Tuesday, January 5, 2016

More from Sonora, Mexico: Quince Time, A Classic Printing Press, and the Singing Beekeeper

Each fall brings the quince harvest (membrillo) in northern Sonora. Membrillo is perhaps the state's official fruit. The Magdalena baseball team is even named the Membrilleros. Check out this video of a family in San Ignacio making the cajeta de membrillo (quince jelly bricks):
 
Check out this historic machinery still in use at a print business in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora!
      Impresos @ssi       @ssi Print Shop

And listen to Freddie Terry, the singing beekeeper from Oracle, AZ, perform his original music about Sonora to the folks at the Asilo San Antonio in Magdalena (community home for seniors and those with disabilities)
  
 and here's Freddie performing at Magdalena's first Festival of Books held in November 2015

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Doña Olga Cañez of Imuris, Sonora, MX: Medicinal Plants, Cabezas, and the Best Beans in Mexico

Doña Olga is one of my favorite people in the whole world. I stop by her place in Imuris, Sonora every chance I get to enjoy a fabulous plate of beans and tortillas and a hot cup of coffee. She has had a great life, though hard at times, and can share about the days her family traveled around in a wagon from town to town. She was part of the pajarero culture in her youth (a mix of indigenous and gypsy traditions). She is a wealth of information on medicinal plants and other things. Here are a couple of recent videos of her so meet Doña Olga. You will even be served a plate of hot beans--ENJOY!

 
In the video below Doña Olga shows some of the medicinal plants she sells and explains what they can be used for.

Here's a Hobo Dispatch post from 2013 which also featured Doña Olga and her brother Genio and others plus beautiful reflections on Mexico from the diary of Anais Nin:

Click here to read more about Doña Olga in the Hobo Dispatch 

IN MEMORY OF KIKO AND CHAVITO, DONA OLGA'S LOYAL COMPANIONS WHO HAVE PASSED ON SINCE THIS VIDEO WAS MADE.