wide variety of fruits ideal for these refreshing drinks. To the new visitor to the tropics the array of new fruits, vegetables, cooked and raw can be dizzying.   The friendly sellers are always eager to answer questions  and vocally encourage buyers proclaiming the quality of their products.
         Know Your Roots!!! Here you can see four different subterranean starchy root crops that are produced here. Standing out prominently are the purple skinned sweet pòtatoes (camotes) Ipomoea batatas seen throughout the country. In the left are two different types of Taro Colocasia esculenta  seen here in Costa Rica. One, Ñampe, has a predominantly white flesh while the other, Tiquisque, is sprinkled a red or pink color. These edible corms have large elephant ear-like leaves and are members of the Araceae family. Finally, the roots on the right are Cassava (Yuca), Manihot esculenta.  
        Eaten commonly throughout Costa Rica is this curious and versatile member of the Cucurbitaceae family, the Vegetable Pear (Chayote) Sechium edule. Baby chayotes like the ones shown in this picture can be steamed and eaten in their entirety. Larger chayotes range in color from deep to light green to white and are used in a variety of Costa Rican dishes. Also in this photo is the Chayote root, Raiz de chayote, which is highly prized and cooked as a vegetable. Chayote the only cucurbit I know of that you actually plant the entire squash as the plant sprouts out of the fruit´s one central seed. Less commonly seen in the markets but also enjoyed are Tacacos, Sechium tacaco a smaller, spikier wild relative of the chayote.
Costa Rica is most commonly known for tropical fruits but the high elevation colder regions of the country produce a wide variety of temperate fruit crops. Here, local producers show off their crops of apples, plums, and blackberries.
Get to know a Costa Rican person and if you´re lucky they will invite you over in the afternoon for a cup of coffee and boiled pejibayes, peach palm, Bactris gasipaes, nearly always served with a dollop of mayonnaise. These nutritious fruits grow on a palm tree covered with long spines. Pejibaye trees can also be managed for production of heart of palm or palmito.
Mangos Mangos Everywhere! Mango season seems to be lasting forever this year in Costa Rica. These mangos are of the large variety grown usually on grafted tres and known as Mangas here in Costa Rica. Its a great time to juice them freeze them, etc as they were selling 4 kilograms for 1,000 colones ($2!!!!)