The Garden’s Edge is partnering with farmers market vendors in New Mexico to bring short and long term relief for Guatemalan farmers affected by Tropical Storm Agatha.

Participating vendors will be selling local heirloom seeds, and 2011 Guatemalan calendars at their booths during market.  All proceeds will go towards Guatemala relief.

Your donation and seed purchase will go towards helping Guatemalan farmers rebuild their communities, while helping to preserve New Mexican native seeds and culture.

We are focusing our efforts in the villages of Chichicastenango in the El Quiché provence, where projects include home gardens, reforestation, seed saving, and soil conservation.

We are featuring 3 seed varieties to begin with, but market vendors are encouraged to add their own seed varieties to the displays.

Native Seeds and Their Stories

Chile:
Native chiles are an integral part of New Mexico’s cultural and culinary heritage.  The New Mexican Nativo Chile varieties were developed from seeds brought to the region from central Mexico. The original seeds were most likely brought by either Native Americans or settlers who came under the Spanish crown starting in 1598. Also known as Landrace Chiles or Chile Chimayoso, these chiles have adapted over centuries to local conditions. They have been locally selected by the farmers for specific tastes and needs rather than for commercially desirable traits. Most chilies are named for the locality in which they were cultivated, such as Alcalde, Chimayó, Cochiti, Dixon, Escondida, Española, Isleta, Jarales, Jemez, Nambé, San Felipe, San Juan (sometimes mentioned as San Juan Tsile), Santo Domingo, Velarde and Zia.

Increasing urban pressures on land and water are making it difficult for farmers, new and current, to continue farming.  Native chiles have been generally grown for personal consumption and within their localities.  Some varieties of native chiles are at risk of becoming extinct due to possible contamination from a genetically engineered chile plant being developed by the NM Chile Association, and NM State University.  They are developing a genetically engineered chilled that is resistant to being sprayed with glyphosate, commonly known as Roundup.

For more information on how to protect our native New Mexican Chiles, contact:
www.c4puertas.org

 Amaranth:                                                                                    Amaranth, contains twice the protein of corn or rice, and is rich in vitamins A, B, C, B1, B2, B3, folic acid, niacin, calcium, iron and phosphorous.

Amaranth, or "tez” (in the K'iche Maya language), has been cultivated for thousands of years by indigenous civilizations.  The largest acreage grown was during the height of the Aztec and Mayan civilizations in Mexico and Guatemala in the 1400's. Due to Amaranth’s use in ceremony, it came under fire from the Spanish Conquistadores, who saw it as a pagan symbol. The Spanish forbade its use and burnt fields, and it almost disappeared.  Except in a few isolated villages, the plant eventually was forgotten in the Americas.

The past two centuries grain amaranth has spread to different locations like India, Nepal, China, and Eastern Africa.

Corn:                                                                                                  Modern maize evolved from teosinte (God's corn), or Zea mays ssp. Mexicana. In Guatemala alone there are said to be 2,500 varieties. Maize spread across the length and breadth of the Americas, and subsequently to Europe, Africa, and Asia. Teosinte (Zea mexicana) has been linked with the earliest maize in Mesoamerica and was first harvested as early as 10,000 years ago.

Sacred to Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, and adapted to all different bioregions, maize has become the most important agricultural crop for over 70 million farm families worldwide. Eighty percent of the world's farmers who cultivate maize are in developing nations of the Third World.

Genetically engineered and hybrid corn varieties are poised to completely displace or replace native strains of corn.   Bioengineered corn is not only a threat to the world’s crop diversity, but to the cultural heritage of the Americas.

The Garden’s Edge and Qachuu Aloom are
Working to preserve and grow these sacred native corns.

Your donation and seed purchase will go towards helping Guatemalan farmers rebuild their communities. We are focusing our efforts in the villages of Chichicastenango in the El Quiché provence, where projects include home gardens, reforestation, seed saving, and soil conservation.