Dining at the botanical garden

Lecture
Mexican Culinary Herbs
Victoria Challancin
Fri, Apr 11, 9:30am
El Charco del Ingenio
100/70 pesos

Victoria Challancin, owner of Flavors of the Sun International Cooking School of San Miguel, will be the special guest lecturer at El Charco del Ingenio botanical garden.

Her talk will be about Mexican culinary herbs and lesser-known edible plants such as romeritos, verdolagos, pápalo and quelites. Challancin’s lifetime love affairs with history, culture, travel and food have provided her a base of knowledge that spills over into her classes and her talks.

In addition to providing practical information and recipes, she sprinkles her lively lectures with food anthropology, ethnobotany, a bit of phytochemistry and Mexican herbal lore. Her love of plants includes not only their use in the kitchen, but also their vital role in healing.

An American by birth, Challancin has spent more than 32 years living abroad in the Middle East, Europe and Mexico. This overseas living, combined with multiple trips around the world, provides a broad base for her cooking classes and customized tours. As a 20-year resident of San Miguel, Challancin obviously loves and appreciates Mexico, its culture and its food. Ten years ago she opened Flavors of the Sun International Cooking School, where she teaches classes in English to foreigners and international cooking in Spanish to the Mexican maids and cooks who work for them. Her cooking classes have been featured on TV and in magazines and newspapers.

Currently, Challancin is leading private groups interested in customized travel to such exotic locations as Morocco, and will soon offer similar tours to the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Syria, Turkey and Paris. She also writes the “Flavors of the Sun Newsletter,” a practical and fun source of food-related information for San Miguel residents. Be sure to check out her food blog as well at flavorsofthesun.blogspot.com, which provides fascinating articles on salt, pumpkin seeds, verdolagos, romeritos, agave nectar and more (email: flavorsofthesun@gmail.com ).

Reservations for this presentation may be made at nzerriffi@yahoo.com.  Cost is 70 pesos for members of El Charco and 100 pesos for nonmembers. Please arrive by 9:20am at the reception area of the botanical garden.

Quetzalcoatl parallels with Thoth and Prometheus
By José Luis Mendoza

Lecture
Quetzalcoatl, El Sol Eterno
David Leonardo
Fri, Apr 4, 11 & 18, 5pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos

The mural in the Sala Quetzal, in its scope and cosmogony, reminds one of a certain chapel in Italy. The story is fascinating, especially as told by the painter David Leonardo. This Friday, he will explain the mural he painted, giving details on its themes and the subjects depicted. In each lecture he will explain the whole mural and hold a question and answer session afterward.

Quetzalcoatl, “The Eternal Sun” and feathered Serpent, has a mission—the creation of man.

Quetzalcoatl becomes the morning star, the planet Venus, which is represented by five petals. The ancient people in Tula celebrated constantly in order to remember this divine apparition in the creation of humans. In the ceremonies they used masks, ritual dances, praise and prayer.

Golden trumpets, which symbolize light and wisdom, were played along with prayers, from the humans’ hearts to heaven.

The animals associated with the night, such as turkeys, dogs and lizards, became brothers with Quetzalcoatl’s twin brother, Xolotl.

It is said that Quetzalcoatl, after giving us the arts and his wisdom, had to leave Tula, his beloved and pacific kingdom. He set himself on fire in a boat that sailed the Gulf of Mexico until he disappeared on the horizon.

The 50-peso fee will be applied to a fund to create a children’s book with the images of the mural and the story of Quetzalcoatl. This lecture series is part of the celebration of the Biblioteca’s 50th anniversary in this building.

Handmade adobe pueblos still occupied after 1,000 years
By Robbie Mantooth

Lecture series
Mexico Verde
Jim Hallock
Fri, Apr, 4, 1pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25

Jim Hallock, founder of the nonprofit Instituto Tierra y Cal, AC, will address sustainable building technologies in his lecture “The Benefits of Compressed Earth Blocks.”

Hallock will give an overview of the tools, techniques and methodology necessary to build a CEB house. He also will describe the economic, ecological and architectural benefits. The lecture promotes Tierra y Cal’s first hands-on workshop, April 14–24 at their land near Atotonilco.

Earth Blocks are aesthetically pleasing as well as cost- and energy-efficient, fireproof and pest-resistant, virtually soundproof, durable and structurally sound. They provide architectural freedom and are compressed from nontoxic, readily available, natural, raw material…earth.

A high-pressure hydraulic ram can form one block every eight seconds. Tierra y Cal’s current blocks are 15x30x10 cm and weigh about 11 kilograms. The 5,000 blocks for the exterior of a 1,500-square-foot, single-story structure take only 15 hours to make. The blocks can be produced on-site.

The five Earth Block ingredients are sand, clay, water and a small amount of aggregate combined with some lime or Portland cement as a stabilizer. Blocks may be produced off-site if the local soil is unsuitable, or to allow construction during all seasons.

Earth Blocks are competitive in cost with other construction methods and materials. In addition, significant savings are later realized through the advantages of thermal mass, which affects heat retention, making the structure easier to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. Solar orientation and architectural design can further enhance Earth Block effectiveness.

The density of an Earth Block wall insulates the occupants from the outside world. Sound recording studios have been built with pressed block for that very reason.

Wildfires are of little concern if you live in a fireproof building (it’s also bullet-proof). Earth Block is impervious to bugs and rodents, and highly mold-resistant if lime-stabilized.

Earth Block buildings are structurally sound and triple the strength required by the New Mexico adobe code. The strength, durability and longevity of Earth Blocks stand in stark contrast to other building materials. A typical wood-frame building has an average life span of 75 years while the adobe Taos Pueblos are still occupied after 1,000 years.

Earth Blocks are ideal for dwellings, storage units, barns, kennels, decorative walls and garages. Earth Blocks provide practical value plus aesthetic appeal. Pleasing features such as arches, rounded corners, deeply-recessed doors and windows, exposed block and earthen plasters add to the overall feeling of softness and warmth, much in keeping with the San Miguel style.

For thousands of years people around the world have relied on earthen construction for their shelter with minimal impact on the environment. In fact, half the population currently resides in earthen dwellings. Earth Block construction combines the purity and timelessness of a natural material with the opportunities and innovations of today.

If you want to learn more about Earth Blocks or attend the workshop, contact Jim at jimhallock@tierraycal. com or call (551) 798-6845. You also can check out www.earthblockinc.com or www.tierraycal.com.  If you want to know more about the Mexico Verde lecture series, check out their blog at www.mexicoverde.org  or email Robbie at: r_mantooth@yahoo.com. 

Robbie Mantooth, is a long term resident of San Miguel. Robbie works as a consultant for the architectual firm, Barbosa Arquitectos, and is interested in all things green.