Agro-biodiversidad y especies forestales alimenticias del bosque de los mil colores

The project, "Historias desde el Fogón," aimed to conserve and sustainably use the dry tropical forest through the creation of biological corridors between remaining forest fragments and productive systems of small producers in seven areas or nodes of influence in the Caribbean region. In the sub-region of the Montes de María, 10 culinary encounters or "Encuentros junto al Fogón" were held in 2015. These events were the culmination of work by a group of 12 local investigators, who documented local culinary systems through surveys, semi-structured interviews, life stories, visual testimonies (photographs and drawings), and the experience of the culinary encounters themselves. The encounters became spaces for sharing among family and community, gathering one or more veredas around the office of the kitchen and the act of eating together. In this way, in addition to reflection on the value of agro-biodiversity and cultural memory, "cooking and eating" together served to reweave social ties broken by violence and to honor the pleasure of recreating traditional preparations from locally produced foods. The book "Historias desde el Fogón" aims to combine and communicate the local research processes carried out within the framework of the project. In addition to traditional recipes that served as the route for the culinary encounters, the book will include excerpts from the life stories of the people who animated these recipes, a record of the material culture associated with the office of the kitchen in this sub-region, and a set of profiles of native and creole seeds that are the basis of preparations and the memory of cooks and their diners. The palates of the peasants of the Montes de María have a defined and conscious taste for fresh and locally grown foods. This is clearly expressed in relation to the valuation they make of native and creole seeds, or traditional seeds, which are familiar to them and therefore say they understand. In the same way, these seeds are at the base of the myriad of flavors, textures, and colors that constitute their culinary traditions. The seeds that make up the productive systems associated with the dry tropical forest are fundamental in terms of their adaptation to drought and high temperatures characteristic of this biome, as well as their role in food security and sovereignty of the populations that interact daily with the forest. These seeds play a crucial role at the agro-ecosystem level and in the cultural memory of the peasants who have been responsible for selecting, storing, reproducing, and conserving them. The liga is a preparation that accompanies the bastimento. In fact, the concept of liga only exists in relation to the bastimento. However, a food can be liga and bastimento at the same time. For example, as Diavira Carmona from San Juan Nepomuceno says, cooked ahuyama is considered bastimento and in soup it is seen as liga. While these change according to their function in the dish, the bastimento is generally associated with the main crops of the roza. Moreover, the bastimento are both the crops and the cooked food ready to eat.