07.04.09
Gardens Update
There are now 45 women in Group 2. Some have multiple gardens. We are producing lots of food. Cucumbers have been to most successful crop. Some have had radishes and cilantro. We’ve added swiss chard and white and black beans and both are growing well.
We’ve not had good luck with tomatoes, but that has helped us learn a few lessons. We planted several gardens yesterday, one which had beautiful tomato plants. It turns out that Dona Gorgonia brought in the soil of her corn field. You can see how much richer the soil looks compared to the other gardens. Her plants are flourishing. Now we know that we need to improve the soil.
The good news is, we can do that. On my first day back in Guatemala, I met a woman at the guest house in Guatemala City where I was staying. Louisa is a volunteer from Canada working in another part of Guatemala. She is travelling here with her ex-husband for 3 weeks. Her diverse background includes teaching people how to compost. So a few days later when she came through El Remate and called me looking for a place to stay, I got them settled up at Sak Luk and then set her up to do a class for the women the next day.
About 20 showed up and learned about mixing carbon and nitrogen ingredients to create a chemical reaction. They mix newspaper, cardboard, ashes, sawdust, vegetables, fruit, egg shells, and of course, the necessary pupo de vaca, pupo de caballo, and pupo de gallienas…. That’s cow, horse, and chicken manure. Mixed together several times a week with water, in a few weeks they’ll have compost to add to the soil that will create greatly improve their crops.
That was the first step – knowledge. The next step is to create a sense of urgency. After seeing the much better results in Dona Gorgonia’s garden, the next day a compost pile with Floridalma, Angelica’s mother. It was great to have another opportunity to review the basics. They all seem to understand and I am pleased that they are anxious to jump in and do what they can to improve the gardens.
Then today we ate lunch at Dona Lina’s house. She lives on a corner across from where I meet with the women for the reunions. I can tell she cleaned the house, and then made us a wonderful lunch of cucumber and tomato salad, a spinach-like vegetable called Yerba Mora, and chicken and vegetable soup. There was also the standard tortillas and rice for Alanna. Lemonade to drink and good company. Lina has 5 sons and a daughter. The oldest son, Gustavo is still at home while working in the town nearby. He wants to be a lawyer. Jenny, the oldest daughter lives in Guatemala city and has a baby of her own. The other four boys – Daniel, Hector, Arnold are always participating in the group activities and are often the ones setting off firecrackers…
Caesar is Lina’s husband. He helped her build her garden and was there when we planted. He asked a lot of great questions that day. Today I found out why. Caesar had worked in a nearby reforestation project run by the Taiwanese government. There they are growing small plants that are then transplanted into the forest. Caesar knows all about gardening. He is going to do a class for us on Saturday to help the women learn how to grow the small plants from seed and then transplant them into their gardens.
I am so pleased to have this expertise come to us. I am at a bit of a loss not knowing more about gardening, especially here in Peten, the jungle. Conditions are good for growing – it is hot and humid, but we need to use the right techniques. I have also just found out that we also need to pay attention to the phases of the moon. During certain days it is bad to plant seeds. The plants may grow, but they won’t yield a crop. The people here know about this from their corn fields. Most all of them have some land that has been in the family for generations where they grow corn. They pay attention to the cycles of the moon and only plant during the second and third quarters of the moons cycle. If they plant in the 4th quarter there is no yield. They can’t explain it other than to describe the results. I don’t understand it, but it certainly is interesting!
