Maggie's Farm

Good cigars, yes, but some of the best are "for export only" and If they can be had, quite pricey. On the other hand there is my friend Martine, who has access to some of the best Havanas at a special price. In Cuba, the living situation is so bleak that the Cigar workers conceal sufficient quantity over time to sell "out the back door".
The real treasure here, aside from the people-who have a lot more dulce Taíno in them than Henry Louis Gates could see or acknowledge in one of his skewed diatribes ("Black in Latin América")-the real treasure is the tomatoes-not perfectly
round nor red-not GMO, not pesticide coated-not cardboard beauties-one bite and one is hooked. Of course there is mango, papaya, plaintain, avocado-that in their off the tree freshness are unrecognizable as the unripe tough specimens we get in the states. Then of course the rum, the merengue, the bachata, salsa. The beaches, the "campo" the foot hills, the highest mountains in the Caribbean-oh, and those sunsets...