Estancia Salvacion: Harvest Time!

Fall has arrived. The air is significantly crisp and fresh, and we have gone from sleeping with fans and airconditioners going non-stop to adding heavy blankets to our bedding. Apparently the unusually warm weather Montreal was experiencing last week is being off-set by the unusually cold weather we are experiencing here in Formosa, Argentina. Thanks for the equilibrium Mother Nature.

Either way, I am happy that it is fall because fall means harvesting! Though I am not working with fruits and vegetables, there is still plenty to forage and collect at Salvacion to satisfy my eager taste buds.

Pomelos

Pomelo fruit trees can be found in a number of locations around the estancia. One of these locations is at the corral at El Chinchorro. Yesterday we spent the morning working there branding and marking calves, and enjoying some pomelos. The fruit when ripe has a pale green to yellow colour, and has a yellow-white flesh. It is apparently the largest citrus fruit in existence, and tastes similar to a sweet grapefruit. I love the tangy taste of citrus fruit, and so I spent much of the morning carving pomelos with Diego's knife. (I tried not to think of what the knife was last used for as I cut the fruit open.)

Once the work was done, the gauchos enjoyed some pomelos as well. However, then consumer theirs very differently that I. I ate the flesh of the fruit, carefully peeling away the white portions. The gauchos cut away the rind leaving part of the very thick rind pith to use as a cup. They cut a hole in the top of the now maleable fruit, then squeezed the contents juicing the insides to then drink without getting their hands all sticky. Though a much quicker and cleaner approach than mine, I still prefer the sensation of having the little juice membranes of the citrus fruit explode in my mouth.


Wild Honey

When Diego and I arrived at one of the water retention stations to pick up a worker that needed a lift to Isla Negra, we were surprised to see that while the water was being pumped from the reservoir pond to the holding tank, the men were sifting honey!

The two men had found a big hive in one of the nearby trees and smoked out the bees. By the time we arrived, they had the liquid honey and some of the hive matter in a large tarp which they were pouring through an old nylon sack. The sack was then squeezed tightly to separate as much of the liquid honey from the solid matter as possible, before discarding the solid hive remnants on the side. The honey was dark and cloudy but so so sweet. I was very impressed with the find as well as the lack of bee stings on the men who had successfully nabbed the bees hard work. That's called experience.

Armadillo - or Tatu - Hunting

Here's the story. I was accompanying Marcelo, Capitas of Isla Negra, and Diego, vet, observe some of the herds out in the field by horseback two days ago. When we were already on our way back, the dog that followed us for the entire journey got a scent of an animal. Marcelo and the dog started to work together to catch the critter trying to evade their grasp. Diego says to me, "Want to see a Tatu?" Not knowing what a tatu was, I said sure.

Before I knew what was happening, super sexy gaucho man, Marcelo, jumps from his horse, catches the Tatu with his bare hands, and the help of his dog, raises it for our observation, then stabs it in the throaght with his machete. The animal takes a few minutes to die, before Marcelo guts it and cleans it in a puddle in the field, leaving the innards and head of the animal in the puddle for the vultures to find.

After telling this story to my boyfriend back in Canada, who has had his colleagues back home only warn him that many a woman has strayed from her man after finding themselves a ruggedly handsome gaucho in Argentina, says to me that he has started to develop a little crush on the ability of the men I am hanging out with everyday; his honesty makes me laugh.

Apparently armadillos taste like piglet meat, but Marcelo gifted the animal to Diego, who is taking the kill back to his family this weekend to enjoy. When I told Diego that food is meant to be shared amongst friends, he said that was true. All meat EXCEPT tatu meat. Which apparently is his favourite meat. When I said I have never tried armadillo meat, he says that that was too bad and that I really should, one day. My efforts were proving fruitless to get a bit of that armadillo. Still, the catch was exciting.