The Feria Santa Catarina

Today is the opening day of the feria for Santa Catarina, a festival celebrating the town, it's protector Cofradia, an association of the town fathers, and the protector saints. It is a fair complete with lots of food vendors, huge marimba band, lots of stuff being sold, kids, rides etc., etc., etc. I stole the girls and we headed over the mountain in the back of a pick-up truck. We took a turn down by the lake to see the view and again how high the water is. We had thought there would be more happening this morning, tomorrow is the big day, but it was nice to see town preparations without the chaotic crowd factor.

During the time of the feria the tradition is for local families to present one another with a vat of their own pulic and tamalitos. Pulic is a rich caldo or stew and each cook has their own twist on it. Miguel's mother is famous for her recado, the base of the caldo. She specially requested a photo of herself stirring the giant vat of recado that she made. As you can see already half of it is gone, they receive many visitors and exchange Pulic. We carried a huge portion home for Miguel and the family to lunch on. This soup is a many layered broth made with onion, tomato, achiote, cilantro,
mashed and run through a sieve for smoothness and thickened with masa. The traditional vegetables are potato & guiskil, the meats are beef and chicken. It is served with lots of tamalitos that in this case are made from the corn grown by the family made into masa and steamed in wrappers of green corn leaves that are from their field.

I need to revise the recipe a bit to make it make sense and so I will post it another day.


Not tomorrow as I will be cooking for a gringo thanksgiving in Guatemala! I couldn't resist this photo of the boats lined up at the edge of the lake, a classic tourist shot.

Bird Sounds, an explanation

After 3 fruitless hours trying to load the bird sounds I will have to find another way to share it. I guess my bandwidth doesn't have what it takes to get through! here it is finally!

ANYWAY, a photo of the delicious flowers we prepared for lunch on Saturday, up the hill in St. Cruz. Still having trouble narrowing down what it is, upon closer inspection the flower seems more like a bean, there are many wild vines here that are used. This one Miguel calls behuque or enrededora, in Caquchikel tzu re'k. Trouble is enrededora is a universal term for vine. I'll keep looking. The flower was prepared by removing only the petals to use lightly sauteed with onion and a dash of fresh tomato and added to noodles! Another way to eat them is a tamalito prepared with the cooked flower, tomato, onion and added to masa and steamed in a corn husk. I hope to get to make some of these since I love the tamales in any form!

A nice walk along the lake with the girls, Otilia, Delia, and Nancy gave them break from the daily work routine. It is hard to tear Otilia away from her work. Hmm, she reminds me of myself... Since it was Sunday there were more folks along the shores, at first the waves were ferocious and strong and then within an amazingly short span of minutes the lake calmed to a glossy, smooth sheen. Every day has so many different weather patterns. As you can see in the photo with the submerged willow the lake has risen at least 3-4 meters causing lots of changes. This water rise is due to all the rain in May during the deadly storm Agatha and also again heavy, destructive rains in September.

Bird sounds at Lago Atitlan

The first tortilla of the visit! RICO!

Nancy and I have walked down to the lake for me to see how things look for this year. There is plenty of damage from the storm Agatha earlier this year and then again in September during some more horribly heavy rains. I wish nature would let up a little bit on this beautiful place! However, it is surprising cleaned up and as lovely as ever.

This morning was all about getting things set up here, phone card, groceries and just looking around to see what has and has not changed. We're having some yerba Mora for dinner tonight, it was exceptionally fresh at the market this morning, also a broccoli that I bought off the back of a pickup truck, 2Q for the head which is about $.25! The bridge is all repaired (again since it was rebuilt after hurricane Stan) but the little tienda at the edge of Jucanya as you can see is dangling over the edge of where the river washed out.

I had my first delicious latte at Crossroads just in the nick of time because the shop was inundated with a large group. I beat a hasty retreat.

I've been trying to load on a video for the last 3 hours so I give up. I'll try again in the morning and make a new post. here is the video

Our Big Adventure

I am somewhat recovered from our big adventure, a hike into the hills behind where I am staying. 4 of us set out at 8:00 am for a hike to go and see Miguel's milpa. A milpa is what the locals call their fields for growing corn for the coming year's tortillas. It was a gorgeous morning with a light wind coming from the south west, the temperature was just right for a hike, wearing jeans, tshirt and a cotton shirt. We packed up tortillas and fruit and water for snacking. This is the view from my front porch, volcanoes Toliman and Atitlan with little Cerro de Oro in the foreground.

Okay, I have to admit I am a wimp about these paths, the altitude makes me slightly dizzy so I have to be careful to maintain my equilibrium. We are climbing for about an hour on this bitty path at about 60 degrees or more of an incline. If I don't look down or around I am fine! This is Miguel, who walks up these paths at least once a week to keep the water ditch clear. Along for the adventure are Otilia and their daughter Nancy, who is also an old hand at this path. We came to a lovely waterfall and pool that used to be very pure water, now alas it is not, like so many streams around the lake.

We continued up to San Andres and walked through the little market there, it was lovely, clean and with just the right amount of mercado commotion. We looked at everything and bought some fresh lychee fruit. We continued along the road to the milpa and stopped to snack. Miguel spent some time digging up the tunnels from some moles that have been trying to move in this year. In this field he produces enough dry corn to supply his family for the whole year, about 1200 to 1500 pounds. He grows a very old variety which was a good thing this year because the old varieties can withstand the drought that happened early in the season this year. It takes almost 9 months for this crop to mature. The whole field is cultivated by hand, hand weeded 2 times in the season, mounding soil around the bases of the stalks to support it against the wind. Then it is all harvested by hand and carried by hand down to where he can get pick-up rides to transport it home. Bear in mind it takes him 2 hours to get to this field, hiking and catching pick-up rides. Let's talk about how precious these tortillas really are! This is a view of his milpa looking across the hill from the road we are walking on.

This is the view from the mirador at Santa Catarina, now looking across the lake at volcan San Pedro. Now we spend another 2-3 hours decending, with a snack stop and a stop at Miguel's father's land to pick a bunch of jocotes. Yum. By the time we got to the bottom of the hill in Sta. Catarina Otilia and I were spent, we got a pickup ride back to Jucanya, otherwise it would have been another 1/2 hour walking. Of course all in a days walk for Miguel and Nancy!

We had a quick stop at M's parent's home for some water and to check out the latest weavings from his mother and sister, Magdelena. Nancy gets a chance to visit with the new puppy!





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Delicious Tortillas

Each night when we make the nixtamal we are measuring the ingredients to get at least a framework for the recipe. So two nights in a row have met with successat the molina. Starting with the dried corn, in the states I had to locate organic dent corn which is different from the corn that is used here at Lake Atitlan. We started with 8 cups of water, 5 1/2 cups of dry corn and 2 tablespoons of cal/ pura crema (this is the lime soaked in water into which it dissolves and becomes a fine creamy paste.)

This next picture is the nixtamal almost ready, this is the corn that is cooked with the cal for about 30 minutes, depends on the fire and how dry the corn is. The kernels become whiter and the germ takes on a reddish brown color, the corn is fully swollen and cooked through. Now we rinse the corn and take it to the molina, the local grain mill.
Now,finally we get to the good part, making the tortillas and eating them. I like this the best of course.

Por Fin, estoy aqui! Tortilla obsession.

Hello All, I have made my way south to my beloved Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. I was surprised to find wireless internet in my bungalow so I will be able to make lots of updates here! I'll post some pictures later. I spent the evening with my friends having a focused lesson in the fine art of making nixtamal for tortillas.

Nixtamal is the preparation of the dry corn with cal/ lime rock that breaks down the outer skin of the corn makes the proteins digestible. Tortillas are the life blood of the Maya, and learning to prepare them at home has become my mission. I made several vain attempts last year. Usually the daughters work along side Mother and learn all the nuance of the operation. And so I have become the old daughter of my friend Otilia to learn as best I can.

There are many different types of dry corn, which I will delve into after I get some new pictures at the Solola market. The corn also varies from year to year as the growing seasons change. There are differences in the strength and purity of the cal. Then there is the cooking on a wood fire which varies according to types of wood and the levels of heat! Muy complicado.

This year was a very bad growing season. It was extremely dry at the early stage of growing the corn. My friend Miguel is using very old seed stock that has come down through his family, this corn takes almost 9 months to mature but it is very strong and resilient. Many other farmers had modernized for varieties that mature closer to 6 months, but therein lies the problem. This newer corn needs to sprout and grow very quickly in order to produce full corn, because it was so dry a large amount of the corn fields died. The ancient types can struggle along slowly, slowly until the weather cooperates and then it flourishes. This corn problem will cause difficulty this year for the people here eat tortillas 3 times a day, and sometimes tortillas are all you have for a meal. The corn prices are going up and it will be a challenge until the next planting season.

Stay tuned for nixtamal and the mercado!

Back to work

What a wonderful time I had on my recent trip to Guatemala. I was able to see lots of lovely plants, cook amazing food with my friend Otilia and her family, work in the herb gardens at the Fundacion Tradiciones Mayas, swim in Lake Atitlan with the dogs, walk walk walk everywhere especially Panajachel, and study more spanish language.

I will be posting other details of the trip including some amazing cooking lessons. For now, it's back to work and getting things organized for another growing season. Pansies to be planted and some other ornamental spring crops growing nicely. So who has the crystal ball to see what we will be looking forward to this spring?

I'm trying to down size th plant list, we will be looking at utility, form and function and how that relates to the gardens here in New England. Simple elegance and reliability is the criteria.

I had some amazing walks in the hills around the lake and collected many interesting seeds to experiment with. This is my friend Miguel collecting some pods for me.

travel

Well, I don't know what happened, time flies when you are growing plants. We had a great season, weather was excellent and the plants were all wonderful this year. I have great women helping me and we really produced! June brought the usual exhausted planting of the MUMS. The timing on that crop is so painful when we are all planted out and need to crank out another 4000 pots!

Those honey bees really outdid themselves, the original hive number 1 produced over 60 lbs. of honey! The new split spent all season getting themselves organized. They've all been put to bed with their fall feeding and winter doors installed.

I am getting ready for a trip to Lake Atitlan. This year I am committing to a Spanish intensive class and have been priming here with the local adult ed. This is the year I am branching out of present tense! Por fin!

Bye for now, it's off to see what's happening with the election.