Kids Learn the importance of physical activity and nutrition

San Isidro, Texas hosted a Summer Youth Camp. The camp focused on educating the young community members on fitness and nutrition. Six stations were set up at San Isidro High school with various physical activities and food demonstrations for the children. 125 youths of the San Isidro community were able to learn valuable information while having fun thanks to the 25 adult volunteers who came out in support.

Blue corn is an ancient heirloom and it is up to 30% higher in protein than an average variety. In the United States, it is often associated with the Pueblo nations of the Southwest where it was grown for centuries before the arrival of the Spanish in 1540. Even today, New Mexican cuisine wouldn’t be the same without the iconic blue tortillas and chips that are also used in various other regions south of the border. Last winter, Vit Kaspar made a trip to New Mexico where he obtained some seed from the Red Willow Farm run by the indigenous people of Taos. This corn has an extremely reduced growing season due to the short summers in its region of origin, at the high elevation of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It was therefore expected to be potentially suitable for fall planting in South Texas. The preliminary trial resulted in a harvest within 60-65 days and yielded high quality kernels. After processing the shucked corn with lime (nixtamal), experimental tortillas were prepared at the Starr County Extension office. The Blue corn is now part of the Starr County Community Seed Bank and it will be made available to the public.

In an effort to reduce the amount of summer weeds that grow and fill the gardens while the students are away on summer break, we tilled the larger gardens in June and planted “Lab-lab”, an African bean plant traditionally used here in deer feed plots on hunting ranches. The bean grows well in the heat and after being watered for two or three weeks requires no additional watering. Due to its aggressive vining growth, “Lab-lab” fills in the row quickly and attains canopy cover within a few weeks and easily out grows most summer weeds here except the dreaded pigweed. We planted Lablab extensively at R.T. Barrera Elementary, and Grulla High School. Though we have had a hotter summer than expected, the Lablab grew swiftly. The plant did a great job beating the grassy weeds and caused to gardens to have very few weeds this summer. We are currently conducting “kill” tillage, a shallow tillage meant to kill all the weeds and plants in the garden and leave them near the soil surface while avoiding “planting” the weeds seeds with a deeper till. With a little rain in the next two weeks, the weed seeds will germinate, but can easily be killed with an additional tillage just prior to planting.