Pressing Sugar Cane Juice & Other Don Juan Demos

During our tour of Don Juan's organic farm, each of us were chosen to assist with one of his demonstrations. One woman held a cacao plant in her hand while he used his machete to slice it. She was a brave one, though I noticed he used the flat edge to strike with rather than the sharp blade. One lady pulled up a yucca root and then washed, dried, and perfumed her hands using other plants. Other people picked lettuce and radishes.



I was chosen along with another woman to use the red stain found inside the plant shown in the photo above as cosmetics. But not for ourselves. No, we were directed to apply the stain as lipstick, blush, and eye shadow to the faces of two men who had to keep their eyes closed. Once we were finished, they opened their eyes, took one look at each other, and burst out laughing. They looked like clowns! As you can see, this was a lighthearted, entertaining tour.

One of the most physical tasks demonstrated was pressing sugar cane into juice. In the video below, you will see how hard this is to do. Naturally, the strongest men in our group were chosen to help with this.



We drank the juice collected in the pitcher shown in the video. It tasted super sweet!