Mayan Food and Agricultural Techniques
The Maya were very good farmers and had different agricultural techniques for the different environments. In the highlands where there was lots of mountains they built earth terraces or steps on the mountain side. This created more flat land for planting. In the swampy lowlands they made raised earth platforms surrounded by canals that drained extra water. A third technique was used in dense forests. This was the slash and burn technique. They cleared the land by cutting and burning trees and plants, then they planted their crops. Like I said above the Maya made corn tortillas. These were made by women early in the morning. Other crops were: squash, beans and chili peppers.
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To the Aztec maize was important because it could stored for a long time. The women boiled and skinned maize kernels and ground them into flour. Besides making tortillas they made tamales by wrapping maize in corn husks and steaming it. Most Aztecs only had two meals a day. The first meal was in the late morning and consisted of maize porridge seasoned with pepper or sweetened with honey. The second meal was a midday meal and was the main meal of the day. It was usually tortillas, maize cakes, boiled beans or tamales. Some people did eat a thin porridge right before bed. Farmers grew maize, red peppers, tomatoes,sage, squash, green beans, sweet potatoes and avacados. They grew them on floating fields or 'chinampas'. Chinampas were made by stringing poles together in a square in the lake. Then bundles of reeds weighted down by stones were thrown into the square and mud was piled on until the garden was formed. When crops were bad Aztecs ate: frogs, shrimp, insect eggs and even cakes made of algae! But what the wealthy ate was quite different. They ate: winged ants; axotols, lizard like creatures; cocoa; pineapples; oysters and crabs.
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