Our Milpa: Seed

The Seed for our milpa is all heirloom and organic, each variety dating back hundreds of years. All three of these seed crops have never in their genetic history seen or been exposed to any chemicals, they are the same descendants that were planted by the Mayan people for hundreds of years in the village of Tzununa.


The seed is highly attuned to this climate and that makes all of the difference. I do plan to make another Milpa in San Marcos and I will aim to get organic heirloom varieties that originated in this village, just to get the subtle benefit of that specific adaptation developed by these plants over the many generations.

Our Milpa: Part 2- Planting the Seed

For this job, a pickaxe is useful, as well as empty pockets and/or shoulder bags for holding seed. Using the pickaxe, loosen the soil down to about 12 inches, removing any big rocks, for a diameter of about 6 inches. If this is the first time the ground has been worked and you did not prepare hotbeds, it may be helpful to add one handful of compost to each area while loosening the soil.



Spacing is about 1 meter from the center of the first loosened area to the next, but it is by no means exact. It is best to eye ball it and to plant closer together, as opposed to farther apart if unsure. Also there is no need to plant in rows. Just cover the entire area, as large as you want with plantings, all spaced about a meter apart. It helps to think of an equilateral triangle to guide your planting.
It helps to have two people working together, one loosening the soil and the other planting the seeds, switching off at intervals.



In each space, plant 4 corn seeds, 1 bean seed, and in every 4th hole, also throw in one squash seed. The seeds can all be planted in the same divot. The technique used by many is the put all the seeds in the palm of your hand and then press all your fingers together and use them to make a divot into the ground. Go as deep as your knuckle and then let the seeds fall, cover them and pat down so that you know it has been planted.

Our Milpa: Part 1- Preparing the ground

Select a site that is sure to receive a lot of sun throughout the day. Prune branches on any trees that would otherwise provide shade. The space does not have to be all connected, you have patches that are each a few meters, spaced between some trees or other non-plantable spaces. First cut down all of the vegetation that is growing in the area where you want to plant. A machete is very useful here. Pile up branches that re larger/thicker in various piles located in shady spots. The shade not only helps the decomposition process, but you want to plant in all available sunny spots.



For the next step the hoe is an invaluable tool. Use your hoe to scratch the root clumps, grass, and other vegetation up from only the top 1 to 2 inches of soil. It is not necessary to turn all of the ground up like a rototiller would. This is basically a cleaning process to remove most of the weeds and clear the ground down to the topsoil. The roots, grass, and bits of soil that are scratched off these areas are also made into piles in shady areas around the land. These piles will later be spread out over the growing crops.



At this point, if this is the first time that this piece of land has been worked, you could prepare and enrich the soil and remove any big rocks from the area. See Preparing a HOT BED. Note this THIS IS NOT NECESSARY. It is true that a good recipe for growing any crops is to dig down at least 12” (preferably 24’”, while respecting soil level compositions), removing any rocks, and then adding a good amount of organic matter such as decomposing leaves or compost, along with some lime to balance the soil. That being said, merely cleaning the area and planting, as described below, you should get decent results, even in the first year.

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.