Ojoche?

Aqui estoy! I know it has been a week since my last update – things here have been both slow and hectic. Monday started off with the guys beginning work on my solar dryer. They were pretty excited about the new project and took it very seriously. Tuesday was Labor Day and therefore, no one had to come to work! Sarah and I headed into Managua and went to the Huembes Mercado. I was looking for some herbs at the Mercado, specifically ojoche or the maya nut. It is a breadfruit type seed that can be milled into a flour for tortillas, roasted to taste like a bitter chocolate, boiled to a potato like consistency, brewed to be like coffee… the list goes on and on. The tree stays green and produces fruit even during the dry season and therefore has been used forever during times of famines. The first Nica I asked about ojoche was Rogelio, the construction crew leader. Rogelio pretty much knows everything there is to know. When I needed beeswax (cera de abeja) I simply enquired about it to Rogelio and by lunch time I had two giant chunks of beeswax in my hand. The man works miracles. So anyway, I decided to ask Rogelio about ojoche.

“Rogelio, conoce ojoche?”
“Ojoche? Ojoche, como no? Si yo conozco.”
“Oh, si? Porque yo quiero usar ojoche.”
“Quieres ojoche? Porque? La semilla, si?”
”Si, si. Puedo comprarla al mercadito?”
“Quieres comprar ojoche!? No no no no. Cosechala.”

Okay, so you can’t buy ojoche at the market according to Rogelio, you harvest it. Okay… that makes sense. Before we went to Huembes I asked Dona Mierta and Don Paulo about ojoche again.

“Conoce ojoche?”
“Ojoche! Claro! Como no!”
"Puedo comprarla al mercadito?”
”Ojoche? No no no no. Cosechala.”
“Claro.”
“Cuando era nina, mi madre cosechó ojoche en Julio y hizó tortillas. Mmmmm.”

Well, okay. Maybe I wasn’t going to find ojoche but I decided to look anyway. The Huembes Mercado is huge. Giant. And they sell everything there. EVERYTHING. The herbal section is simply magical. Even if you aren’t into herbal things, you would find something cool in the herb section. The smell, the booths, the people. In the herbal section you can buy anything from clove to chamomile to hibiscus to cinnamon. I love it there. Of course my enquiry about ojoche gave me blank stares and the exact same dialogue. Oh well. At least now I know where to get manzanilla (chamomile) and really beautiful leather bags…