Farm School and Good Eats in Patagonia

Where to begin?? My apologies for the looong hiatus. I´ve been at Chacra Rincon del Sur, a gorgeous little family farm outside of El Bolson, in northern Patagonia, for almost two weeks (holy moly, it´s been two weeks!?!?). I´m living in a small, basic cabin with three other American girls (two of whom are from brooklyn, go figure). We live up the hill about 1/4 mile from the Aguilar family home. Cynthia Aguilar, the matriarch, is our "boss" and teacher. She´s like a farmier, friendlier, Argentine Martha Stewart, and she´s amazing. We work from 10-1 and then 4-7 each day, on her family farm and one morning a week at the local elementary school, where she runs a garden to provide vegetables for the kids´meals there.

Their farm is basically a family homestead. Cynthia and her husband, Ignacio, live there with Cynthia´s 15 year-old son, Fede(rico) and their 10 year-old daughter, Sol. They don´t sell anything commercially, though with a cash-strapped, rural population, bartering is very common, and they often trade their products and produce with neighbors. They have, i think, 24 hectares, which is about 80 acres of land, most of which is forested. They grow all their own produce in two gardens and a small greenhouse, and have sheep for wool and lambs´meat, two milking cows, a handful of laying hens, a handful of ducks, two geese (all for eggs), a pig, and four rabbits.

We start our days feeding animals, cleaning the stalls, and milking the cow. Then we help in the garden, weeding or transplanting seedlings, or help collect and burn wood (to prevent rats´nests in wood piles), or help with other small projects around the farm. When the weather is bad, and sometimes, even when it´s not, we get lessons in cheese-making, or butter-making, or bread-making, or empanada-making, or beer-making. This is my favorite part. Although we, as volunteers, do help out, Cynthia´s main goal is to teach what she knows to the volunteers that come to the farm. She is incredibly hospitable and affectionate, greeting us each day with a big hug, and treating us all like family from Day 1.

As far as cooking and eating well, I´ve struck gold at this place . In addition to our "classes" with Cynthia, my fellow volunteers are all great cooks and food lovers. With the exception of grains, beans, and spices, nearly all of our food comes from the farm and is included in our $5 a day charge. Ana, an American who is traveling with her boyfriend on a research trip for the goat farm-cheesemaking-brewpub they hope to open one day, is an excellent cook, and has been a great cooking teacher as well. Aily and Lucy, two Bard grads from Brooklyn, also love food, and are great cooks as well. I´m an excellent sous chef, culinary student, and appreciator of the delicious meals they create :).

We have somewhat limited resources, what with this being the beginning of the garden season (only chard, lettuce, onions, radishes and parsnips are fresh), but it´s amazing what "we´ve" come up with so far. Here´s a list (in no particular order) of some of our recent meals:

Spanish garlic soup, squash polenta gnocchi with morel cream sauce, squash apple soup, bulghar-lentil-chard pilaf, rice-chard pilaf (pictured below), lentil-potato-parsnip soup, rhubarb-cherry-apple crisp (I made that one!), Spanish flan, rice pudding, French toast (I made that, too!), potato pancakes. Every day, it´s something new, and with all the delicious, fresh dairy and eggs, I´m definitely going to be rolling off this farm when I leave here.

I will post more, soon, and new pictures are up in my Picasa album. Sorry there´s no captions yet. Until then, Chau, and Buen provecho!

Dance, Dumbo, Dance

I've been having a great time exploring Buenos Aires this week, and having an altogether different experience than my first three weeks here. The hostel I'm staying at (El Salmón) has a great group of people staying there, and has a really communal and laid-back vibe. Plus, it's very international, with Europeans, North Americans, and Aussies as well as several folks from South America. Most of the rooms are 6- or 8-person co-ed dorms. I'm sharing a room with a Peruvian, a Colombian, a Cuban, and a French couple. Other countries represented here are Canada, Germany, Chile, Argentina, Australia, England, and Ireland. It's pretty amazing when, around 10pm, the kitchen is full of people cooking, eating, and talking, with Quiche Lorraine in the oven, a Colombian sancocho (chicken soup) on the stove, and conversations in three languages filling the air.

I've spent my days this week exploring the city on my own: setting off on foot with a vague destination, which I may or may not arrive at before I find a cute café to sit in for a while, or get distracted by a bookstore or public garden. The other day I found myself in front of the Buenos Aires Zoo, and decided on a whim to go in. I hadn't been to a zoo in probably fifteen years, and my most recent opinions and impressions had been formed by an Environmental Ethics course I took at Bates. So I expected it to be a not very pleasant experience, but I was curious to observe my reactions to and feelings about it in person.

The first thing I noticed was how empty it was. Walking in felt like walking into an amusement park, but on a gloomy weekday during the off-season. More than the lack of guests, what was striking was the absence of staff throughout the park. Aside from booths throughout selling buckets of "Animal Food" or peanuts to feed the animals, and the guides leading the two or three school group tours going on, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who worked there. For a city zoo occupying a relatively small space, it had all the expected animals, but the enclosures were sad, small, and artificial, and many of the large cats and bears had no companions and lived amidst blatantly artificial environments. The principal activities of the monkeys and large cats seemed to be pacing and sleeping. All in all, the zoo, and thus, the animals, were clearly suffering do to a shortage of funds.

The visit confirmed my belief that capturing and caging animals for entertainment and money-making purposes is cruel and inhumane. Any educational benefits are more than offset by the de-animalizing effects of captivity. With the possible exception of animals rescued and rehabilitated from even crueler circumstances, which are not able to return to their native habitats (as was the case of Mara, the Asiatic elephant, who performed tricks for peanuts at the command of a tour guide), no animal should be subjected to life in a zoo.

I'm sure my conviction was heightened by the dilapidated condition of this particular zoo; however, while better-maintained and more sensitive zoos surely exist, I think the Bs. As. zoo is unfortunately more the rule than the exception, on a global scale.

On a lighter note, I'm going to check out a cemetery today :) which is supposed to be beautiful! I'm staying in the city until Sunday. the Gay Pride parade is on Saturday, and it should be really fun. Argentina is the only South American country to have legalized same-sex civil unions (in some regions), which has made Buenos Aires pretty much the gay capital of South America. I'll definitely have some great photos to put up on Sunday!