Indigenous agroecology & foodways | Amaranth comes home to the milpa
Photographs of Mesoamerican vegetables, fruits, tubers, and grains courtesy of La Jornada del Campo . Restoring heritage cuisines begins with native crops & how we grow them RETURNING AMARANTH TO ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE IN THE THREE SISTERS-PLUS COMPLEX Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | April 16, 2017 Today’s post is part of a continuing series on the discourse and practice of what my colleagues—among them Luz Calvo and Catriona Esquibel—call the decolonial diet . From our vantage points as farmers, gardeners, and cooks, the decolonial diet begins with the native crops we grow in the garden or milpa (subsistence farm or garden plot). How we grow them is also a vital factor. For example, annual native crops like corn, bean and squash are companion plants and should also be cultivated with perennial biodynamic herbaceous plants. This biodynamic approach is a vital factor maintaining the ecological health of the soil and thus the nutrient density and chemical composition of the crops. ...