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¡Aqui!

The farm I'll be staying at for my first three months is called "Granja Valle Pintado". It is located 6 kilometers outside of the lively artisan town of El Bolsón, Argentina among the Patagonian Andean mountains on the 42nd latitude, and along the banks of the Río Azul river. The farm is on 8 hectares (20 acres) of land that were bought as a community living project in 2003 by a group consisting of Argentines, Chileans, Americans, and Canadians. Currently Alex Edleson, farmer, founder and my contact, is one of several residents on the land. They work the land through manual-style, low-till, organic agricultural practices, inspired by the principles of Steiner’s biodynamics, the natural farming of Fukuoka, and permaculture.

The farm organism of today has an important social responsibility as not only an economic nexus, but also an educational and therapeutic one, as it is an entity that manifests and connects us to the active forces and processes of nature. The Granja Valle Pintado community seeks to apply ancient wisdom to the necessities and contributions of the modern context, cultivating good food while increasing the health of the land, farmer, and local community.

Life on the farm is simple and rustic. They do not have electricity and heating is mostly from firewood. The farm is still in its formative stages. For the last couple of years on 1 hectare (2.5 acres) they have been growing small-scale grains, vegetables, fruit and pasture, saving seed, raising chickens, geese, bees, a milking cow and a horse that helps with farm work and transport. The farm is pioneering the community-supported agriculture model (CSA) in Argentina, which they call “agricultura asociativa”. They believe it is not enough to practice cultivating by organic methods, without also cultivating a socio-economic model that will sustain such farms. This means liberating agriculture from malicious market pressures by empowering local community economics. The farm is sustained by a group of El Bolsòn townspeople who financially and ethically support the Granja Valle Pintado. The harvest is divided into boxes and delivered weekly to share among farm’s member families, along with a range of other products we make like cheese, yoghurt, beer, dried herbs, jams, and chutneys.

The farm has a well developed infrastructure, including two houses (I think) and a central community kitchen. Structures were built using natural building methods like straw-bale, cob, adobe, and rustic carpentry.

I'm leaving tomorrow, and will get to the farm via Buenos Aires and San Carlos De Bariloche. I am so STOKED! Happy turkey day everyone!

Español Argentina

I'm headed to Argentina in 2 weeks, and I'm getting pretty darn excited! I've already discovered a pretty awesome Argentinian band! Onda Vaga (Wandering Wave) is a group from Buenos Aires. I bought their album and have been using it as a study aid. It's been a great way to get exposed to genuine Argentinian spanish!

- tù = vos
- vos = ustedes
- ll sounds like "jzhe"
- j is pronounced "kch"
- "y" at the beginning of a syllable makes a "sh" sound

I also read that the dialect in Patagonian-Argentina (especially the slang) is heavily influenced by Italian.

¡Qué suerte! ... or is it ¿Què fortuna?