Verdant View - March 2024 - El Ojo del Lago

Sin Maiz No Hay Pais – Without Corn There Is No Nation

On any given Sunday around noon you will find my husband and I having breakfast at our favorite plaza restaurant, Fonda Chapala. We love sitting outdoors, watching the townspeople scurry by on their way to the Mercado to buy masa for their dinner or flowers for their tables. The local plaza dogs wait patiently for a nibble from the fragrant tables as crooners serenade us for the price of a coin or two. Angelica our waitress greets us with a warming smile and asks “lo de siempre?”

One of the most anticipated treats on a Sunday at Fonda Chapala is handmade corn tortillas. Their texture, warmth and flavor remind me of my grandmother busily making tortillas in her kitchen. She would sprinkle some salt onto the round, hot, thin “pancake” of unleavened dough delicacy, roll it magically in one swift move, pinch it with her well worn fingers and pass it to me. Ah, there was nothing better!

At its beginning, around 8000 years ago, a wild Mexican grass teocincle was crossed and nurtured into what we now know as the big eared plant maiz: teocincle from Nahuatl teo (“god”) and cincle (“corn”). The people learned that adding a little of the lime they burned from sea shells and limestone took off the kernel’s hard-to- digest hulls. Their bodies grew stronger. The corn gave them more minerals like niacin, protein and calcium. They discovered the nutritionally energizing process of nixtamalizacion (from the Nahuatl nextli, “ashes”).

According to the Popol Vuh and legends dating back to the pre-Hispanic era, the gods created people from corn. Spiritually, physically and economically corn sustains indigenous peoples. Corn has since held a sacred place in the collective psyche of the Mexican, particularly in one of its most versatile expressions: the tortilla.

The Without Corn, There Is No Country campaign has gotten stronger. More organizations are joining together to struggle against mass dispossession of lands, dispossession caused by the government prioritizing land use for extraction of petroleum and shale gas over food production. The defense of corn is not just to preserve our sacred plant, it is also fundamental to sustaining Mexico as a living genetic reserve of important varieties of fruits and vegetables that feed humanity. This great agro-biodiversity would never exist without the campesinos, who over centuries, have fed and nurtured a proud culture which is an example for many countries.

Corn is the most fundamental ingredient of Mexican cuisine, and it’s never far from the national conversation. Amid President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s move to ban the importation of genetically modified corn and his imposition of a 50% tariff on imported white corn, some scientists, chefs and others are advocating for the value of the old varieties in an increasingly drought-stricken world.

Heirloom varieties make up far less than 1% of total domestic corn production in Mexico. But for the first time in years, people are hopeful about the crop. Some in the academic, culinary and public sectors hope to increase its production.

In some parts of the world heirloom corn sells for around $1.17 u.s. per kilogram abroad, more than three times the price for a kilo of white corn. If demand keeps growing, growers will plant more.

What to plant in March

March is still cool at night and can be windy with no rain until mid-June. It’s beginning to get hot in the afternoons. You will find iris, lantana, daylilies, gerberas, lobelia and acanthus at the viveros, as well as many more year-round blooming plants. Those glorious purple trees that are in bloom now are Jacarandas. The seeds of flowers that do best in the hot, dry season, such as calendulas and salvias, should be planted. Start begonias, impatiens, periwinkle, rock cress and passion flower vine. Cut snapdragons back sharply after blooming and new growth will appear. Remember to water well after you fertilize. Mist fuchsias and orchids regularly.

Outdoors, sow or transplant beets, carrots, celery, chard, herbs, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, leeks, lettuces, green onions, bulb onion seed and sets, parsley, peas, peanuts, potatoes, radishes, shallots, spinaches, strawberries, and turnips. Transplant broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi seedlings

Wildflowers can still be sown and are suitable in many areas where other plantings don’t seem to thrive. Wildflowers don’t want fertilized soil. Consider landscaping with plants that thrive under conditions of drought and neglect. Flowering annuals include alyssum, cosmos, gazania, geranium, helichrysum, marigold, morning glory, phlox, portulaca, thunbergia, verbena, vinca, and zinnia. Shrubs include ceanothus, coffee berries, pineapple guavas, rockroses, and verbenas (an especially good ground cover.)

Indoors, sow eggplant, pepper, and tomato seeds for transplanting into the garden in late April or early May.

To easily determine the texture of your soil, fill a jar two-thirds full of water and the rest with soil, shake the jar well, and place it on a windowsill where you can observe the results without moving it. After a few days, the layers will be apparent, and you can make your analysis. The heavy sand particles will settle first to the bottom of the jar, followed by the silt and then the clay on top. Organic matter will float. Good loam contains about 45% sand, 35% silt, and 20% clay.

It turns out that snails and slugs love citrus trees…at least they seem to love mine. If you’re not getting any citrus fruit, the snails may have beaten you to them. Or in my case the local tlacuache (opossum) also share the wealth. To keep snail, slugs and ants from crawling up the trunks of your trees use Joker Rojo.