Planting Ojos del venado with the Rain

As you know en El Jardín de la playa, we plant for the love of working the land. We decided to do our best to plant with this weeks rain. This led us to our plot on Wednesday afternoon.

Our fellow gardeners made an awning over our picnic table. With the awning we can hang out in the garden during the rain and stay dry. After we entered the gate under the “ancient tree,” we greeted our friends and continued to our plot. The thick dark gray clouds above communicated to us all that they would burst soon.

Earlier in the day, a dear friend and bean farmer passed on knowledge regarding planting beans. Based on her words, we decided to plant our beans in a circle that will grow up a tipi made of bamboo poles. During the past years, our beans tended to be extremely healthy and strong. The tipi shape will support a high a yield and strong plants. In this manner, we planted black beans and ojos del venado, a type of Mexican pinto bean.

We plant the ojos del venado because of a man named Tío Pedro (Uncle Peter), also called Don Peter, and Pedro Jesus Marquez. Our garden exists today due to the work of this man. He sewed and reaped delicious, organic food from our garden for more or less 15 years. He consistantly discussed, “The love of working the land.” For whatever reasons, some people and American cultural media demean farm work. Tio Pedro worked with pride and facilitated farm working with pride and love in El Jardín de la playa. The people, plants, animals, and insects expouse gratitude to Tío Pedro and ojos del venado, the beans he offerred to us.

Although Tío Pedro cannot come to our garden anymore, his presence very much continues today. His past work enables us to work for the love of working the land and rest under the awning on the picnic table. Our community is very fortunate to have had Tío Pedro amongst us. Our ojos del venado grow in honor of him and all other organic bean farmers.