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Rancho Mastatal Sustainability Education Center

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Costa Rica
Puriscal
Rancho Mastatal Sustainability Education Center

Based in Costa Rica, we are one of the premier sites in the tropics to learn about permaculture and natural building.

Rancho Mastatal is an environmental learning and sustainable living center located in and on the edge of the last remaining virgin rainforest of Costa Rica’s beautiful Puriscal County. We practice, promote and teach about living responsibly in the tropics while educating our visitors about the significance of the world’s disappearing tropical forests. We work tirelessly to help lead local efforts in conservation, food security and production, education, natural medicine, and community growth.

03/10/2026

We have an impressive library at the Ranch.

Thousands of books on a wide range of topics.

It is not uncommon to see guests eyes light up upon entering the space that houses our treasure trove of writing.

One of the best represented authors in our collection is Wendell Berry, the author, poet, farmer and social justice activist.

He died a few weeks ago after a long lifetime of advocating for small farmers, the working class and the flora and fauna that make life possible.

May he rest in peace and may his valuable work be perpetuated and spread wide in the coming years and decades. His compositions are as relevant and important as ever.

“We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. ... We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. . . We must recover the sense of the majesty of the creation and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.”

― Wendell Berry

29/09/2026

Recipe below! 👇

Each year we offer several workshops about different aspects of natural building. To get the link straight to your inbox comment "Earth".

This rammed earth wall took a total of about 10 hours with 5 or 6 people. It is a lot of work on the front end, but once you remove the final form it is totally worth it!!

The mix we used after extensive testing with our soil was:

4 parts soil
2 parts sand
1/2 part lime

Make sure to test your soil for it's rammed earth suitability. It is likely that the places where rammed earth was used extensively were also places where the soil needed little to no amendment. Rammed earth is found all over the world on every continent except Antarctica.

Thanks Benito Steen for all the tests, knowledge and push to make our first rammed earth wall here!

26/09/2026

Is slowing down antithetical to doing right?

In spite of the wide array of pressing issues that confront humans, we might benefit at times by taking life a bit slower.

Efficiency, productivity and industriousness are indiscriminately praised in modern society. To what end though are we being productive?

We might be wise to think twice when our industriousness simply adds to more pollution, soil loss, and human suffering.

Slowing down pushes back against the go-get-it work ethic that we are taught growing up. We need to reexamine the value that we put on busyness.

If we never decelerate, we don’t have the time to contemplate and evaluate the impacts of our actions, so that when we do engage with our projects, we can do so with compassion, respect and consideration.

Taking the time to make a dorodongo for a loved one or sit down and read a physical book or listen to the river babble through the forest on its purifying journey has immeasurable worth.

Yes, there’s a lot of work to be done in the world today. To do lists are never-ending. The world is on fire. But still we need to slow down when we can, to realize that we are an integral part of this ecosystem, and in turn achieve our goals of regeneration.

When we slow down, we don’t care less. We are not being lazy. We are being human, and taking the time to reconnect to our custodial role as creatures on this planet, so that we can appropriately care for the rivers, mountains, neighbors, soil and oceans as well as our health and freedom.

22/09/2026

Recipe for this plaster below 👇

In our upcoming Natural Building and Plasters Class, we will be exploring many different types of plaster and artistry ✨

Comment "EARTH" to receive a link to the workshop straight to your inbox or see the link in our bio.

The recipe for this plaster was as follows:

400g calcium hydroxide
900g water
33g black pigment
Thicken to right consistency

If you wanted a different color or shade adjust the pigment color and proportions.

19/09/2026

Four or five years back, Nic and Ali made a beautiful terrazzo tile floor for the hallway in one of our timber frame and waddle and daub structures named La Malanga.

During that time, they worked on dialing in the recipe and developing a technique for future projects.

Two years ago, we worked to start to scale up this process in preparation to make the more than 1,000 tiles necessary for the downstairs hallway at the new dorm structure, El Pilón.

These tiles will provide the necessary durability that high traffic floors require, think “wheely” suitcases, rambunctious teenagers and everything in between.

After two years of designing, testing, mixing, pouring, stacking, grinding and polishing, we recently finished the tiles that now await installation in the almost done building.

The design is made up of 21 rectangles and squares of varying sizes and 3 different colors that repeat themselves.

The process of fabricating the tiles starts with measuring and mixing the materials, made up mostly of 1/5” minus stone, sand, cement and additives that enhance the workability of the mix and increase the strength of the final product.

The mixture is poured into molds on top of a flat, formica table and then screed, vibrated, and screed again. The mold is removed while the mix is still wet and then covered with plastic overnight.

The tiles can be removed from the formica table the following day and should then sit for a week or more to cure before grinding, polishing and sealing.

The tiles will be laid on a flat bed of sand and then grouted with a cement grout.

This process allows you to make a floor that uses much less cement than would otherwise be needed for a concrete floor.

The handmade tiles add a custom touch to your project and allows us to highlight the abundance of beautiful colors that come from our local river stone.

Let us know what questions you have and we hope that you’re able to experience these tiles in person during one of our upcoming workshops.

15/09/2026

Want to learn with us in 2027? 🌿👇🏼

Check out our upcoming workshops! Comment “workshop” and we’ll send the link straight to your inbox, or find it through the link in our bio.

From small trowels to old yogurt lids and scraps of plastic, creating custom shapes and forms often requires a little improvisation.

With many of our sculpted forms, a huge amount of time and care goes into creating uniform curves and smooth surfaces—so the eye can appreciate the overall form without being distracted by imperfections.

By building unique structures from natural materials and showcasing their beauty, versatility, and durability, we hope to inspire others to embark on their own natural building journey.

We have opened up another Natural Building and Plasters Class because the first one filled up! Hope to see you there ✨

12/09/2026

Community events are important in rural areas as they provide opportunities to bring people together and share.

They oftentimes also have a fundraising components. Examples of these types of activities can include bingos, dances, fútbol matches, and rodeos.

The governments from Mastatal and our 3 closest neighboring communities, San Miguel, San Vicente and Zapaton, came together recently to host an ambitious event called a “cabalgata”. This could be translated to “horse parade”.

It draws people from all over the region who are embedded in the cowboy culture of Costa Rica, which is alive and well in many rural areas of our small country.

People can participate in a variety of ways from bystander to rider and everything in between. The idea is anchored by the horse owners who bring their mares and stallions to parade and dance them them through the countryside.

There are raffles, prizes for best horses, a full bar, tons of food vendors selling chicharrones, picadillos and fried chicken, a variety of games and lots of tight jeans and cowboy hats.

It’s in essence a celebration of rural horse culture.

The recent cabalgata took place in San Miguel and brought in hundreds of people and millions of colones, the latter which will be used for road improvements in the area.

Next time your in Costa Rica, seek out one of these authentic events and grab a drink and plate of chicharrones and enjoy the show.

08/09/2026

Plaster recipes below 👇🏼

Want to get hands on experience with this? Check out the link in our bio for our natural building workshops, or comment “EARTH"

We make our own plaster recipes using natural, locally available materials.

Here’s the basic recipe we use:

Clay base coat
* 3 parts sand
* 1 part clay
* 1 part chopped straw

Lime base coat
* 3 (⅛") parts sand
* 1 part lime putty

Tadelakt finish
* 1 part marble dust
* 1 part lime putty

Soap finish 🫧
We seal the tadelakt with our homemade, lard-based soap, which helps create that beautiful, water-resistant finish.

Special stone ✨
A stone harder than 7 on the Mohs hardness scale is used to polish the surface. We especially like Red Carnelian.

Natural building is all about working with what’s available and learning from traditional techniques.

05/09/2026

How can I use what I learned at Rancho Mastatal and apply it to my situation back home?

That’s a common question that we get at the Ranch from guests upon their departure from our home. Many folks question the transferability of lessons learned in the rainforest to their temperate situations elsewhere.

The core team is away from Mastatal at the moment visiting family and friends in non-tropical climates. During our time away, we bring back many pieces of our lives from Mastatal and apply them here in this temperate setting.

In the few weeks that we’ve been in Upstate NY, we readied a garden and planted Asian greens, lettuce, radishes and cucumbers.

We built a practice panel to explore plastering possibilities with the clay-rich soil that I dug out of the garden.

We make sourdough bread two to three times a week. We make dairy kefir as or more often.

We make a large crock of sauerkraut every few weeks from locally grown cabbage.

We make mint and nettle tea from the “garden” multiple times a week. If you live in a temperate climate like Upstate NY both of these gems do just fine with almost no maintenance whatsoever and the deer care nothing for them, unlike the kale and lettuce that I plant that must be secured behind a fence.

We bike wherever we can.

We’re getting bumper crop of pears from the three pear trees that I planted out back at my mom’s house a few years back.

We also harvest apples from the few “abandoned” apple trees in the neighborhood.

We’re making a timber frame mailbox for a family member out of local black locust.

These are a few of the ways that we can continue to walk the path that we set upon decades ago, even when we’re away from our projects in Mastatal. .

Sometimes the small steps that we take today get us to where we want to be in the years to come. And there’s never a better day to take one of those small steps than today.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Dirección

Puriscal

Horario de apertura

Lunes	07:00 - 14:00
Martes	07:00 - 14:00
Miércoles	07:00 - 14:00
Jueves	07:00 - 14:00
Viernes	07:00 - 14:00
Sábado	07:00 - 14:00

Página web

http://www.ranchomastatal.com/

Notificaciones

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