Cilantro, just beginning to sprout, from a chinampa in Xochimilco.
When I moved to Mexico City in 2009, people here didn’t talk much about where their food came from. A few stores sold organic groceries. A small handful of restaurants, including Pujol and Nicos, mentioned local items on their menus, but that was about it.
A lot has changed. Mexico City now has an eco-friendly tiangius every two weeks. La Nicolasa, a fabulous shop in Azcapotzalco, stocks organic products made in Mexico. New restaurants including Quintonil, Maximo and Kui make it a point to use locally sourced ingredients where possible.
De la Chinampa, a company that works with Xochimilco farmers, has supplied local restaurants with pesticide-free, ecologically friendly produce for the past three years. Lately, though, they’re pushing to let consumers know that they also do private deliveries. They’ll bring Xochimilco-grown fruits and vegetables to your doorstep for a small (75 peso) delivery fee. You receive a spreadsheet, place an order and receive the goods within one or two days.
De La Chinampa offers tours to anyone who wants to learn more about their operations, so I organized a group of 12 people last weekend to hit the chinampas. Chinampa is the name for a floating farm and it’s the main way produce is grown in Xochimilco — sprouted in layers of fertile mud, directly over water.
The Chinampas Tour Begins
We set off from the Cuemanco docks around 4 p.m., with a gorgeous salad (composed of locally grown ingredients) and cheese to munch on as we drifted.
Ricardo Rodriguez, who runs De la Chinampa with his wife Laura, a biologist, mentioned that more than 26,000 hectares of Xochimilco’s land could be developed for farming. Nearly 12,000 of those hectares are in Xochimilco’s Ecological Reserve, the area we were visiting that day.
De La Chinampa wants to generate a demand for Xochimilco produce, which would eventually create more farming jobs and hopefully restore the area ecologically. Much has been written about Xochimilco’s ecological decline; a recent Washington Post story quoted an UNAM biologist saying that he feared that within his lifetime, Xochimilco would no longer exist.
For those who don’t know, Xochimilco has been an agriculture hub in Mexico City since prehispanic times. A network of canals used to ferry produce to the Centro. The last canal only disappeared in the 20th century.
Ricardo said he believes this damage is reversible. It’s an overwhelming challenge, but on the tour, meeting the farmers, it seems possible.
Inside a working chinampa in Xochimilco
About an hour into our ride, we docked at a little cottage with flowers growing out front. A field stretched out to the left of the cottage. Nothing moved, except for wind rustling the trees.
Ricardo introduced us to the farmer, Nicolás, who’s been growing produce on this particular chinampa since he was a little boy. He showed us his neat rows of quelites, chard, radishes, and the lushest spinach I’d ever seen.
Spinach at a chinampa, or floating farm, in Xochimilco
Nicolás, a Xochimilco farmer, with the spinach he grows
Chard that's barely begun to sprout
A row of quelites.
Nicolás walked us through his farming process, describing how he uses mud, earth and local ground cover to keep the soil moist, cool or warm when needed. He also stressed that he doesn’t use any chemicals. “I’m an enemy of chemicals,” he said, smiling. My friend Janneth asked him how he learned to farm and he told us his grandmother taught him.
None of us really wanted to leave the farm — the grass there was so thick, I wanted to take off my shoes and run around — but we eventually got back on the boat.
We stopped at a smaller farm afterward. We poked around the succulents and patches of spinach.
A small chinampa in Xochimilco
I've never seen succulents like this before.
Finally, it was time to leave. We watched the sun set on the way back.
As I mentioned above, De La Chinampa will give tours to anyone (a minimum of 10 people) interested in learning about their products. The tour runs about 3 to 3 1/2 hours and is conducted in Spanish. To arrange a tour, or to receive a spreadsheet with De La Chinampa’s products available for order, contact Ricardo Rodriguez with De La Chinampa at ricardo[at]delachinampa.mx.
De La Chinampa is also seeking donations to build a sort of community center for the chinamperos in Xochimilco, which would offer training on local agricultural issues. They’re getting close to their May deadline and still need quite a bit. To give, visit their Fondeadora page (it’s like Kickstarter in Mexico).
After reading that horror story in the Washington Post this past weekend, the account of your trip to Xochimilco was a welcome read. Thanks for posting it. Xochimilco is certainly on the list for our next visit to Mexico City.
LOVE!
Did you know that there is a branch of La Nicolasa on Calle Chilpancingo in la Condesa? It’s between Aguascalientes and Campeche, come visit. We had a great cheese from there yesterday.
Cristina
I just emailed Ricardo, this sounds like a PERFECT outing for our family. And we meet the number requirement without anyone extra (lol) . Thanks so much for posting! What a refreshing story.
Hi Tricia: I’m so glad! Let me know how it works out. We really, really enjoyed our time there.
There is a kayak rental place at Cuemanco just south of the docks. It can be fascinating to spend a few hours seeing Xochimilco’s corners without a guide, too. Bring a friend; kayaks work better with two remadores.
Urban Xochimilco is a mix of working class neighborhoods, fancy clubs and haciendas, ad hoc bicycle ferries, old narrow bridges, and constantly eroding and rebuilding infrastructure.
In rural Xochimilco you can see overgrown old canals, spooky quiet backwaters, prospering farms of flowers, greens, corn, veggies, and much more. There are hogs and cattle and chickens headed for the city’s markets. And there is plenty of fallow land and wildflower meadows.
It’s a real treasure just a few miles from the center of the world metropolis. I hope it gets healthier than the Washington Post suggested.
Thanks for all the tips, Brian. Really helpful as always!
I went on a Xochimilco boat ride with a local family in ’98 and they talked the “skipper” into a trip in the back waters. We took a ‘lift’ over the main street of Xochimilco and away from the bumper car main tourist section and into the tranquil canals beyond. Visited a number of the flower farms and another for a bathroom break. Not sure that would equal an educational tour but is a great option to see the area.
Thanks for sharing this! I’ll have to give Xochimilco another go beyond the boat experience whenever I find myself in the DF again. Are you referring to what is sticking out of some of the succulent plants? If so, they look like that because they’re flowering. Desert plants often have fascinating ways of blooming!
Thank you for putting this together Lesley. Xochimilco is one of my favorite places in the city and now I love it even more!
Thanks so much for this article! I was already mourning the loss of Xochimilco after reading the other article. So glad to see that the tradition survives and that there are grassroots efforts to save this amazing world heritage site.
Love what Ricardo is doing in Xochimilco! great Post Lesley. I lived in the area before moving to San Diego. And two years ago when I went back to el DF, I had to enjoy a ride on the canals. My family and I had a blast.
Hola Lesley, gracias, gracias de verdad por este gran articulo. Lo apreciamos mucho y seguiremos adelante, ahora lo postearemos en facebook y en twitter. Me da mucho gusto que les guste lo que hacemos con tanta pasión y compromiso. Un abrazo a todos.
The tour was beautiful and the work the farmers are doing is great, but the people from La Chinampa need to be more organized, respectful and serious with the tour.
My family and I took the tour last saturday we were told to arrive at 11 am, we arrived before that time and had to wait more than an hour and a half to start the tour because most people arrived really late. Ricardo apologized, but did nothing to compensate our waiting time.
We did not want a refund because there are a lot of families involved who did a great job but it really is a shame that such a beautiful tour gets all messed up because the people from La Chinampa can’t establish limits.
I would take the tour again though, if they compromised to be more serious and establish reasonable limits and penalties to those who arrive late.
Hi there: I’m sorry to hear about this. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Leslie, I missed out on this one! I love the pictures, esp of the succulents you hadn’t seen before. I have them up on my balcony at work. They get big and lovely. The flowers are so delicate and beautiful!
http://mtile.us/thingsihaveloved/03-01-2012/