La Cuesta & San Pedro Itzican Project Updates - May 14th, 2018

 Tools

Today was the 3rd Hair Styling Class in the La Cuesta, Brigadista's Home office.

We brought Maetro Rodrigo of Innovations Hair Salon in Ajijic with us.

We arrived to 20 women working on their model's hair.  Rodrigo jumped right in

and gave the women of the town instruction.

"Curls" was the theme of the day...and boy were there alot of curls!

Everyone got into the mix.

The child hair models were patient as can be.

Beautiful curls.

Then it was time to visit our home pilot gardens.  It had been a few weeks since our last visit

and we were anxious to see how the gardens fared due to the early May rains.

Seed Gifts

I also delivered the last of the seeds that our friend Chris Lindner had sent from Canada.

Anita was overjoyed with the new seeds.

Our first stop, the container garden at Xochitl's family home.

We found everything thriving.  Xochitl's mother had been harvesting 

the swiss chard, tomatoes and herbs.

Anitas told Xochitl's mom that the Moringa Tree and leaves were ready to harvest.

The Poblanos and Oregano had grown quickly.

Yerba Buena and Lemon Grass were also ready to harvest to make into aromatic teas.

Happy with Xochitl's garden we headed over to Jorge's family garden.

Daikon

Here the garden had done well during the rains.  Everything seemed to have been

set to "fast grow" as the plants continued to thrive under the care of Jorge's family.

Grape Vine

The animals seemed happy with our visit.

We had learned of a need for medicinal plant remedies

made from the leaves of the Guanabana Tree and Artemisia plant.

Dona Olivia had both in her garden and we harvested the medicinal plants.

Artemisia and Guanabana

The Moringa Trees and the Poblanos were also ready to harvest.

The garden that I had waited patiently to see was Laura's family's garden.

Right after clearing the lot and preparing for planting of seed, the family had
experienced 2 great losses....a son and grandmother had passed within weeks
of each other and the family was in mourning.

As a result we had not seen the planted garden and now were visiting with anticipation.

To our great joy, the plants had sprung up as if overnight, happy and thriving.

The lot had been planted with Daikon radishes, Squash, and herbs.

All were doing beautifully!

Another surprise was the gift of a lovely, large squash from the garden.

We basked in the beauty of it all.

There are days when your heart overflows with beauty and joy.

 

This was one of those days.

The requests for new home gardens has increased quickly, and as a result
we are looking for appropriate space to start a large vivero/nursery to
fill the need.  We will start the new needed plants from seed for future huertos.

We'd like to thank all the people whose intent and resources have made this all possible.

To our dear friend Jan Clayton-Miller for her generous donation of time and vehicle.