Urban Milpa – Garden Series #5: Preparing for Harvest

This hands-on garden session explores culturally rooted harvest practices associated with the milpa system. Participants will discuss harvesting with gratitude, learn techniques for saving seeds, and connect those skills to food sovereignty, cultural continuity, and regenerative urban agriculture.

The workshop is led by Marlene Aguilar of Irekuarhikua, a community-based cocinera and food-equity practitioner of Xicana and P’urhepecha heritage. Her work centers affordable, plant-based meals and the resilience of Indigenous foods. Participants will also receive chilled red prickly-pear lemonade.

About the series

Urban Milpa follows the life cycle of the “Three Sisters”—corn, beans, and squash—and uses monthly sessions to build practical gardening knowledge and a healthier, mutually supportive growing ecosystem. Families may register for this individual workshop or the broader series.