I am spending the year in Costa Rica as a Peace Corps volunteer. One of my adapted NYC routines is to shop at the local farmers market. For me, that is La Feria Agricultor de Pavas. I hop on the bus (a repurposed yellow school bus from the US) and look out the windows at the shops and street life until we arrive at the market. I prefer to shop at farmer’s markets anyway, but in Costa Rica, unlike NYC, these markets are often cheaper than grocery stores with the added bonuses of freshness and giving the money directly to the farmers.

Walking down the street between the rows of stands, my eyes are captivated by the colors and the variety of produce – tomatoes, squash, fresh beans (the green ones and legumes), cucumbers, chiles dulces (sweet peppers), berries of all kinds. Oodles of tropical fruits (bananas, piña, mango, guava, carambola, fresh coconut, lychee…) Costa Rica’s mix of tropical and mountain climate and all that volcanic soil support lots of delicious produce – the kinds that are familiar to me and the kinds that are new. I am learning about limon mandarina, pejibaye, jocote, malanga, eddoe, manzana de agua, and others I will learn about.

The challenge is that I get on a roll and then buy way too much food for the week!

And of course. I need to have a snack.