Vegetable gardens in the Sierra Gorda

We started the year training women in the subjects of soils, nutrition and the origins of today’s illnesses. Afterwards we taught climate change and its consequences, such as biodiversity loss and more frequent imbalances, and the mitigation of global warming, emphasizing how we can contribute to improving these alarming conditions. One mitigation strategy is to become a carbon producer, returning organic matter to the land, covering the soil and allowing soil microorganisms to flourish and carry out their role which is to provide food for plants.

To take a step beyond self sufficiency, an introduction to the Route of Flavour (network of small local restaurants that promote local, rural foods) was given to link women vegetable growers with the owners of the restaurants, so that they can offer rural, organic foods with all the essential nutrients that ensure human health as well as the planet’s. The aim of this is to emphasize local gastronomy and producers.

Finally, two workshops were organized for these women entrepreneurs, during which talks were given about healthy eating focussing on how nutrition can improve health in the case of illness, or ensure and perpetuate good health. These workshops were also attended by new women and men who are only recently establishing their vegetable gardens. They learned from the experiences of those who already have a garden, which were glad to share their knowledge. Other activities were: garden design; the making of compost, manure, fermented preparations and biofertilizers; and pest control without attacking the health of any living being, at very low cost and without wider repercussions.

We are very happy to report that during this year we increased the number of women who established backyard gardens to provide their families with healthy foods, without insecticides and at very low cost. We now have 130 gardens, 50 more than last year, this means people are interested and we hope this number keeps increasing in 2015.