Ecologic Model Farm:

The Monteverde region and the Model Farm, which the Brenes family purchased in 1951, have a history of intertwined challenges and changes that have combined to provide us economic activity, and thus a better quality of life, in an environmentally sustainable way.

The Brenes family arrived to Monteverde in 1951, but it definitely wasn’t easy.  They started out in Zarcero, where they paid someone to drive them to Guacimal.  However, the roads were in such bad condition that the driver decided not to continue and left them there on the side of the road. 

They then waited for the bus to Guacimal, but when it came, the bus driver didn’t want to take them because they were carrying so much luggage. Eventually he agreed to take them after listening to the pleas of the other passengers to let them get on. When they got to Guacimal there was an ox-cart there waiting to take them to Monteverde.  After 8 hours on the road they finally arrived to Monteverde – hungry, thirsty, and tired.

In those times there was very little work to be found in all of Monteverde.  Only about 12 people actually had jobs and they only made 1.5 colones per day!  The families were so poor that they barely had enough money to buy rice, cooking oil, salt, flour, candles, and matches.  The homes back then were made with dirt floors, since tile was unaffordable.  What’s more, most people only owned 3 outfits – 2 raggedy ones for weekdays and 1 nicer outfit for Sundays and special occasions. The farm that the Brenes family had bought, for 3,000 colones (roughly $375), was a vacant lot full of weeds with a very old house. They also bought a horse out of necessity since Don Vicente was disabled, as well as a cow, which cost them 450 colones total (roughly $56).

The farm only had grass for the horse and cow, and didn’t produce any food at all.  Furthermore, since there wasn’t any potable water, they had to carry water in containers from a nearby creek.

Although back then the town of Turín was more important than Monteverde, one popular activity that people would do took place in Monteverde every Sunday.  At the house of Rafael Arguedas, the town would gather to listen to the radio for a couple of hours.  Afterwards, they would return home, but getting back home on those roads wasn’t always so easy. In those years, the roads were so bad that the ones that exist today seem like highways in comparison!

Sometimes it was even impossible for horses to pass through!  Whenever someone became sick, they had to be taken to a doctor in Abangares in a stretcher made of rods and bags.

It took 15 to 20 people to carry the stretcher and the trip lasted 8 to 9 hours. Over the years, the economic situation of the Brenes family began to improve.  Little by little they began to plant more and more grass and corn, which in turn gave them the opportunity to get more animals and have products to sell to be able to survive.  All of the farm’s produce was taken to sell in Las Juntas of Abangares.

Meanwhile, several people in the area began to bring milk for use in cheese production to the Quakers (who arrived in Monteverde in 1949), who produced cheese for their own consumption before.  It took a tremendous effort for the people to carry their milk to the cheese factory, what with having to carry the milk on horses through the muddy roads.  Nevertheless, that was how the now famous cheese factory in Monteverde was started.  The Brenes family was a part of all of this, as Herman Brenes was the first Costa Rican employee of the cheese factory. In 1980, we planted between 8 and 10 thousand trees on our farm, including species such as: pine, tubú, colpachí, cirri, Japanese níspero, cedar, and guachipelín.  The trees serve as biological corridors for birds and animals.

The trees also have provided another benefit by allowing the farm to increase its production.  Within 8 years of planting the trees, the farm’s production was doubled! 

The farm itself has now passed through 3 generations.  It began with Vicente Brenes, who founded the school in La Cruz.  It then passed onto Herman Brenes, who fought for electricity and better roads in La Cruz.  Now we, Herman’s sons, are able to build toward the future with our tours, thanks to our grandfather and father, who fought passionately to be able to give us this treasure.