Our Journal

We describe Finca Luna Nueva as “both a recreational paradise and a living classroom.” We think we need to add “we’re also a living laboratory,” as distinguished scientists from the University of Texas, Dallas and Texas A&M University came to our syntropic cacao field to test new technology for the measurement of soil health. Dr. […]

Finca Luna Nueva began in 1994, when an herbal company named New Moon Extracts contacted Steven Farrell and asked him to find an organic farm that could grow a large amount of ginger.  Steven knew Walter Arias, who is one of our current farmers, and Walter recommended a large parcel of fallow land that was […]

Want to spend quality time on your belly crawling through the jungle to find endangered plant species that just might cure major diseases?  Too intense for your family outing?  Well, how about spending a few hours “biologizing” about the flora along our Cabalonga Trail, learning how indigenous peoples used those plants to treat snake bites, […]

Katie Rose Molina Browning and Scott Gallant As we look to find niches and stack functions in our tropical permaculture homesteads, one often overlooked group of plants include the edible flowers. With a focus on Costa Rica, this blog, authored primarily by Katie Browning, a certified herbalist, explores the many common and uncommon edible flowers […]

By Thomas Newmark, Finca Luna Nueva Lodge Make chocolate in the rainforest? Of course! You’ll take a thousand-year journey through the history of growing cacao and making chocolate, even using an ancient cacao grinding stone recovered from the Caribbean slope of the great Atlantic rainforest in Costa Rica. Plus, you get to drink and eat the tour, […]

Our daughter Sara and her beautiful family (husband Drew and our grandkids Elias and Eloise) visited us a few weeks ago, and they brought with them a gang of friends and other family members. It was spring break meets family reunion at Finca Luna Nueva, and the group exchanged photos to share their memories. The […]