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Honoring maíz

Posted in Agriculture, Celebrations, Culture, Food, Travel & Tourism, tagged corn, Día Nacional del Maíz, maíz, Mexico, National Day of Corn, Oaxaca, photos on September 29, 2019| 6 Comments »

On this Día Nacional del Maíz (National Day of Corn), in honor of the late Maestro Francisco Toledo, who led a fight to defend the native corn from genetically modified corn, a series of activities was held in four of the cultural spaces he bequeathed to Oaxaca. Understanding in Mexico, corn is life, my amiga and I braved the much-needed rain (that has now been falling for 24 hours) to participate in the activities.

Our first stop was at the Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo (photographic center), where each visitor was photographed in front of a display of maíz and the mobile unit of the Centro de las Artes de San Agustín (CaSa) made special commemorative prints.

Backdrop for photos at the Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo

Next on the itinerary was the library, Fonoteca Eduardo Mata, where a video about the issue of transgenic corn was shown, corn masks were given, and we recieved a second stamp in our Pasaporte Día Nacional del Maíz.

Raised beds of corn in the Ethnobotanic Garden

We then proceeded to the Jardín Etnobotánico (Ethnobotanic Garden), where we were introduced to two raised beds of maíz — one the silvestre abuelita (wild grandmother) and one her cultivated descendant that we rely on today.

Serving pozol from an olla at IAGO

Our final stop of the day was at the Instituto de Arte Gráficas de Oaxaca (IAGO) where we were rewarded with many gifts — including a t-shirt or sweatshirt, a small flower pot of corn stalks, and a comida of tamales, nicuatole, and pozol (a prehispanic corn beverage).

Field of corn in Teotitlán del Valle

Everyone should be honoring this day and giving thanks to the original peoples of Oaxaca for cultivating maíz 10,000 years ago.

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Art of a garden

Posted in Agriculture, Creativity, Culture, Flora, Gardens, tagged cactus, gardens, metates, Mexico, molcajetes, Oaxaca, photos, ponds, recycled objects, succulents, Vives Verde on September 12, 2019| 4 Comments »

Who knew that there was an amazing garden, built on a former garbage dump, and open to the public in Xoxocotlán? Not me, until a friend mentioned it and invited me on a field trip to visit.

Thus, a few days ago, I found myself at Vives Verdes — a delightful labor of love — a marriage of plants, recycling, art, education, and the environment.

Nine years ago architect, Francisco Martínez began a project of landscaping a healing, artistic, and environmental garden — not only utilizing plants, but also converting found objects into planters and whimsical art.

Vives Verdes incorporates more than 200 species and 2000 plants — mostly from Oaxaca, but also from other arid climates throughout the world.

A water catchment system utilizing paths, beds, and ponds irrigate the garden and no chemicals are used.

Vives Verde is open to the public and school groups. It is located in the Las Culturas neighborhood of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, Oaxaca.

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Mushrooms and more

Posted in Agriculture, Culture, Flora, Food, food festival, Science & Nature, Travel & Tourism, tagged apples, Fairs, Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres, food, hongos, Margaret Atwood quote, Mexico, mushrooms, Oaxaca photos, popular travel destinations, potatoes, quotations, San Antonio Cuajimoloyas, Wild Mushroom Festival on July 23, 2019| 10 Comments »

Sunday, I headed up into the clouds for the 19th Feria Regional de Hongos Silvestres (Regional Wild Mushroom Fair) in San Antonio Cuajimoloyas. Friends had hired a van and driver to take us on the steep winding climb into the Sierra Norte. An hour and a half after we left the city, we arrived at our destination, 10,433 feet above sea level. Cuajimoloyas has an ethereal feel and seems like a world apart from the valley below.

Baskets of fresh mushrooms with shiny orange caps and mushrooms resembling coral, trumpets, cauliflower, and flower petals beckoned. And the aroma of grilled mushrooms, mushroom tamales, mushroom empanadas, and chile relleno stuffed with mushrooms stimulated the appetite.

There were dried mushrooms in bulk and in little cellophane baggies for purchase.

Mushrooms aren’t the only produce the region is known for — delicious apples and new potatoes are grown in these chilly mountains.

And, there there were local crafts for sale and a couple of kinds of mezcal to taste (and buy).

I came home with apples, potatoes, a bottle of the lovely A Medios Chiles mezcal made from the wild Jabalí agave, and 30 grams of dried mushrooms. While the mushrooms weren’t of the “magic” variety, the experience certainly was!

“Mushrooms were the roses in the garden of that unseen world, because the real mushroom plant was underground. The parts you could see – what most people called a mushroom – was just a brief apparition. A cloud flower.” ― Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood

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Making mezcal: the cooking

Posted in Agriculture, Culture, Flora, People, Travel & Tourism, tagged agave, bagaso, Félix Ángeles Arellanes, maguey, Mexico, mezcal, Mezcal El Minerito, mezcaleros, Oaxaca, Palenque, photos, Santa Catarina Minas on July 17, 2019| 11 Comments »

Yesterday, friends from California invited me to accompany them on one of their favorite pastimes — going to the source for artisanal mezcal. At our first stop, the palenque of Félix Ángeles Arellanes, Mezcal El Minerito, we were just in time to watch the beginning of the process of cooking the agave piñas.

The art of making mezcal at the palenque, Mezcal El Minerito.

Piling river rocks onto the red and white hot coals in the earthen pit that functions as the horno (oven).

Covering the rocks with bagaso (recycled crushed agave fibers).

Putting the long tobasiche agave piñas into the oven.

Adding the more rounded jabalí and tobalá piñas.

Topping it off with more tobasiche piñas.

Covering the piñas with more bagaso.

Félix’s sons worked nonstop — an hour and fifteen minutes from the time of the first photo, they covered the mound with tarps to enclose the oven. Though we didn’t see it, I suspect this was then sealed with soil.

Félix pours the “Nectar of the Gods” — a multilayered and complex artisanal mezcal.

Nothing like being at the right place at the right time. And, yes, we not only watched, we tasted and we bought!

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Cheers to hummingbirds and bats

Posted in Agriculture, Animals, Creativity, Culture, Flora, Science & Nature, Travel & Tourism, tagged agave, bats, flowers, hummingbirds, Lapiztola, mague, Mal de Amor palenque, Mexico, murals, Oaxaca, photos, popular travel destinations, quiote, Santiago Matatlán, wall art on February 24, 2019| 5 Comments »

Let us all raise a glass to the hummingbirds and bats of Oaxaca.

Without the work they do pollinating the flowers on the quiotes (stalks) that shoot up from the agave,

there would be no maguey piñas to harvest and cook…

and no mezcal to drink!

*Mural by Lapiztola on the side of the Palenque Mal de Amor (makers of Ilegal mezcal) 2+ miles north of Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca. Check out their other mural at the palenque HERE.

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Feast for the departed

Posted in Agriculture, Celebrations, Culture, Food, Travel & Tourism, tagged Day of the Dead, Día de los Muertos, farm to table, food, Mexico, Oaxaca, photos, popular travel destinations, tamales, Teotitlán del Valle on November 1, 2018| 8 Comments »

Today, at 3:00 PM in Teotitlán del Valle, as leaves in the mountains and fields rustled, the arrival of the difuntos (departed) was announced with the sound of cohetes (rockets) and church bells. Incense burners were lit and placed in front of ofrendas in each home’s altar room — the smoke and scent of copal helping to guide the spirits home for their yearly twenty-four hour visit.

Tonight they will feast on tamales amarillos — special tamales that are traditionally served three times a year in Teotitlán — in July for the Fiesta de la Preciosa Sangre de Cristo, in October for the Fiesta de la Virgen del Rosario, and today, November first, in honor of the returning difuntos.

As we have done for many years, blogger buddy Chris and I came to the home of Zacarías Ruiz and Emilia Gonzalez with our offering of pan de muertos and a bottle of mezcal to place on their altar — paying our respects to their difuntos. In turn, we were offered mezcal and cervesas (beer), followed by the aforementioned tamales amarillos.

The tamales were days in the making. Several of the family’s organic free range chickens were sacrificed; corn from their milpa was nixtamalized to make a silky smooth masa; and the ingredients for mole amarillo were toasted, chopped, blended, and boiled. The final preparation began at 3:30 this morning — 250 tamales were assembled, filled, and wrapped in fresh green leaves from their milpa and placed in the steaming pots. The results were to die for!

For me, more than painted faces and parades, this is what makes experiencing Día de los Muertos in Oaxaca so special.

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Cultivating coyuche

Posted in Agriculture, Casita Colibrí, Creativity, Flora, Gardens, Textiles, Travel & Tourism, tagged algodón, Casita Colibrí, cotton, cotton bolls, coyuche, flowers, garden, Katyi Ya'a, photos, plants, textile traditions, textiles on October 19, 2018| 8 Comments »

Not all cotton bolls are white…

Roberta French, who built my apartment complex in Oaxaca many decades ago, established a textile weaving business and planted coyuche (koyuchi), a natural brown cotton. She is no longer with us, but her plant survives and grows up onto my balcony. This time of year, the yellow, pink, and rose flowers bloom, die, form pods, and brown cotton fluff results.

And the results? Here, at my apartment complex, the plant is solely decorative. However, the traditional way of growing, spinning, and weaving brown cotton is still practiced in some communities in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico. And, I have been lucky enough to have been gifted an old huipil woven of coyuche and acquired a new one at an expo-venta here in Oaxaca city. If you would like more information on coyuche and its cultivation and weaving, I recommend checking out the Katyi Ya’a collective.

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Beneath the sheltering leaves

Posted in Agriculture, Flora, Food, Gardens, Travel & Tourism, tagged fruit trees, gardens, granadas, grapefruit, mango, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, pomegranate, Teotitlán del Valle, trees on May 2, 2017| 4 Comments »

Cooking with Juana… Mangos ripening just out of reach.

Sunlight filtering through the leaves of the granada (pomegranate) tree.

A pomelo (grapefruit) waiting to drop.

There is something to be said for outdoor kitchens.

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Cultivating creativity

Posted in Agriculture, Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged agave, art, Mexico, mezcal, murals, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, street art, wall art on March 31, 2017| 4 Comments »

It’s good to be back in Oaxaca — land of mezcal. Even the walls sing its praises.

And, they are not alone — so does National Geographic, with their article, A Mezcal Boom Spurs Creativity.

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Mi piña

Posted in Agriculture, Casita Colibrí, Flora, Food, Gardens, tagged food, fruit, garden, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, piña, pineapple on April 28, 2016| 2 Comments »

Remember the pineapple growing in my rooftop container garden? Upon returning from a week-long magical mystery trip (more about that to come) last night, I discovered mi piña was more than ready to harvest.

The fragrance beckons… breakfast tomorrow!!!

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Pineapple grows on my terrace

Posted in Agriculture, Casita Colibrí, Flora, Food, Gardens, History, Travel & Tourism, tagged fruit, garden, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, piña, pineapple on November 26, 2015| 4 Comments »

A year and a half ago, I cut off the top of a pineapple (piña, en español), stuck it in a ten inch pot in full sun, watered it very occasionally during the dry season, and it actually began to grow. This member of the Bromeliaceae family is thought to have originated in the area between southern Brazil and Paraguay and spread throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Reaching Mexico, it was cultivated by the Mayas and Aztecs. Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese conquerors took it across the pond, and the rest is history. No surprise, as the fruit (which resembles a pine cone — hence the name) is sweet, succulent, and ridiculously easy to grow!

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A symbol of home: warmth, welcome, friendship and hospitality. — The Welcoming Pineapple

Grown in the Papaloapan region of Oaxaca, the pineapple has inspired elaborate embroidery designs and the crowd-pleasing Flor de Piña dance. What’s not to love?!

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Art of agave

Posted in Agriculture, Culture, Flora, Travel & Tourism, tagged agave, Lapiztola, mescal, Mexico, mezcal, murals, Oaxaca, photos, popular travel destinations, street art, urban art, wall art on October 18, 2015| 3 Comments »

Before a “suspendida” order is slapped on this stunning piece by the Lapiztola collective celebrating the human face of agave cultivation, here is another moving work of art for the people, seen on Tinoco y Palacio on the wall of Piedra Lumbre, near the Sanchez Pascuas mercado. It tells a story…

The wisdom of cultivation handed down from generation to generation.

From the agave comes mezcal.

There are 199 “recognized” species of agave. How many can be used to make mezcal? The Mezcal PhD explores the answer. And, for an illustrated guide to many of the more popular varietals, click The Many Varieties of Mezcal.

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My morning caller

Posted in Agriculture, Animals, Casita Colibrí, Science & Nature, tagged Chapulín de la milpa, Chapulines, grasshoppers, Mexico, Oaxaca, photo, photographs, Sphenarium purpurascens on September 15, 2014| 4 Comments »

This morning’s sunshine (after days of gray) brought a visitor to my door…

A Sphenarium purpurascens, also known as Chapulín de la milpa. No cornfield nearby. Hmmm… perhaps the recent storms blew it off course?

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Ready for her close-up

Posted in Agriculture, Casita Colibrí, Gardens, Science & Nature, Travel & Tourism, tagged cactus, Dragon fruit, flowers, garden, Hylocereus undatus, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Pitahaya, succulents on June 4, 2014| 16 Comments »

Several mornings ago, after a day and night of rain, I went out on the terrace to check on the garden and found…

Yikes, one of my Pitahaya (Hylocereus undatus – aka, Dragon fruit) had bloomed overnight! Must be a relative of my other Night Blooming Cereus.

Two years ago, the original cuttings had been laying in the campo of a friend in San Martín Tilcajete. When Chris (Oaxaca-The Year After) asked if we could have some, the answer was, “¡Por supuesto!” Loving the wall of Pitahaya at Centro Académico y Cultural San Pablo, six months later, with the original five cuttings becoming fifteen, I could use them to begin to screen the chain link fence at the new Casita Colibrí. I kept pruning and sticking them in the planter boxes.

Pitahaya climbing chain link fence

June 2, 2014, 8:40 AM

And now, they have begun blooming. Having missed the “night-blooming” of my first flower, I was determined not to miss the unfolding of the second blossom, seen above near the top of the pole, providing the weather cooperated. It did!

Pitahaya blossom

June 2, 2014, 7:20 PM

Pitahaya flower

June 2, 2014, 8:40 PM

Pitahaya flower, side view

June 2, 2014, 11:00 PM

By the next day, it had closed, never to reopen again.

Pitahaya flower closed

June 2, 2014, 2:54 PM

However, there will be fruit…

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Reality check

Posted in Agriculture, Economics, Food, Immigration, Labor, People, tagged articles, California, David Bacon, farmworkers, immigration, indigenous peoples, labor, Living Under the Trees, Mexico, migrants, Oaxaca, workers, Young at Work in the Fields on April 5, 2014| 1 Comment »

According to the Indigenous Farmworker Study (IFS), there are approximately 165,000 indigenous Mexican farmworkers and their children living in California — with a significant percentage coming from the state of Oaxaca. Writer and photographer David Bacon has been photographing and interviewing indigenous Mexican migrants working in California’s agricultural fields for many years. The following Truthout article is from his photo-documentary project, Living Under the Trees, sponsored by the California Council for the Humanities and California Rural Legal Assistance.

Young, at Work in the Fields

by David Bacon

(Photo: Bacon/After Image)

(Photo: Bacon/After Image)

Most young farm-workers in California are migrants from Mexico, especially the south of the country, where many people share an indigenous culture and language. Ricardo Lopez, living in a van with his grandfather in a store parking lot in Mecca, a tiny farmworker town in the Coachella Valley, says working as a migrant without a formal home was no surprise:

This is how I envisioned it would be working here with my grandpa and sleeping in the van. It’s hot at night, and hard to sleep well. There are a lot of mosquitoes, very few services, and the bathrooms are very dirty. At night there are a lot of people here coming and going. You never know what can happen; it’s a bit dangerous. But my grandfather has a lot of experience and knows how to handle himself. With the money I earn I’m going to help my mother and save the rest. I’ll be attending college in the fall at Arizona Western College—my first year. I want to have a good job, a career. I’m not thinking of working in the fields. Not at all. I look at how hard my grandfather has worked. I don’t want to do field work for the rest of my life because it’s so hard and the pay is so low.

Lopez describes the reality for farmworkers in California in a way that gives tangible meaning to the facts and numbers describing farmworker life. There are about 120,000 indigenous Mexican farmworkers in California. Counting the 45,000 children living with them, that is a total of 165,000 people. They are the most recent migrants from Mexico. They speak twenty-three languages, come from thirteen different Mexican states, and have rich cultures of language, music, dance, and food that bind their communities together.

<snip> Click HERE to read full article.

This project is therefore a reality check. The idea is to give indigenous migrant communities a vehicle they can use to find support for dealing with the social problems they face, such as housing, low wages, and discrimination. This documentary work is not neutral. Its purpose is to help provide a means for people to organize and win support in a world that, at best, treats them as invisible, and at worst demonizes them. I used to be a union organizer, and this work is very similar. Social documentation not only has to have an engagement with reality, but should try to change it.

Click HERE to read full article.

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