Mate, Fernet, y Dulce de Leche

 

Mate, Fernet, y Dulce de Leche 

We have been enjoying our last 2 weeks in San Juan, Argentina and learning a ton! We are living with an Argentinian woman our age along with an Italian guy that joined us this past week. She lives on about 5 acres with a lot of  alfalfa, a garden, many chickens/roosters, two sheep, and one cat. We have been enjoying getting to know each other and it just feels like just a group of friends hanging out and working together.

We have been learning a ton from her about all things Argentinian. We have really fallen in love with the culture and people here. From our perspective, there are three main things that make up Argentinian culture: mate, dulce de leche, and Fernet. We have been consistent with our mate drinking, pretty much since day one in Chile. Here, dulce de leche has been more consistent and we are learning that it can really be put on anything - toast, fruit, an ice cream flavor. It is pretty much the Argentinian version of peanut butter. As far as Fernet, on our first weekend here, she had two friends over and we got the full Argentinian experience with Fernet con coca (Fernet + Coca Cola). This is an Argentinian's liquor of choice and it is SUPER popular in all of the parties, friend hangouts, holidays, etc. Just as mate is a shared drink/experience, so it Fernet con coca. One person makes the drink - a large cup filled with ice, 30% Fernet, and 70% Coca Cola and passes it around the circle. And the process repeats. We have really enjoyed getting to hang out with other people our own age, practice our Spanish, and learn about what our generation is like in a different country.

Our schedule is really great here as we work in the mornings, have lunch in the late afternoon, and then have our own free time after that. Our primary activities we are doing here involve gardening, home/land maintenance, and animal care. We have learned a ton about gardening here. She studied this in university and has had lots of experience over the years figuring out what works best. We have done everything from planting seeds, transplanting, making planter beds, preparing compost, and building structures for the plants. She has taught us tricks such as how to use red worms for compost and how broccoli roots are really helpful to use in the soil when planting tomatoes. She follows a bio-dynamic method to farming/gardening which involves not using any pesticides or chemicals, helps to promote regeneration of the soil, and follows cycles of the moon to know when to seed and transplant things. She primarily sells eggs, items from her garden, and alfalfa to make a living. 

We are enjoying South America still and learning many different skills that we hope to use in our future home/farm/whatever it will be. We do have WiFi here so reach out whenever :) Miss and love you all!

Con amor, 

Abby y Connor 

Roosters taking over. Not our favorite animals.

Patti - la gata 

We found the Statue of Liberty in Argentina!

Crushing some ice cream.

I thought it was normal for the rooster to be on the table…

 thankfully it was not

Beautiful greens in the garden!

Cabbage

Fernet con cola 

Family gathering

Her house with the alfalfa fields 

We love the sheep - this is Margarita

This is Mierta. They are like dogs that like to eat 

literally everything, even your clothes. 

Building the raised garden beds

Baby seedlings

Compost in the ground

Walking to the grocery store

Twinning in our Everlast shirts 

Learning to make empanadas 

Hot dogs and beer - living the American dream

Trying to catch roosters

Building the tomato structures out of bamboo-like sticks

Me writing this blog post…with help from Patti