YUCCA

Yucca (pronounced yoo-ka, or joo-ka), is a staple food on many tables of the world. You can find yucca on the dining tables in Central America, South America, Mexico, North America (Southwest & Southeast), Asia, Africa, and Australia.

The plant grows from six to ten feet tall but the edible part is the root. This root is cooked and consumed much like a potato. Yucca is found in soups, main dishes, yucca fries, and they even make yucca chips.

Sonsonate Valley Farms has planted six and one half manzanas (10.7 acres) of yucca during the month of March, 2009. The similarity of yucca to potatoes in consumption also reaches over to the seed and growing. Just as you cut potatoes into sections so you have an eye (indentation where new roots emerge) in each cutting, a similar cut is made with the yucca plant.

Instead of cutting the root as you do with potatoes, you cut the stem or trunk of the yucca plant. These cuts are made about six inches long and you want about 5 to 6 eyes on each cut. Yucca stems or trunks are referred to as yucca wood. This cutting of the wood is the "seed" for your next planting. Yucca seeds are the most expensive seeds you can buy. They are fifty cents or more per seed. That translates to $3,000 in seed cost to plant just one manzana (1.73 acres).

We were fortunate enough to have a policeman friend whose family grows yucca during the rainy season and he approached us to see if we were interested in having it. All we had to do is pay for the delivery charges. Of course we said yes. This wood was given to us in January of this year. We did not want to plant it until March. Yucca wood will store for a few months if you put it in shade and pile dirt around the bottom of the trunk, and keep it wet.

We stored the wood and two months later cut it into seed. You can get as much as five seeds and as little as two seeds per wood. There is a lot of the yucca tree that is not used. We put the unused part of the yucca through our chopper and turn it into mulch. Yucca takes 9 months or thirty-nine weeks to grow and you can pick it in one day or over a four week period.

During the holidays more yucca is consumed than any other time of the year. Because it is the dry season less yucca is being delivered to market by the local growers. Most yucca farmers rely on the rains for watering of their plants. The rainy season begins June 1st and ends October 31st. This creates a March through October harvest for most yucca growers. For this reason very few farmers can provide yucca during the holiday months.

We planted our yucca in March of this year. The yucca has been watered weekly and fertilized monthly; it will be ready for harvest the end of November, December and the first week in January. By planning our growing season (and having the water to do so), we can take advantage of yuccas highest prices during the holiday festivities. It is truly the best time of the year to be in the business of selling yucca.

Now for the financial data and returns for growing yucca. We plant 6,000 plants per manzana (1.73 acres), each plant normally produces about 25lbs of yucca root. This totals 150,000 lbs of yucca root per manzana. During the months of December and January we can sell yucca for sixty-five cents ($.65) per pound. We have planted six and one half manzanas (11.25 acres) of yucca. This should yield us $633,750.00 for the total crop. Our yucca plants are very healthy. Yucca plants as healthy as you see here, planted in this rich soil and seven months left for growing could very likely yield up to 28-29 lbs of root per plant. This would be a 16% increase over the projected numbers.

Watermelons! Watermelons!

They come in all varieties, sizes and colors. Central Americans consume them year round. At present we have six manzanas (10.38 acres) planted. Each manzana is in a different stage of growth. We will be harvesting our first crop in ten days.

Our clients are requesting over 40,000 watermelons each a week. Here are some of the details I thought you might be interested in regarding the growing cycle and profitability of watermelons. We can plant 4,500 watermelon plants per manzana (1.73 acres).

Each plant produces a total of 7 watermelons, 3-4 large melons, usually the first ones on the vine and 3-4 small melons, the last on the vine. I use the number seven as the total number of melons per plant with an average of $1.00 per melon. Our clients pay two and three dollars for large and less than $1.00 for the small. With this information I will use a conservative number of $1.00 per melon and the number 31,500 melons harvested per manzana.

Watermelons are ready for harvest after 75 days in the soil. Eight weeks growing one week harvesting, wait a week then one more week harvesting. A total of eleven weeks from seed starts to finished crop. At $1 per melon and 31,500 melons per manzana it is an easy number to figure sales wise. A total of $31,500 per manzana over the eleven week growing period.

We plan to sell some melons on the side of the road. This is a very common practice in El Salvador. Thousands are sold this way. By doing this we are able to increase our profits greatly. At present we have six manzanas (10.38 acres) planted. Each manzana is in a different stage of growth. We will be harvesting our first crop in ten days.

Our goal is to plant five manzanas every three weeks. Planting this way will we will have twenty-five manzanas (43.25 acres) of watermelons growing at one time. By doing this we will have nearly 40,000 melons available for sale weekly.

Water melons are a great crop for exporting to the U.S. We have made some inquiries and we will be testing the market as soon as it makes sense to do so. In the U.S. water melons tend to be a summer fruit. In Central America it is a twelve month selling item with peaks around any holiday.

No Water Shortage Here!

Hi everyone,

In case you are not a regular listener to Fox News you may have missed the story last week on the severe water shortage in California. The newscast explained that the Governor had a decision to make.

Due to the extreme drought conditions it was necessary to divert 65% of the water that was earmarked for the San Joaquin Valley for crops to the residents of Southern California, or cut 65% of the water supply to Southern California residents so that the farming region know to the world as the "salad bowl" the San Joaquin Valley could continue growing food for North America. They reported the decision was simple, cut the water to the food growers.

All of you should have received the information piece I emailed out showing the drought going on in the food growing nations of the World. I thought that you might like to see what I think is Sonsonate Valley Farms greatest asset, WATER! Clean water, and some of the efforts we are taking to keep it clean.

There is a community of 1,000 people that live on the other side of the river. Here is a picture that looks like a dam, but it is a drive over bridge. Concrete that is laid under the water and cars, taxis and 18 wheeler cane trucks drive over it day and night. Our dam is further up river with head gates that divert the water to all of the different areas of the farm. Even though we watch carefully for what goes on at the bridge none of this activity affects or contaminates our irrigation water.

There were some families doing laundry in the river and we needed a new arrangement. To be a good neighbor and get the cooperation of the locals, we gathered up all of the lavenderias, (hand washing basins for clothes) that were on the property. We brought running water to them from our wells and built a roof over the top, for shade and protection from the rain.

It has been a big hit and stays busy all day for washing clothes, washing ones self, and bathing the children. These ladies are very talented they can bathe themselves and wash the clothes on there back all at the same time. In 108 degree weather with humidity at 75% it's not a bad place to be.

This is the river (rio) or spring that borders our property. Between 60 - 85 million gallons flow each day. We own the water rights to all of the daylight hours.

Deliveries to Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is allowing us to deliver produce anytime day or night. They are excited to get vegetables that are so much fresher than what they have been getting in the past. We are working on a campaign together that will make us there featured provider. Sonsonate Valley Farms will be an exclusive label for Wal-Mart.
Wal-Marts headquarters for receiving and shipping all produce is in Santa Tecla, just 5 minutes outside of San Salvador and 45 minutes from our farm. This is the shipping center for all produce in Central America. From this warehouse Wal-Mart ships to 455 stores in Central America 80 of those stores are in El Salvador.
The first delivery was 100 boxes with 40 to a box. Getting ready to unload is our lead Argo Engineer Jaime Pacheco along with one of our key employees Jose. Jose can fix anything, a very important asset on a farm.
Here we are at Wal-Mart ready to make our first delivery of cucumbers. From left to right Jaime, Salvador, Jose, Edwardo, and yours truly.

Growing Cucumbers (Papinos)

Wal-Mart has strict standards for cucumbers. Cucumbers must be at least 11 1/2 inches. Any cucumbers that don't make the minimum we sell to Super Selectos. They have a market for smaller cucumbers. Both stores are very pleased with our quality of produce.
Workers during picking season.
Yep that's me in the middle of the cucumbers. The plants grow about five feet. One plant will produce about 15 cucumbers. One manzana will produce 139,500 cucumbers. From planting to completion of harvest is a total of 9 weeks.
Cucumbers are planted from seed. They grow in 5 weeks and harvest every 3 days for 1 month.

Growing Green Peppers (sweet chilies)

We set bamboo poles along the growing beds and string wire and twine for support. All of the bamboo is cut from some location on the farm, we have lots! The peppers will produce fruit for 16 weeks before they are pulled and replanted. One plant can produce anywhere from 50 - 125 peppers. One manzana with 9,300 plants will produce about 697,500 peppers.


Green peppers at about 6 weeks old. We are now buying the starter plants that are 4-6 weeks old from a grower. They costs us about 8 cents. Much cheaper that starting our own. It takes a sweet pepper 12 weeks total growing time before we start harvesting peppers.

The Micro Tunnels

An inside look at sweet peppers growing. Notice that some seeds do not grow. This system allows us to make sure only growing plants go into the fields saving time, water, fertilizer and pesticides.
This is our propagation (green house to grow starter plants from seeds) system. We refer to them as micro tunnels. Plants can grow here from two to six weeks.

Plastic cover and planting

Waiting for things to grow.
Plants or seeds are placed next to each drip point.



Holes are cut at each drip irrigation point. A water & fertilizer mixture are put in each hole..



Plastic is rolled out to reduce the weeds, save water, and control pests.

Irrigation Systems

After the beds have been created the drip system is installed. Each fruit or vegetable has it's own layout. This means that the plants are to be planted a specific distance from each other, and the drip system matches up with each plant. Some vegetables are able to share the same layouts. To be cost effective we make sure that crops are planned so the crop rotations are able to use the same drip layout. For example cucumbers and sweet peppers can be planted in rotation using the same drip system. In this case there are 9,500 plants planted per manzana and each plant has its own source of water. Fertilizer and most pesticides are put in the irrigation system.

After the ground has been worked this equipment creates the final planting bed.

Post-plowing: The planting bed process

I am going to start putting up some pictures that have been taken over the last four months. I thought you might enjoy watching the process of the dairy farm and pastures transform into cultivated farm ground. After the plow and disc this equipment starts working the ground for the creation of planting beds. These beds are for the planting of both cucumbers, and green peppers (aka) sweet peppers.

Sonsonate Valley Farms

Hello investors,
I have started this blog so we can keep everyone involved with the latest day to day information. Now instead of you waiting for me to send out monthly information I will be able to post here and you can check in at anytime to see the status of the farm. This will allow me to post recent pictures and explain without word limitations what is going on. I will try to post the most recent information on a weekly basis. Please be aware that some things don't change in a weeks time. This is my first attempt at a blog so please forgive me while I am trying to work things out.