Mexican Ayocote Super Bean! A 6000-Year History of the Milpa Agricultural System from Mayan and Aztec Cultures
Traditional Mexican agriculture follows the ancient traditions of the “milpa”, which is a system of small-scale family agriculture that pre-dates the Spaniards arrival in Mexico, and even pre-dates the Aztec Empire.
In this simple, time-honored method of small-scale family agriculture, the milpa consists of its main crop, corn (maiz), along with other native crops that co-exist and enhance the soil along with the corn, such as heritage beans and squash.
The beans grow on vines that wrap themselves around the corn stalks, while large leafy crops such as squash and pumpkins grow and spread along the bottom close to the soil, giving weeds and other undesirable plants no chance to grow, and require no chemicals whatsoever that need to be applied to the native, heirloom crops, or the soil that they grow upon.
After harvest, the corn stalks are burned down returning key nutrients to the soil through its ashes.
In my online store, Healthy Traditions, we have already been selling native, heirloom corn from small-scale milpa communities for over two years now, including our famous corn tortilla chips fried in our own coconut oil, because it is the only place we have found corn that consistently tests clean for GMOs and the herbicide glyphosate, which has contaminated the North American corn supply.
Today, we are announcing another ancient, heirloom product that is produced in these small-scale milpa agricultural systems, Ayocote beans!
These ancient “super beans” are heirloom beans that have been handed down from generation to generation through families living in Mesoamerica long before the Spaniards arrived, and even before the Aztec Empire, and date back to 6000 years!
































































