Organic Training Gardens
on Lake Chapala

•The New Market Garden in Jaltepec

This is a new garden that is just being developed. It's main purpose will be a market garden offering a model for farmers, growers, and students while producing a wider variety of organic produce. The garden will be open to the public and will become a learning center for the community. It will include a resource library in both English and Spanish.

•Students Growing Together

•How ACA formed

The first project was conceived and initiated by the co-directors Wendee Hill and Marie Pruden, an experienced horticulturist and community organizer. Hill and Pruden were called to Mexico in 1992 to work as instructors in the Lake Chapala area through the auspices of the Catholic diocese of McKenzie, N.W.T., Canada.

In 1994 they were asked by the Catholic priest in the village of Nestipac to facilitate the opening of a community center offering classes in gardening, health and nutrition. Their close involvement with this very low-income Mexican community gave them a feeling of great rapport with the villagers and a deep concern for its problems of environmental damage, poverty, malnutrition, and lack of training and employment possibilities.

The Future: As you browse these pages, we hope you'll gain a better understanding of ACA's garden programs, and the benefits they are bringing to their students and nearby communities. A large new garden center is being created from "the ground up" at Jaltepec, and everyone is working overtime to meet their goals. If you visit Lake Chapala, please come by for a visit. In the meantime, we'll be adding further details on ACA's programs to this website as time permits. Of course, your donations of money, materials and expertise would be most welcome.