Alpacas, Argentina, Austin...Oh My!: Whimsical Workshops and Wicked Wheelbarrows

“To allow ourselves to be dependent on some vast Thing created by the Merchants of Greed is madness.” - John Seymour, “The Self-Sufficient Life and How To Live It”

Hola a todos!

This past week and a half at Mama Roja have been filled with medical dramas, out-of-the-ordinary days off (and days on), plastering, and workshops, workshops, workshops!

Ashley suffered from some kind of illness last week that left her with a high fever for several days, culminating in some time at a clinic and recuperation at a hostel in town. To take advantage of a rough situation, we all joined her at the hostel last week Thursday evening for a special night off party and a day spent at Refugio Verde swimming in the pool, eating empanadas, dulce de leche, and Fabian’s (the owner’s) deliciously amazing pasta. Unfortunately just prior to this special day off I managed to cut my leg quite handily on a wheelbarrow. Luckily my blood has some superior clotting abilities and with some love and attention this past week it’s looking much better, although I’m still going to have a nice scar to remember that wheelbarrow by.

We did a zillion workshops this week, learning about and/or making and/or doing: peanut butter, gingerale, chi gong, seed-saving, herbal remedies (infusions, tinctures, liniments, etc), and balms! I have included a couple of recipes for any of you who are interested to try them.

Gingerale

350 grams lirio (wild jungle ginger- perhaps you could substitute regular ginger, or a local wild version? Experiment and let me know what works for you!)

150 grams ginger root

Clean the gingers well and cut them into small pieces.

5 L of water

Boil the water and ginger together for an hour.

Add 15 L of cold water

Toast 2kg-2.5kg (we used 2kg) sugar

Add and mix the sugar into the water.

Add a little bit of yeast.

Cover with a cloth

Let the mix sit two days, mixing every day.

2 days later, fill bottles (plastic Coke bottles work well) to 3/4 full

Allow these to sit for 7 days.

Check the pressure and let a bit out.

After 25 days of sitting it should be ready to drink!

Herbal Balms

Begin with an oil infusion:

Pick your herb and dry it completely- this is a water-free process to avoid mold. Choose a high-grade oil such as sunflower or olive- avoid “mixed vegetable oil” and corn oil. Look for a clear oil with a neutral smell.

Sterilize your jar (clean it out) and put it in the oven to dry it completely. Put as much of your herb/flower in the jar as you can or want and cover it completely in oil. Put the jar in a dark, dry place on a shelf for at least 6 weeks.

After 6 weeks, take out the herbs and store your infused oil in dry containers out of the light. Alternatively, you can cook the oil/herb mixture at very, very low and indirect heat, with a lid, for 2-24 hours and use this oil (some herbal purists argue that this kills the herbs’ healing properties- do whichever works for you). You can also use these oils for massages, as a hair oil, etc.

Solidifying your balm:

Use purified beeswax (you can purify your own by heating it and skimming off debris). For a more oily balm, use a 4:1 oil:wax ratio (by volume or weight). For something more solid, like a lip balm, use a 2:1 oil:wax ratio.

Melt the beeswax in a double boiler with the oil and mix it all together. When it’s all a liquid, you have your balm! You can add essential oils to the whole recipe or to individual containers. Store in small, very dry and clean containers or jars. It will take 30 minutes to an hour to set up (solidify) into a balm. Do not put in pieces of the flower or herb you used- this will cause mold. Do some research on the different healing properties of herbs- some are good for skin care, others for relaxation, others for bug bites!

This past week I’ve also been doing more research into greywater, in the hopes of installing a system when I return to my parents’ house. I’m reading a book called, “Create an Oasis with Greywater” by Art Ludwig. His thesis is: “every house should be surrounded by an oasis of biological productivity nourished by the flow of nutrients and water from the home.” He feels that you can surround your home by food-producing plants and trees, nurtured by your “waste”water, and receive the benefits of food and clean air while purifying your own ground and irrigation water. In fact, he, and many others like him, say that there is actually no such thing as waste; there are merely misplaced resources. It goes along with earlier posts I’ve made- why IS it that we excrete our waste into purified drinking water? Why do we so often dispose of our medicines, toxins, and toxic cleaning/hygiene products in the water we need to survive? It all comes back to us, sooner or later- so why not deal with our own waste in a manner congruent with the cycles of nature, instead of pushing it off on someone else to handle ineffectively? (Often water is treated by cleaning out solids, killing bacteria with harsh chemicals, and then dumping the remainder back into waterways- wastewater treatment plants don’t treat water for antibiotics, anti-depressants, and a whole myriad of other stuff that you might be drinking right now!) It’s just plain silly.

For those of you wondering what greywater is, it’s any water produced by a household that is NOT toilet water (that’s blackwater, and should be dealt with separately- ideally by having a composting toilet so that you don’t have a blackwater stream). Greywater contains lots of nutrients that plants can use, as well as some pathogens, solid waste, etc. If kept off of the edible parts of plants and away from kids and pets, greywater can be very effectively utilized by fruit trees, wetland plants, and other plants. When plants use the greywater they remove toxins, pathogens, and nutrients and allow clean water to be used for irrigation and to replenish groundwater sources. I have been reading and researching with the intent of using our greywater for irrigation in our garden and have been very surprised at how easy it is to install a system. The simplest systems involve dumping water from the kitchen sink on plants. There’s a million others though- Ludwig recommends digging a basin around your receiving plant(s) and filling it with mulch, and then putting your greywater outlet under the mulch so that it is never on the surface. It’s so easy, and can save you years and hundreds of dollars in less cleaning of the septic tank (in the country), reducing the load on sewer systems (in more populated areas), and providing you with a source of irrigation and nutrients for plants- plus it’s way better for the environment.

We also learned about seed-saving this week and had a discussion around it and eating in season. A topic that has often come up is how there is such a disconnect between older and younger generations- this knowledge is something that normally would be passed down from our families and neighbors to us (and luckily in my case much of it has). But we’ve gotten caught up in the idea that “progress” means doing everything that we are capable of, even if it is environmentally damaging, and that to separate ourselves from the land is to set ourselves above those who are still connected to it. I don’t think we have ever been so wrong. Information on how to provide for ourselves, how to take care of ourselves, one another, and the planet we live on, is being lost, for the sake of “progress.” Maybe progress is making the choice to do the right thing, to live in a way that makes sense and that is in alignment with the natural systems of the world, even though we “could” separate ourselves and live within a bubble of technology and comfort instead (until, of course, that choice is taken away from us, or from our children- when we are forced back to the land by our collective choices to separate ourselves from it). How long can we keep expecting someone else to step in and save us? How long before we realize that governments and corporations aren’t the places where change will happen first? Here’s some thoughts from John Seymour on these ideas...

“We had never had any real conscious drive to self-sufficiency. We had thought, like a lot of other people, that it would be nice to grow our own vegetables. But living here has altered our sense of values. We find that we no longer place the same importance on artifacts and gadgets as other people do. Also, every time we buy some factory-made article, we wonder what sort of people made it- if they enjoyed making it or if it was just a bore- what sort of life the maker, or makers, lead. I wonder where all this activity is leading. Is it really leading to a better or richer or simpler life for people? Or not? I wonder about the nature of progress. One can progress in so many different directions. Up a gum tree, for example. I know that the modern factory worker is supposed to lead an ‘easier’ life than, say, the peasant. But I wonder if this supposition is correct. And I wonder if, whether ‘easier’ or not, it is a better life? Simpler? Healthier? More spiritually satisfying? Or not?”

“It is time to cut out what we do not need so we can live more simply and happily. Good food, comfortable clothes, serviceable housing, and true culture- these are the things that matter. The only way this can happen is by ordinary people- us- boycotting the huge multinational corporations that are destroying our Earth, and creating a new Age- an Age of Healing in place of the current Age of Plunder.”

Both from John Seymour, “The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it”

Finally, just so some of the pictures make sense, a few of us went to Brasil on Tuesday! We're only about 30km from the border crossing at Alba Posse and some folks needed to renew their Argentine visas (I didn't, but I wanted to go to Brasil for the day!). So, we hopped on a bus, then hopped on a ferry, and then had lunch in Brasil and hung out for a few hours!

I’m getting too wordy, so I’ll leave you with some thoughts on eating from The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (I’ve just started reading it, years overdue- I would highly recommend it!).

‘“Eating is an agricultural act,” as Wendell Berry famously said. It is also an ecological act, and a political act, too. Though much has been done to obscure this simple fact, how and what we eat determines to a great extent the use we make of the world- and what is to become of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life can afford quite as much satisfaction. By comparison, the pleasures of eating industrially, which is to say eating in ignorance, are fleeting. Many people today seem perfectly content eating at the end of an industrial food chain, without a thought in the world; this book is probably not for them. There are things in it that will ruin their appetites. But in the end this is a book about the pleasures of eating, the kinds of pleasure that are only deepened by knowing.’

There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other's cooking & say it was good.

Brian Andreas

A ship in a bottle in a wall (the mud will be cleaned off once we finish plastering). One of the incredible features of natural building is the flexibility it provides. Glass bottles of various sizes, shapes and colors let in light and provide decoration and a sense of whimsy. Coat hangers can be built into the wall at any point in the process. Shelving made from wood, or even from mud (cob) can be added as well, either as a pre-planned feature or later as ideas come to the builder.

The shed on the left, with the solar panels that provide us with electricity for lights at night. Above, a faint rainbow.

Typical siesta scene...books, hammocks, good company, peaceful scenery, and kittens...sigh.

Heather utilizing the hammock for a post-almuerzo nap.

Learning to peel mandioca.

Ariel teaches us to make traditional Jewish cookies for Purim. They're called hamendaschen and with some dulce de leche in the batter AND in the filling they were divine!

Mmmmmmm.

Cookie baking antics and delight.

Fresh-baked bread and cookies- what a wonderful day.

Shaving a bit off my neck in the hopes that it will help me to reach a more comfortable temperature. So far there's not much difference, but I love touching it! (Don't worry, I still have 90% of my hair!)

Part of the setting for our night at Refugio Verde- wine and candles.

Our empanada dinner arrives!

Wonderful company and lots of wine- lovely.

Jax expressing her love for all things empanada.

A few of us expressing our delight to be fiesta-ing.

A lavender mustache and two good friends :)

Peeling a loofah sponge for bathing- did you know that they grow on vines? With some luck I'll be brining home seeds to grow my own, but you can buy them in North America as well!

Making peanut butter- you will notice my excellent peanut-grinding stance and highly-rolled pants. Both are necessary to achieve the most delicious peanut butter.

My poor leg and its cut- a big shout-out to my body for its almost instant clotting! It's looking much better now!

Mama takes the babies out for some food.

All the steps in the peanut butter process- roast the peanuts (without shells). Peel the red skins off. Grind the peanuts. Grind them again. Add salt and sugar. Eat it, all the time.