On the drive back to Playa Hermosa from Monteverde we saw a gigantic rice field.  I immediately wanted to see the field up close, harvest the rice, see what happens before we see the rice in stores.  I knew we couldn’t stop to explore the field.  On the drive we also saw a rice processing mill near the rice field.

Rice, in addition to pineapple, avocado and coffee are the main food exports from Costa Rica. I’ll say a little bit about each food

rice field

Rice: Did you know that an average Costa Rican eats 52-62 kg of rice each year?  The rice is being less and less exported, and as a result there are less areas that have rice growing. That mostly affects rice farmers. Costa Rica has to import some rice.  Typically only white rice is sold in the grocery stores we’ve been to.

Pineapple: Costa Rica is growing to be the largest exporter of pineapple.  Depending on the type of pineapple the fruit can take 12-14 months to flower.  Once the fruit has flowered it can take another 6-8 months to ripen.

coffee plant

Avocado: Avocado fruits are from Persea americano, which is an tall evergreen that can grow up to 65 feet.  Depending on the type of avocado, they can have a weight of eight ounces to 3 pounds. Monkeys and birds choose smaller fruit from a different species of avocado tree.

Coffee:   Sadly, sometimes children are used to pick up coffee husks.  Today Costa Rica is one of the largest producers of coffee in the world.

I can’t wait to compare all of these foods to the ones we have in Canada.

Everything but the coffee…
Isy