From Xico

Coffee Harvest Devastated in Our Colonia by La Roya Fungus

Someone up north commented on facebook that she was envious of our weather right now.  Gimme a break, I say.  Her weather may be colder outside, but it isn't colder inside, I can guarantee it. I am writing this with two shirts, two sweaters and cold hands.  Today the high is supposed to be 18°, two degrees warmer than yesterday, and the low 8°.  Okay, okay, it's celsius.  Fahrenheit: 64 and 46.  And it´s damp and the sky is solid dirty gray except on the mountain Acamalín, directly across from us there is a soft pillow of fog.  This has been going on for days.  Remember, people don't have heat in their houses.  We have a wood stove which heats our main room to tolerable and so we are lucky.  We hadn´t used it until this morning, partly because the wood is all damp, even that which has been protected, so it's hard to get going.

The really disturbing news is that the coffee harvest is lousy.   This is because a fungus not previously known at our altitude has made its way up to us. It's called la roya. It spreads as a fine dust,and it is wreaking havoc with coffee and with our neighbors' livelihoods.

Normally, the height of the coffee picking season should be about now.  Normally,the  ejido land which surrounds our colonia you could walk the paths through the coffee, and hear the voices of the pickers, often family memberss, drifting around, You could see the workers carefully pulling off the properly ripe berries, say hi to those  you know.  Burros and horses would be tied along the path waiting for their masters to load sacks on their backs.  Dogs would run through the underbrush.  At meal times, people would gather around to have tortillas and salsa and soda, hot beans and eggs, cooked on small fires.  Workers who don´t have coffee of their own work for other people, and they move from place to place.  Sometimes a pickup waits on the road for them to hurl their sacks of coffee into. 

Our area is ideal for growing coffee de altura, coffee grown at a higher elevation. It has plenty of shade, soil mulched by years of harvest remnants and banana plants, cool weather.  It is easy under normal circumstances to grow it organically, too.  And it tastes delicious.  I´m drinking a cup from our own beans right now.  But this year, the losses are breathtaking: some people have lost all their plants to la roya.  The average loss is apparently 85%.  Even if the coffee hasn´t succombed to la roya, the price per kilo has fallen sharply. The coffee de altura is usually high quality coffee.  Unfortunately much of both it and the cheaper and not so good and not organic coffee planted on huge numbers of flat acres across places like Vietnam are in the hands of giant food companies.

 

 

As you can see in the photo above taken from Revista Industrial de Campo, coffee is labor intensive with the berries, only the ripe ones, picked by hand.

FYI: Foods that may contain GMOs in Mexico.

Genetically modified food is permitted without labeling in Mexico.   Here is a listof some foods that you might find were made with GMOs, or maybe not. These products were not necessarily grown or made in Mexico.  This article in La Jornada from February of this year addresses the existence of GMOs in processed food lines here.  The illustrations are NOT endorsements.  They are just a sad effort to liven up the appearance of the list.

MASECA:  Maseca is a tortilla-making mix.  Maseca with Vitamins may have genetically modified corn in it.

MISIÓN:  Tortillas made ith 100% maize.  Maseca and Misión both are part of Gruma, SA de C.V.

GRUPO MINSA: Masa de Nixtamal Instant, La Unica tortillas, tortillas from fresh masa La Única (brand) and tostada plana (toasted flat tortillas) La Única (brand)

BIMBO (Mexican company that owns Wonderbread) (Their products are "packed with goodness and made with love".) Milpa Real (brand) Toasted Corn Tortillas, white bread, multigrain bread, whole wheat bread, Pinguinos, chocolate rolls, Rocko, Triki-Trakes,  and some more things available in Mexico, but I don't recognize what they are.

SMUCKERS:  Jams and jellies (J.M. Smucker de México) 

DEL FUERTE: Canned pickled chipotle peppers, corn, bottled catsup.

DEL MONTE: Canned jalapeño chiles in slices, whole jalapeño, sliced carrots, pickled chipotles, corn, marinated garbanzo beans, bottled catsup. 

HERDEZ: Canned bean salad, jalapeño chiles, marinated green sliced jalapeños, nachos with pickled jalapeños, corn, vegetable salad, pickled mushrooms.

NESTLE (uses a LOT of our water, among other things): Baby food, dried milk drink for kids, Carnation, Cerelac, Cerelac Infantil, Mom , Bebé menu (dried milk drinks for mom and baby.) (When a product says drinks, it seems to mean that it's not pure milk.  Has other stuff in it.) (When we were in the Peace Corps in Uganda about 45+ years ago [YIKES] Nestle worked hard to promote infant formula over breastfeeding.) sopón de frijol (I have no idea what this is), Carlos V chocolates,  Kit-Kat candy bars, Tin Larin chocolate bars (Mexico), Nestea, Nestle's Gold, Corn Flakes, Zucosos and Chocapic cereals, dog Alpo and Friskies (Nestlé México).

CLEMENTE JACQUES: Jams and jellies (Anderson Clayton and Co.-Unilever)

CAPULLO: Edible vegetable oil (Anderson Clayton and Co.-Unilever)

RAGÚ: (Anderson Clayton and Co.-Unilever) (I don't know which products).  

MAFER: Japanese peanuts, special peanuts, toasted peanuts, classic peanuts (Anderson Clayton and CO.-Unilever.

PRONTO: Toppings (Anderson Clayton and Co.-Unilever)

HOLANDA: Ice cream (Anderson Clayton and Co.-Unilever)

HELLMAN'S: (Dressings and mayonnaise (Cocina Corn Products (S.A: de C.V.)h

KNORR: Mole, adobo y Pipián (I think this means dried versions. (Cocina Productos de Maíz, S:A: de C.V.)

KARO: Baby food, high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup (Cocina Productos de Maíz, S.A. de C.V.)

BETTY CROCKER: Arroz con Leche (rice with milk), Brownies, toppings, (Cocina Productos de Maíz, S.A. de C.V.)

ADES: Soy drinks (Cocina Productos de Maíz, S.A. de C.V.)

MAIZENA: Atoles (corn-based drinks) (Cocina Productos de Maíz, S.A. de C.V.)

SABRITAS: Doritos and Ruffles and Fresqui Bon Bebidas (which seems to be some kind of drink mix)

KRAFT: Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Tang (Kraft Foods of Mexico, S.A. de C.V.)

GREAT VALUE: Catsup, Mayonnaise, BBQ sauce, Corn Flakes and sugared cereals (Servicios Administrativos Wal-Mart, S.A.de C.V.)

PRINGLES: Potato chips, pizza, cheeses (Procter and Gamble.  Ex president Ernesto Zedillo has something to do with Pringles)

DANONE: Danette, Danup (Danone de México, S.A. de C.V.)

GAMESA; Cookies and crackers (Grupo Gamesa S.A. de C.V.)

MACMA: Cookies (Macma, S.A. de C.V.)

ESTEC: Pancake mix (South West International)

NABISCO: Three Stars cake flour, Royal baking powder, Oreos. (Nabisco, S.A. de C.V.)

DEL VALLE: Fruit juices Del Valle and Florida Juice 7, Shrimp, chicken (Nissin brand) and beef soup.

(Jugos del Valle, S.A. de C.V.)

PEPSI: Pepsi Cola (Pepsico de México, S.A. de C.V.)

SONRISA Fruit juices (Valle Redondo)

SANTA CLARA: Ice creams (Santa Clara Productos Lácteos, S.A de C.V.)

KELLOGG'S: Corn Flakes, Corn Pops, Corn Flakes crumbs, Froot Loops (Kelloggs de México, S.A. de C.V.)

MAIZORO: Corn Flakes and I think Sugared Corn Flakes (Maizoro, S.A. de C.V.)

PURINA: Various dog and cat foods. (Agibrands Purina México, S.A. de C.V.)

GRUPO MODELO: Various beers (Grupo Modelo, S.A. de C.V.)

CERVESERIA CUAHTEMOC: Various beers (Cervecería Cuahtémoc en México, S.A. de C.V.)

DELIMEX: Taquitos (Delimex Mexicana, S.A. de C.V.)

AURRERÁ, COMERCIAL MEXICANA (MEGA), NUTRISA, SUPERAMA, WAL-MART: Various proprietary labels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Bit about Avocadoes

Foto copied from La Jornada, 10 febrero 2013. Photographer is Alejandro Pavón.

Avocadoes are my favorite fruit. I try to have a ripe one available every day.  I like them really ripe, so that they are smushy when I squeeze them gently.  Then I can spread them on tortillas or bread, whatever. I like sandwiches with smushed avocado, tomatoes, onions and sometimes a touch of something hot like hummus with chipotle, a Mexican hummua variant. Sometimes I put in some cold sliced chicken or maybe a piece of a fish filet.  Also, smushy avocado is an excellent mayonnaise substitute.  AND you can top off almost anything with a couple of slices. 

One product that boomed in Mexico because of Nafta is avocadoes.  In 15 years, the production has multiplied almost 200 times because of access to the US market where  the taste for avocadoes has  also been growing, in good part thanks to the presence of Mexican-Americans or Mexicans in the US who not only eat themselves but have awakened gringos to their voluptuous wonderfulness. Although the US has imported 83% of available avocadoes, they are not alone. Japan, Canada, Russia, Ukraine and China are starting to eat them.  This is a link to an article in today's La Jornada with this and more avocado information.

The state of Michoacan is the number one producer of avocadoes and many people have been able to profit from them.  

In our colonia, I know of  three avocado trees.  One is next door to our other house.  It produces a small fruit and the leaves which are used to make polvo de aguacate, avocado powder, which is used in cooking beans, among other things.  One is located in an alley up the street.  That one produces tons of avocadoes which all rot on the ground.  For some unknown reason, the tree's owner won't let anyone take them.  The third is in front of our house.  It has been "growing" for eight years, but has never managed to produce fruit.  By now it should have given us a couple of harvests, but we don't spray it for pests of any kind.  My philosophy as a gardener is basically if it can't survive on its own, then that's too bad.  This tree has survived but not thrived.

 

 

Poverty in Mexico: The National Evaluation

It's no secret that there is poverty in Mexico.  The government itself measures it and analyzes it and publicizes it. The agency responsible is CONEVAL, the National Council of Evauation of Social Development Policies at www.coneval.gob.mx.  The measurement of poverty: methods, terms and results are laid out in excellent graphics here.

Today La Jornada presented a good summary of the results for 2012.  Below,from La Jornada, is a cart showing the states with the largest percentage of poor people.

(Mexico, whose official name is Estados Unidos Mexicanos, has 31 states and the Distrito Federal which is Mexico City.)

The government measures at least five markers: income; nutrition; health; social security (meaning pensions and payments of various sorts to workers -- I am not clear about this) and the government's health care system; educational levels, and housing situation.

The current statistics show a slight reduction from 46.1% in 2010 to 45.5% in 2012,or 53.3 million people.  People living in extreme porverty number 11.5 million or 9.8 percent. In te whole population, there are only 23.2 million people who are not vulnerable to falling into poverty. Our neighbors, as examples of vulnerability realized, were laid off (without any benefits) by Coca Cola.  One man finally got a job driving for a security company, the other after considerably longer, got a stock job at the new Bodega Aurrera in Coatepec. The extended family came together, but it was hard for everyone although they got income from a miscellany of sources: picking coffee, two small tiendas, temporary work as cleaning people and in neighborhood construction.   The government defines poverty as lacks in two of the markers; extreme poverty as lacks in 3 or more of the markers.Income for rural areas has to be at least 1490 pesos a month or 116.38 dollars a month.  In cities, the minimum income is 2329 pesos or 182.69 dollars at today's rate of exchange.  Where we live counts as rural.  We are the sole regular income for our gardener.  From us he gets between 960 pesos and 1440 pesos a month.  A friend gives him a grant of 150 pesos a month to help cover his son's medicine which Seguro Popular does not cover, though it treats his son.  He and his older boys pick coffee and they have some old-fashioned video games at the house that neighborhood kids pay to use.  

Some things have improved, notably health care, with the expansion of Seguro Popular, or health insurance for everyone.  This does meet basic needs, but often people don't have enough money to pay for medicines.

Schooling, via television, is available to all the kids in our Colonia.  Most go through secondaria which ends at the equivalent of ninth grade.  Those who drop out often do so to go to work for their families.  We also have a Telebachillerato, the equivalent of high school.  Kids who show some interest and aptitude for academic work continue in this.  The woman who cleans for us has three daughters, two of whom are now in University.  One is studying pedagogy, the other, business administration. This is quite a burden for the family although the husband is a well-respected house builder and construction worker and makes a good income when he has jobs.  The woman makes 1360 in a four-week month with us, occasionally more when we need more.  By itself, the round trip bus trip to the University for each girl is about 720 pesos a month.  There are no bus passes.

Most living places in our colonia are adequate.  Some people have benefitted from new houses built by the government (basic cinderblock construction), by a program to replace dirt floors with concrete, and from a program to replace interior wood-burning stoves with efficient wood-burning stoves with chimneys.

Generally, it is agreed that there has to be economic reform which enables people to make a living wage without moving to factories (which can only hire so many people anyway) in distant locations.  NAFTA did away especially with much local farming and animal production.

Nutrition is an interesting issue.  Mexico has been overrun with junk food which is sometimes cheaper than the good stuff people used to eat.  Soda is often cheaper than bottled water.  As a result, though health care is more accessible, rates of obesity and diabetes are increasing.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Macadamias and Us

In our second terreno in the colonia there stands a lone macadamia tree.  We -- or I should say Oscar Reyes the jefe ín charge of making a jardín over there has just harvested maybe 75 pounds of macadamias.  Now these are nuts within shells within shells, so the final yield will be far less.  Like coffee, macadamias requaire quite a bit of work.  The leaves of the macadamia tree and the branches are all spiny, and there is no easy way to avoid them. It is best to get them off by climbing up and knocking them down and then collecting them. Oscar did that job.  He is on the right in the photo below.  Guillermo is helping him.  Guillermo is in charge of the garden here at the house we live in.

 

 

Next, you have to lug the bag to our house where you hope for a few sunny days to dry the outer shell.  This shell cracks when it is ready to be peeled off.  THEN you hope for some more sunny days so you can dry the next layer.  This can be removed when you hear the nut itself rattling around inside.  .

The first picture is our sack of macadamias, our harvest.

Here below are some macadamias, the bigger ones still in their outermost shell, the smaller one in the interior shell.

Getting them out of the interior shell is the really hard part. One day we came home to find our neighbor Ismael drenched in sweat sitting on our curb hammering away.  It wasn't a hot day. I want to tell you, each nut is a big deal.  Ingrid, his wife, and their three kids were watching.  Ismael gave us a nut.  That was extremely generous, given the labor involved.  Macadamias get a good price, but it is hard-earned.

Our area is the biggest macadamia producer in Mexico.  There are other ways besides a hammer to crack the shell but you have to know you will have enough nuts to warrant the expense.  I think we may.  We are going to investigate.  I once had a small bag of macadamias in a drawer in our kitchen when we lived in San Antonio, a bag I'd bought on a trip down before we lived here.  We never succeeded in opening more than a couple.

 

Yet again, NAFTA and the Mexican Diet

NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement or El Tratado de Libre Comercio de  America del Norte in Spanish) has been deadly for many ordinary Mexicans who depend[ed] on their farms for their livelihoods.  I have been a small voice among many talking about this over the years.  Today in La Jornada there is an article on NAFTA's effects on traditional food and on the growth of the junk food market here in Mexico.  I often wish I could beg the owners of the tiendas in our colonia to stop selling soda and chips and all the other crap that has so affected the health of my neighbors, but then they'd be done out of much of the small income they get as would the delivery men and line workers at places like Coca Cola.  I do know that at least on special occasions, one of the shop owners sells home-made syrup for jamaica, the delicious local agua made from a local flower.

The translation of the article below is mine and is kind of loose to make it flow (I hope).

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The North American Free Trade Treaty (with the US and Canada) has distorted Mexican eating habits. The use of transgenics and the importation of "junk food" [chatarra in Spanish] in local cooking and eating represents a danger to the national cuisine which is included in the list of the Non-material Cultural Patrimony of Humanity of Unesco noted Gloria López Morales, ex-official of the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO).

Interviewed at the Mesoamerican Food Summit, she said that "the changes in food are a secondary effect [of NAFTA] on the availability of affordable local ingredients.  The real danger for the Mexican kitchen is that they are losing these ingredients.  There are a series of such products which, without adecuate farm policies, can be lost. This is going to mean we will have to give up a traditional balanced diet: varieties of corn and beans, many kinds of quelites [I think this is amaranth and related plants]. and wild and culivated greens and herbs.

Also the former director of the regional office for culure of Unesco for Latin American and the Carbbean, López Morales warned of the "enormous fragility" of the products of the milpa. [The milpa is the indigenous/traditional and effective small-scale method of farming corn, beans and squash together.  The link is in Spanish but you can use google translate if you need help.]

"Everything has been distorted by the foodstuffs of the free market, and we import junk food, transgenic maize, all that is deterimental to the cultivation of our own products." Studies have been called for from biological and anthropological perspectives so that policies in defense of local products can be developed.

Sooner or later, she affirmed, governments are going to have to develop adequate policies for the preservation of our food system, "first, because we've already lost self-sufficiency and sovereignty and second, because we have already won the championship in obesity and diabetes. [These "championships"] also hit us hard in something that matters a great deal: our pocketbooks.

We are learning that we have to spend too much of our public budget to treat illnesses caused by malnutrition."

During the current transition [from the presidency of Calderón to that of Peña Nieto] the promoter of Mexican gastronomy suggested that citizen actions should be undertaken to attract the attention of the new government to the country's food problems.

At the gathering which took place in Mexico Ciy from the 25th to the 28th of July Guadalupe Latapi, promoter of organic products through her business Aires del Campo, emphasized that in Mexico the consumption of organic food has increased twenty percent (in the US it grew this past year by 9 percent) since more and more people are worried about health, flavor, the environment, the well-being of animals and the sustainability of the agricultural economy.

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Me speaking again: the government takes a much more active approach in advertising issues of health and nutrition here than the US government does.

 

 

 

 

 

Water Is Where Everything Intersects - Water in the Global Commons

I cannot emphasize how very important the issue of water is. This Truthout article does a good job of summarizing the situation in Bolivia. Here where I live you either have to buy bottled water or boil it--which is of course an expense. Areas of Mexico right now are oppressed by drought and grim pictures of dead and dying cattle are scattered through the news. There are many issues involved in water use. For instance, industrial agriculture (including at times organic vegetable agriculture) suck up the water in water tables depriving small farmers of having it available for their often subsistence crops. The water that industrial agriculture returns to the land is often polluted beyond usefulness. It seeps from larger pools into smaller streams and springs.

You should follow some of the links at the end of the article to learn more about this issue and seek to get involved.

Well yes, Mexico has a lot of corruption, but....

The New York Times articles on Wal-Mart pay-offs and corruption make me want to SCREAM and PULL MY HAIR OUT!

First of all, whether or not Wal-Mart pays people illegally to build its big ugly boxes is actually not the worst thing it does.  As in the US, the worst thing it does is build stores in places where it can devour small businesses.  And they are pretty smart at doing it.  Both the Wal-Marts in Xalapa (yes there are two) are in ugly commercial areas that you can easily walk to or get to by bus since car traffic is not so accessible to the majority of poorer people who might shop at Wal-Mart.  Lots of not so poor people shop at Wal-Mart, too. And they shop at Sam's Club -- USAers like being able to buy their favorite USA brands.  And Wal-Mart has a grip on rich shoppers as well.  It bought out a chain called Superama where you can get all kinds of expensive goodies including organic foods which small merchants not far away are also trying to sell.

Even worse than building in Xalapa, which after all is a big city with a lot of chains (though Wal-Mart takes the cake) is the fact that it is building a store in Xico.  Right on one of the two main streets in town.  It won't be called Wal-Mart, but it's a Wal-Mart.  About six months ago, people realized it was on the books and signs started appearing all over protesting, of course to no avail.  It is going up in a fairly tight space so its narrow end will be the front door.  The parking lot is already completely covered in concrete from one side to the other.  The back has a bunch of loading docks.  It looks about ready to open.

We know reasonably well some local shop owners.  Needless to say, they are very, very worried. Two own dress shops.  I mentioned to a Gringo acquaintance that the monster was likely to eat them alive.  The Gringo said,"I don't see why.  Mexicans don't buy the artisan items.  They are too expensive."  I said, well they buy regular clothes!  That hadn't occurred to her. Xico, being a tourist town (now a Pueblo Magico) has a main street with shops selling what you'd expect.  But all you have to do is walk a block in either direction and you come upon fruit and vegetable stores, butchers, grocers, shoe stores, bakeries, hardware stores, flower shops, cheese shops, a local market, and so forth. Sometimes the stores sell jumbles of all these things.  A lot of the produce, meat and dairy is local so that not just shop owners but producers are likely to suffer.

I suspect that the mayor of Xico (El Presidente) got a good deal for allowing the Wal-Mart.  The mayor is in deep trouble with his constituents because he had some grandiose plans which now sit partly completed because he doesn't have the funds to finish them.  The one I know about is his plan to build a four lane boulevard into Xico for which a beautiful long arcade of trees sheltering the road (a perfectly good, newly paved road) was cut down.  

A friend of ours says he's destroying all the reasons Xico became a Pueblo Magico to begin with.

So these are reasons I hate Wal-Mart. Please don't shop in Wal-Mart.  There are plenty of other places you can indulge your craving for stuff: my favorite is Costco.  I feel guilty going there, too, but at least its employees are apparently paid well by Mexican standards.  Which is a whole other issue.

 

 

Strange Fruit

Now in season:

Zapote Negra.

About the size of an apple. The very black pulp is shiny, custardy and mild. Six or so smooth brown seeds nest in it.  This is the first year we've eaten them.  When we asked at the Coatepec market what to do with them, people looked at us in surprise.  "Why you just break them open and eat them. Delicioius!"  One woman gave us a recipe. Mix the flesh with pieces of orange and honey: muy dulce. As with much of the fruit here, zapotes negras are seasonal: here today, gone tomorrow.

I can see a relationship with mamey zapotes in the smooth, hard, oval seeds.  But otherwise mamey zapotes seem quite different.  They are larger, sort of football-shaped, with a rough tan skin and sweet- potato textured and colored pulp that in fact tastes a bit like sweet potatoes.  It is both sweet and at times a little bit bitter. Mamey Zapotes seeds, though similar looking to zapotes negras, are much larger, and there is only one in each fruit.

The old year greets the new and flowers for breakfast

On December 31, our young neighbor Areli and I went to Coatepec to run some errands.  We had to go to an animal feed store for rabbit food and to inquire about baby pigs whose mother had stopped suckling them.  The store is opposite the market.  The owner is very knowledgeable and helpful.  Areli explained that one of the pigs in the small pig nursery behind her house had had three piglets die after our recent bout with cold and had stopped nursing the survivors.  The owner explained what the dueña of the nursery should do and prescribed some temporary food solutions.  Areli also bought food supplement for her two very healthy rabbits.  Most of the time, Areli and here sister walk down the road outside the colonia and select appropriate greens for the rabbits, but she said they also should have some supplement.

We then went to the market.  Areli and I both bought veggies, but Areli also had a special mission. Her sister had manage to get $70 pesos during Las Posadas in our neighborhood and wanted Areli to use it to buy her a shirt.  Las Posadas is when the neighborhood kids go door to door and sing for some small amount of money.  They bring with them a decorated branch of a special tree.  I always associate it with the Jesse tree, but I'm not sure I'm right. During Las Posadas, each main street in our Colonia sponsors a night. The people of the colonia sing and carry candles in procession.  They deliver to designated homes or capillas statues of Mary and Joseph who then remain till the next night.  They are awaiting the arrival of Jesus.  We paid for the piñata that was used for the Las Posadas celebration on our street. it cost about three dollars. Jim has some pictures which I may or may not put up in the future (he stores about 1000 pictures on his camera at a time so access on my part is a bit iffy).

Anyway, Areli and I went to a stall which sells a huge variety of t-shirts and blouses in the market and picked one out for Rosy.

On the 31st of December, groups mostly of boys and men gather together and go out to sing and dance and generally to behave in delightfully foolish ways. They dress as women and babies as well as old men.  The idea is to honor the old New Year, represented as not just one but many old men and to welcome the new, a boy with a diaper on.  The boys and men sometimes also dress as women.  As of now, I still don't get it all.

Here is a picture of some of the boys in a group in the mercado:

Here is a picture of the creche that was sponsored by the mercado.  It was quite large.

Kids and piñatas go together at most celebrations in Mexico, though I think Buenanoche, or Christmas Eve might be the most important.  On December 31 there were still plenty of piñatas for sale for New Years Eve.

The five-pointed star (which these are) is the most traditional piñata form.  It is descended from los Aztecas and probaby earlier people as well.

To change the subject completely, Jim and I were walking along the road from the bus a few days ago and saw that the flowers below had started blooming.  They are perhaps a quarter of an inch in diameter, a pure yellow, almost flat, most unusual.  I picked just a couple and put them in a vase.  

And finally, flowers for breakfast.  This is gasparito season.  Gasparitos are beautiful, deep red, dagger shaped flowers that people boil and serve in scrambled eggs, beans, and various other dishes.  So when Doña Gloria came by on Wednesday selling some, I bought them.  I buy them every year, but I've had no idea how to cook them, so unfortunately, they've gone to waste until now.  This year, Areli and her mother gave me cooking lessons.  Here are some pictures of the process.

Above you see a cluster of buds, the gasparito flower and the part you take out of the flower before cooking.  You eat the buds and the flowers.  The part you take out which I think is the pistil and/or stamen is apparently too bitter and tough to eat.  This is definitely not instant oatmeal.  It takes time to separate the flowers from their innards.

Here they are waiting to boil.

In the picture above, they've been boiled.  Next, you fry them lightly in oil and add eggs and scramble, as below

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The gasparitos really don't have any flavor of their own.  Per Areli's instructions, I added a bit of oregano to the boiling water.  The gasparitos do add a pleasantly crunchy texture to the eggs (huevos revueltos en español), but no flavor. They are very popular, and they can be free, since all you have to do is walk into the country a bit to find them littering the ground at this time of year.  I wonder what nutrition they provide.  They certainly bulk up the eggs and, as I said, add a pleasant texture.