Agroforestry tours at UCNH Haut Limbe

Criollo

In addition to the many species of birds found at and around Université Chrétienne du Nord d'Haïti (UCNH) in Haut Limbe (east of Limbe), visitors can learn about the agriculture in the area, including cacao - the source of chocolate, and bananas and plantains. There are many groves of each in the area, and the denser cacao groves host many species of birds, including: common yellowthroat, yellow-throated, black-throated blue, and Cape May warblers during the winter; broad-billed todys, Hispaniolan lizard-cuckoos and Antillean bullfinches, and the endangered plain pigeon. 


Chocolate is made from cacao seeds which are found in pods that grow directly on the trunks and branches of the cacao tree (a habit known as cauliflory which is common among tropical trees). All three varieties can be seen, even in the same grove. Criollo, supposed to make the best quality of chocolate, but susceptible to disease, is identified by reddish pods. Forastero, more productive but not as flavorful, is identified by longer grooved pods. The hybrid of these, Trinitario, combines these two qualities, and is identifies by its stouter warty pods.

You will also learn to identify the differences between plantain plants, which are starchy and boiled or fried, and the sweeter banana plants. Plantain leaves are a lighter green and have a pink edge, and the bunches are looser. They grow better in the sun. Banana leaves are slightly darker, have a thinner browner edge, and the bunches are tighter.

Contact me if you would like a tour to see birds, agriculture, or chocolate making. Please be considerate and ask your guide before taking photos of people.

Yellow-throated warbler

Trinitario the hybrid

Forestero

Banana

Plantain

Banana left, plantain right with pinker wider edging

Tour ideas

I'll keep track of ideas for tours here. Please comment if you have additional ideas!

Coffee - Haitian coffee is really unique - it is roasted then roasted again in a sugar cane molasses. Show visitors the entire process, from fruit to final product: coffee trees, harvesting, fruit (let them taste it), how beans are extracted, roasted, and ground. Sell them the final ground coffee. Or even the roasted beans - Americans often grind their own coffee.

Banana and plantain fields or plantations - Explain how these are cultivated and how to tell the plants apart. Are they eaten locally or transported across the country, or exported?

Coconuts - hack open a coconut for a visitor to drink and eat.

Sugar cane - Point out the sugar cane fields and presses. If anyone is pressing cane, take them to see it and ask the workers if pictures can be taken. Explain the entire pressing process and how the juice is processed into rum. Are there industrial plants that produce granulated sugar? Explain why or why not. Perhaps visitors should give the press people a dollar or two per group. Also show visitors the equipment left over from colonial days. Explain how the molasses residue is made and sown up in leaves (see the picture of this with the roasted coffee). Cut a piece of cane and show visitors how to eat it.