About Us
About Us
The first five acres of land we bought was a very sad looking piece of bare land that had been used for farming by local farmers for the past years.
There were no trees, no shaded areas and no protection from the extreme sun, winds and Nicaraguan rains at all.
A flooded swamp in the rainy season and a desert with broken soil in the dry season.
Most farmers in the area spray a lot of chemicals on their land, and ours was no exception.It had been treated with pesticides and fertilizers and therefor the soil was pretty much dead when we purchased the land.
But it did not affect our vision of that abused piece of land one day becoming an oasis, a lush prime example of what you can achieve with regenerative agriculture, the use of organic gardening, Permaculture, and an overall focus on building healthy soils.
Right after buying our land in august 2020, we planted over 100 trees, and we were pretty excited about that. We had no idea what exactly we were doing but it felt good and right. You gotta start somehow right?
But shortly after, in November, an unfortunate event occurred.
We had two category 5 hurricanes hit Nicaragua back to back and they left none of those young trees behind.
It was devastating and we were back to zero, but still highly motivated to continue the dream.
In May 2021, when the rainy season kicked off again, we started over.
Buying more trees, planting them, establishing a garden where we grow fruit and veggies, getting chickens that freely roam our land, and starting our compost operation to feed the soil with good microbes, focusing on fungi rich compost since that is what trees love and thrive on the most.
Rodrigo and Al who studied soil biology at the Soil Food Web institute, are the driving forces and brains in our compost mission. Currenty we are producing one pile of bio complete compost weekly.
Our goal is to bring the soil back to life and have that bare piece of land be a lush paradise, a food forest one day, that feeds our family and the local families of our workers and neighbours. In the future we want to be able to be self sustained.
We hope that we are able to inspire a few and hopefully a lot of people in our area here in Nicaragua and globally to take care of their land and make the most out of it!
We will leave our land better than we found it.
For our children, future generations and for our planet.
Because if we all do something individually, we can make a CHANGE!
Our Team
Rodrigo
Master of all
Not much that this guy cant do.
Horse Whisperer
Horsemanship
Founder of Rancho Nanacatl.
Al
Head of Fungi
Soil Biologist
Compost Pro
Swale Explorer
Nalu
Farm Goblin
Collecting Eggs
Cuddeling Bunnies
Helping hand in the nursery
Glynis
Plant Lover
Garden Manager
Horse Training
Founder Of Rancho Nanacatl
Ali
Ranch Manager
Solution Finder
Ariel
Hercules
Strongest human
Well builder
Keeping the pastures trimmed
Maynor
Student
Compost Student
Dorian
Be like Water
Brings water to all animals and plants
THE HERD
Marley (Bob)
The stud! Our most beautiful gelding in the herd who is a very charming boy.
Hendrix (Jimi)
Leader of the herd. Stubborn but an introvert sweetheart who just wants to chill.
Chipotle
Our smoked Chili and one of the youngsters in the crew. Sassy and curious. Just started her career in the round pen.
Pilo
Newest addition to the family. Very calm nature and loves the water.
Nohpalli
Prickly Pear, does not like to be touched. Not yet.
Sol
Youngest member. We are excited for her future. Born on the ranch June 9, 2022
THE DOGS
At the moment we have a wolf pack of five happy doggos.
Goji: Pack leader and most chill dog there ever was, Zen dog.
Bobby: Adopted from the streets of Greece made its way to Nicaragua and to us.
Mango: Costa Rican Goldie who is the most hype dog that exists. Loves balls.
Buddha: Round belly that he enjoys getting rubbed, a true Buddha
Kuma: Keeping the pack together. Never not working. Future cattle dog.
More farm animals
We have around 50 chickens that run around free and that feed us with eggs and meat
Six ducks, two different species
A turkey couple named Sir Frederik & Emma
A guinea couple that is our alarm system.
Two chocoyito parrots that were found without a mum as a baby
Our two ranch cats Shrimp & Shiitake that love to sleep on top the hay bales in the barn.
Two bunnies that hop around.
We own one bee hive since 2022 year and recently harvested our first honey which tastes incredible. We hope to be able to extend the hive and be able to offer honey to the community.
And of course we have a ton of creepy crawlers, butterflies, birds, snakes, coyotes and other animals living or visiting the ranch regularly.
