Our Milpa

Here are some pictures of the land before we began the process of planting the Milpa. Notice the bananas and other fruit trees growing. The cactus on the rock is actually Pitaya, also known as Dragon Fruit.



The traditional Milpa refers to a cornfield typically raised by Mayan people in Central America. The selected area for our Milpa is in the highlands of Guatemala, in a valley plateau in the village of Tzununa. The elevation is about 5000 ft, with rainy seasoning stretching from the end of April through to the end of October.

The traditional time to plant corn in the highlands in on or around May 15th, this day holding particular significance to some villages, which say one must plant corn only on May 15th of every year.



Our Milpa has about one third of an acre planted with corn, beans (which will grow up the corn stalks), and a local variety of squash known in Tzutujil , as Kum.



What attracts me to the Milpa is that it is a very efficient way to grow an abundance of food that easily stores for a year. On this small piece of land, the eventual yields will be about 150 to 200 lbs of dried corn, 50 lbs of dried beans, and tons of squash. Not to mention all of the fresh corn on the cob and fresh beans that are harvested throughout the year. All that food with only one person doing at most one day of work a week, most of which is harvesting. We also note that this is all pure organic farming and pure organic heirloom seed.



Our good friend Terri actually owns the land that the Milpa is being planted on. As he is a seasoned and highly skilled organic farmer, he is also our mentor throughout this project. We give him much thanks.

Weekly updates of the Milpas progress and details of how to make your own Milpa to come.