From farm to table, Mexican style

Generally, our days here are unscheduled. After all, we’re retired and on vacation! However, today was an exception. We were scheduled to join the weekly farm walk, and to volunteer elsewhere in the afternoon. More about the volunteering in a later post.

The small town of Lo de Marcos arranges a variety of weekly walks and hikes for anyone who cares to show up, at no cost. Today was a walk to a local farm. It’s as much a social event as it is an exercise activity. It’s only our second walk, but it was good to see people we’d chatted with on our first walk.

They're dressed in layers as they honestly think it's so cold right now!

The man on the right is a local resident who is working to establish a cooperative network of farms focussed on permaculture and organic farming. His aim is to promote awareness of this type of farming. The lady on the left operates this farm, and has been running a farm of this type for many years. 

Lettuce varieties, all planted by hand

Her farm is not certified as organic, but she uses organic methods. She sells her produce at tianguis (farm markets) in two neighbouring towns, as well as to some restaurants. Her plans are also to sell in Lo de Marcos at some point, but her focus is currently on being able to supply her existing customers.

Seedlings under cover of fine netting

She answered many questions from our group, from some who were obviously well versed in this type of agriculture. Some of us wandered the fields, and it was very educational for me.

I was particularly interested in the okra plants, as I hadn’t seen them before. They were almost as tall as me, and the flowers were lovely.

She had a variety of freshly-picked produce available for purchase, which was priced by weight.

I bought a beautiful lettuce, picked up some fresh tomatoes on the way home, and made a lovely salad. From farm to table is a trendy hi-end restaurant concept in Canada, so I guess I had a trendy meal.

These flowers were in amongst some distant vegetable rows. The blast of colour could be seen from afar, but I just had to go and take a closer look.

As mentioned, next post I’ll tell you about our volunteering experience!

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Location: Lo de Marcos, Nayarit, Mexico
Weather: High of 74ºF (23ºC), low of 66ºF (19ºC)

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Note: The people posing for photos in this blog are aware their photo will be on the Internet and have happily agreed to it.