What kind of Trees do you get beef from in Costa Rica?

[Jeff]

On one of our days in Costa Rica, Hector's wife Christina invited us down to their home for lunch. It was Tammy and I, Christina, her two daughters and her house helper. Christina is a California girl so speaks English. Her young daughters are both bi-lingual but the gal doing the cooking spoke Spanish.  As we sat out on the porch surrounded by tropical trees and plants, an older Costa Rican gal came around the corner carrying a plastic pail stuffed with plastic bags and grabbed my arm and shook it as a greeting as I was eating my wonderful chicken and rice soup. She then did the same to Tammy and was obviously welcoming us as she jabbered away in Spanish. This turned out to be Zelma (sp)  Christina's neighbor.

As we sat there, Zelma continued to jabber away in excited Spanish to the housekeep through the window as she cooked. (open air window opening out to where we sat on the porch) The House keep was jabbering back and then suddenly started saying " No, No" and shaking her head and waving her hands back in forth in front of her to emphasis her no. Zelma sat down with a disappointed look on her face with body language such as she had just lost out on something.

Christina piped up and told us in English what was going on. Apparently the night before in the heavy rain, the roots had washed out underneath a tree and it had fallen in the valley below the house. It not only had fallen, it had fallen on a bull and killed him outright.  The owner of the bull had invited the neighborhood to go ahead and butcher the bull and get some meat before it spoiled due to the weather. Zelma was asking the house keeper to go with her to the site as it was all men down there and she would be to embarrassed to go. As it turned out this was a small town, and one of the men down there was someone that the housekeep had no intentions on getting close to for some reason unknown to us.

Well, after hearing this, and seeing the crest fallen Zelma, I opened my mouth and asked Christina if it would do any good if I went with Zelma. Christine Cracked a smile and said "I'll ask her".  Christina jabbered a few words in Spanish to Zelma, Zelma turned and looked at me like she couldn't believe what she just heard, then She Jumped out of her chair all excited again grabbing me by the arm and started pulling me toward the road and talking away to me without me understanding more then a word or two. Christine piped up and said maybe the older daughter (probably 10) could go in case I needed a translator down there. So off we went!  What I found was a cultural experience like not many have probably ever had. As we approached many of the group looked at me a little funny, but Zelma jabbered a little to them and I caught the word Gringo in there, she also pointed at my camera and I could tell she was telling them I was going to take pictures. They all smiled and went back to their business of harvesting the meat from the bull tree as Zelma pretty much took over the whole operation.  I watched and listened for quite awhile, and eventually was handed a bag of beef for myself, which I took back to Harold's. It was quite an experience. I'll try to post some video clips later and maybe someone that speaks Spanish can tell us what they are saying in it.


This is the tree that poor unlucky El Toro picked to shelter under. Can anyone Identify it?



View down to the "scene of the accident"
Notice the growing fence. Almost all of the fences in Costa Rica grow and have to be pruined. You stick a fence pole in the gorund and it starts to grow.





My Beautiful little translator








This is Zelma in the foreground, as you can see, she looks like she is taking charge.











Apparently this was a most important part of the harvest the way it was being treated. Everything was Harvested. EVERYTHING!

[Jeff]

El Toro and the Tree.
The Movie...

[thurlow]

My grandmother would have called this a "stock cow";  would never have allowed a word as vulgar as "bull" to pass her lips.  This "EVERYTHING" part.............was that unique to a "stock cow"? 8)

[asy]

I notice the horse is staying FAR FAR away.

Smart horse.

Great shots! Looks like nothing's wasted there.

asy :D

[Jeff]

The horse is up on the road where he was left by his rider, one of the men working on the bull. He was up there untethered for a long time, with cars and trucks going by him. He just stood there and waited for his master. We witnessed quite a few very well trained animals while we were there. The Costa Rican people are much more attuned to the earth and its creatures then we are.

[Mooseherder]

You get Beef Stakes ;D
I could hire everyone of them butchers if they moved to Florida! :D
Did you get to taste the Beef? My experience with their Beef is it is leaner and a Darker Red color when it blooms because of the Grass feeding.

[Jeff]

Nope, I took it back to Harold and he stuffed it in the Freezer and gave me beans and rice for supper. :-\ :D

[Furby]

You get Beef Stakes ;D

:D :D :D :D
Very good! ;D

[Fla._Deadheader]

AND every meal he pushed the plate away, WITH food still on it  : : :D :D :D  Beef is GOOOOOOD.  ;) ;)

[Mooseherder]

Harold, Do you ever make dishes with the dried beef they ship to USA called Tasajo?
Or do they just save it for us? When we sell it, it's got yellow wax looking stuff on it.
I have heard after you get the wax off and re-hydrate, it is pretty darn good stuff to add to Beans and Rice.  :D

[metalspinner]

In pic 11.... The guy holding "everything"... What are his plans for that anyway?

Certainly not food?

[Jeff]

Certainly. In the states they call them Rocky Mountain Oysters. They have various names in other places, but yea, they eat them. They were also pretty protective of the stomach lining and the head for the tongue and brains. They skinned the tail as well. I'm sure for a variation of maybe Ox tail soup.

[Mooseherder]

Ya'll know we got a tremondous hispanic population down here in South Florida.
We sell the heck out of what we call Offals.
Tripe is the Stomach Lining. I think a cow has a few stomachs.
Beef Tongue, Kidneys, Liver, Sweetbreads(ain't no loaf)
Best seller is Oxtails.  We are talking 10s of thousands of pounds every week in the division.
Properly prepared Oxtail soup taste like Rib Roast to me.