In Which We Meet Mr. Silver Fox

A few years ago we met a man with silver hair and a keen smile, who had left an impression on my memory to this very day. Myself, two siblings, and two cousins, were desperately trying to find a flat place to camp before nightfall. As we drove into what we thought was a campground, I rolled down my window.

“Hello,” I said, “we’re looking for a place to camp.”

“WELCOME HOME!” the man said. “You’ve made it to the Rainbow Community Family of Living Light!”

‘Thank you,” I replied, desperately trying to keep a straight face, “and what’s your name?” With a momentary hesitation, and a funny look he said,

“Silver Fox.” I nodded, thanked him, rolled up the window, and then we booked it out of there as fast as possible doing our best to hide our smiles and laughing attacks till we pulled out of the camp. Luckily, we made it past the people dancing around the fire in gilded armor and back on to the road.

“Oh yes! And my name is Fluffy puppy” I should have responded. We broke into fits of unquenchable laughter.

I learned that day that there are many strange people in the world. The clashing realities in this case lead to both an expansion of our world, and great mirth (although we had no true desire to be disrespectful).

Who would have known that the saga would continue, years later in the remotest region of Costa Rica?

After spending two months in the magical Monteverde, Moriah and I made our way south to the district of Lanas, near Santiago de Puriscal. We had plans to spend a week on a permaculture farm called Verdenergia.

There are about a dozen advertised permaculture farms in Costa Rica. Verdenergia appeared to be the most credible and cutting edge. Among other things they advertised being part of a reforestation effort in the region and had already planted 150,000 trees.

Joshua and his partner Amanda, the main organizers behind Verdenergia, picked us up from our hostel near the San Jose Airport. They had flown in from spending several months in the U.S.

We wrapped our gear in several layers of trash bags for rain protection, and threw them in the back of the truck. As we drove, Josh told more about Verdenergia. He moved to the region in 2003 with his family out of a desire to live sustainably and build a healthy future. With a coalition of about 40 friends, they purchased about 50 acres of land, planted fruit trees, and constructed facilities on the property. Josh and his family were the only ones to stay year round. The other partners generally would come for three to six months of the year during the dry season.

“Many people, when they create a permaculture project, talk about creating the community. I didn’t want that. I realized that I was moving into the community, not bringing it.”

In the first few years they installed a clean water drinking system for the whole town and began employing locals to work on the farm. Josh didn’t leave the country for fourteen years and became close with the community. Now Verdenergia provides employment to about thirty people, providing an important economic income into the area. Some of the locals are even shareholders of the Verdenergia farm. Last year they grew 24,000 lbs of dried turmeric among other products.

As we approached the farm, the hills grew bigger. The road often followed ridge lines and you could see spreading views from both directions revealing steep mountains covered in quilted mixes of dark green forest and bright green grass and grazing cattle. In addition to the green streaks of brown marked the passage of landslides.

“When I moved here,” said Josh, “there were no trees.” The Costa Rican Department of Agriculture encouraged landowners to clear their land for cows. The virgin rainforest was completely stripped and cleared. Then they dropped African grass seed from planes on the whole area.

But the terrain was never suited for heavy livestock. Steep mountains mixed with twenty plus feet of annual rainfall resulted in unstable soil. Landslides blocking the roads are a common occurrence in the region and can take days to clear.

One landowner decided to mine the landslide area of his property for road building material. This mine unleashed a massive landslide about the area of twenty acres. The debris buried the road and continues to do so every day. Teachers couldn’t get to the school because of the blockage, and the schools began to shut down. Locals banded together, getting the government involved. And now the landowner who foolishly mined a landslide must pay for a man to sit stationed with a front loader on the road year-round 24-7. I cannot imagine how expensive this must be. We passed this landside area with no event. It was truly huge.

In the early 2000s, The government realized its mistake in encouraging deforestation. Costa Rica made a grant for planting trees out of fuel tax. Residents could earn about a dollar per tree successfully grown. Trees were provided free to anyone and everyone interested.

Verdenergia is located in the valley between Refugio de Vida and Carara National parks along the Scarlet Macaw corridor. Now the region is blanketed in trees. The forest is coming back.

“I have hope,” said Josh, “just seeing a place so barren come back alive like this before my eyes, it's amazing.”

We arrived at the headquarters of Verdengia, just in time to beat the rain. There were several buildings with bunk room accommodations. In all, the main area could house about 40 people. The strangest thing about these buildings was the lack of paneled windows. The buildings were completely open. It never gets cold, only rains, so there is no need for windows (but I contend, to keep the bugs out!).

The common area, where we made and ate all our meals and hung out, was also open to the jungle. It was very strange to see wood, electronics, and other items completely exposed to the elements except for the roof overhead. I will mention, that everything was humid hot and wet both inside and out, nearly all the time. The only respite was in the mornings when the sun would come out, and then, if we were lucky we could dry our cloths out a bit.

Our room was amazing, overlooking a bubbling brook, cacao trees, and huge banana trees. Thankfully a mosquito net kept out the bugs while we slept. Even so, Moriah was devoured.

The next day Josh showed us around the farm. Highlights included hundreds of fruiting cacao trees, star fruit, jackfruit, bananas, coconuts, and the like. Many shareholders of the farm had started to build various structures which were now in various stages of degradation following COVID. That night found us playing Settlers of Catan, Josh’s favorite game (which, as Mo points is what he does every day, and so no wonder. Of course he beat us).

The next day Josh and Steven, the current intern from San Jose, took us to the turmeric fields. The only way to the turmeric fields was a steep climb up the mountain. Every pound of turmeric had to be transported down the steep hill. One of the proposed solutions to these dangerous tasks was a zipline.

The turmeric was all grown on regenerated cattle pasture that was nearly purchased by a palm oil plantation company. Josh called on his connections to buy the land before the plantation got hold of it, to protect it, and the water, and grow expanding agricultural products providing employment for the local community. After letting the pasture regrow into early successional plants, they had begun planting turmeric on a rotation growing schedule. In addition to the organic matter input of the land left to fallow, they sprayed fungal and bacterial compounds on the area in an effort to jumpstart the soil. Other experimental plants were laced through the turmeric fields including citrus and vanilla. After years of preparation Verenergia has enough turmeric stock and ready land to grow it to continue to scale up. Now he is in conversation with large purchasers in the U.S. If he can find a market large enough, he can continue to expand, employing more and more locals with sustainable jobs, giving them an option to stay in the area instead of leaving (the brain drain happens in Costa Rica too).

That afternoon we processed the Cacao into chocolate! It was a fascinating and tasty experience. First you open the Cacao pod with a knife. Then you take out the seeds from the inside, which are surrounded in a white sour sweet tasty fruit. Those seeds you let ferment for several days. Then you air dry the beans, and roast them for about five minutes. Finally you grind the roasted cocoa beans, adding sugar and other flavors as desired. I ate so much fresh chocolate. It was wonderful.

On Friday we met Silver Fox. I never understood how much of a “culture” permaculture can be. We discussed this phenomenon with Josh and Amanda quite extensively. There are those drawn to growing food and living sustainable out of beliefs, and there are those who are drawn to these places as a place to protect and accommodate their beliefs. Over the years, Josh said the Verdenergia has hosted some very odd woo woo gatherings (hosting events generates needed income). For example, one event included fifty naked men dancing in the river on their path to enlightenment. To his surprise sometimes the locals have joined in.

In any case, Friday came, and Josh’s friends came (rather they were acquaintances that had met once). Laura and Gerald. From the look of it, they were proud vegans bringing an overflowing basket of personal snacks with products that cost a fortune like “rude health oat milk” and “Bart's quinoa cookies”.

“Can I serve you some dinner?” Josh asked.

“No actually, the path to enlightenment is away from onions and garlic” Laura told us. “I don’t eat them. And now I’m actually repulsed by the smell” (never mind us gobbling down the garlic onion and rice dish across the table). I turned my face to hide the uncontrollable smile that covered it. It was a type of phrase I’ve heard in jest, but never used in earnest. We all looked at her and nodded our heads like everything was normal.

The next day was the solar eclipse. The clouds covered it in just a way that we could see the eclipse, or most of it, even though we lacked the special glasses. And that’s when things started to get really wacky.

“The moon is an illusion,” said Gerald. “There’s proof. I’ve seen it. It’s crazy man. There are a few cameras that have caught it. You’ll see a line go from the bottom to top of the moon, like a tv searching for a channel. The moon is an illusion they created.” We looked at him in disbelief, trying to read if he was being serious.

“Did you know that NASA can’t predict eclipses? It’s too complicated. It’s this thing when too many bodies are moving the calculations are impossible. If you burned this thousand year old book in the basement of the Vatican no one would have any idea when the next eclipse would happen. It's because there’s these ancient planetary bodies that caused the real eclipse, Rhauto and Bahto,” Gerald continued.

Pause…At that point I was like “man, this guy is odd.” But then the monologue got even more kooky. He continued,

“In 2014 I watched this documentary about flat earth theory because I thought it was so stupid. Ten second in to the documentary I was like ‘wow, this is no shit.’”

“Wait, so you believe that the earth is flat?” I ask.

“Tell me what are the calculations that prove it's a globe,” he replied.

“I have never cared to memorize such obscure mathematical equations. But how do you explain the sunrise?” I ask.

“The sun is on a spiral above the earth. It’s only sixty miles away. When the sun is over you're part of the earth, it's day, but when it goes away, like a flashlight, then it's night.” he replied, the continued, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, they might be suns to other parts of the unexplored earth. But the government doesn’t let people explore. If we could explore the rest of the earth and find Atlantis and other undiscovered lands, what would we find? But the government doesn’t want us to know there’s more land. Scarcity of land creates demand for real estate and a good economy.”

I listened with a mix of amazement and horror as he continued to expound his beliefs over the next two days, rejecting all possible evidence to the contrary of his viewpoints.

He even went so far as to accuse his host of total ignorance. “You don’t research anything” he told Josh. As for myself, I stayed out of it, simply amazed to have met someone who truly ascribes to a belief so contrary to all evidence, science, and human reasoning. I had met a person in stone age reasoning. It was difficult to know how to even have a conversation after that as our basic understanding of the world was so diametrically opposed.

But…the next day when he offered to teach a yoga class, grudgingly at first, I agreed for this form of connection.

And now I’m one step closer to enlightenment. Who else can say that they’ve taken a yoga class from a genuine and certified flat-earther? But as for me, I will continue to eat my alliums, though it will no doubt stunt my advancement.

And so it was that we met Mr. Silver Fox in the Rural Rainforests of Costa Rica.