The Flavours of Puerto Madryn
Thursday 5 March
Well, we certainly chose the best tour of the stopover today, a very small group of us signed up for the Flavours of Puerto Madryn Tour and boy were we in for a treat! The sun had really warmed up, and we were driven 15kms to the outskirts Puerto Madryn to an area called the El Doradillo Ecological Park, a locality in the Biedma Department of Chubut. Its economy revolves around agroforestry activities which are made possible by the reuse of recycled water from Puerto Madryn, essential given their annual rainfall of only 200mm. The provision of treated water is the responsibility of a private company and is carried out through an aqueduct that transports it from the northern treatment plant along a 9-kilometre stretch to the subdivision.
Out first stop was at Il Monde del Chá - The World of Tea, whose motto is "The world has tea, tea has its world". What started off as a hobby for María Caroline Manfredi, a gynaecologist and surgeon, has now become part of her daily life, juggling between three days in the hospital and the rest of the time at her delightful tea house, as a Tea Sommelier. She creates her own tea blends with herbs and spices, designed for health and well-being and enhancing the finest characteristics of each herb and spice in the blend. Her assistant was excited to show us a piece of equipment that the local school had designed which punches a small piece of mesh into a little pouch to house each individual tea bag, and she deftly tied a piece of cord around the top under the watchful eye of María who had obviously taught her the knack of tying the knot like tying a suture! We were invited to sit down and do two tea tastings, the first was a green tea accompanied by a little cake with a delicious dulce de leche centre. Dulce de leche is a creamy national delicacy made from cow’s milk, sugar, baking soda and vanilla and slowly cooked, and of course is extremely healthy!!! The second tasting was a black tea, appropriately accompanied by the Welsh black cake! What a lovely start to our afternoon.
The area we are in is very arid and doesn’t appear to lend itself to any kind of agriculture, so it was a wonderful surprise to arrive at Chacra B&G, a family-run agroecological business dedicated to the production of almonds, walnuts, berries and some seasonal vegetables. Father and son, Pablo and Daniel, had previously been in the restaurant business and took the plunge to start this farm from scratch – it was such a treat to wander around their farm in the sunshine, looking at their trees, they had the Piqui tree which has a little fruit, sort of like a tomato, but with a hard stone inside, Daniel showed us a bottle of gin that is made from this fruit, but unfortunately we didn’t get to have a taste of that! Peppercorn trees, walnuts, and soft and hard almond trees were along the route, with plenty of arugula surrounding us too. They also showed us the machine that Daniel had designed which shells the almonds – would you believe that before the machine, they used to hand-shell them all themselves, I can’t begin to imagine how many hours that would have taken. They also have a quince orchard and make their own speciality quince jelly which they paired with Cremoso cheese, an Argentinian creamy cheese made from cow’s milk – it was absolutely delicious. Pablo and Daniel were very hospitable, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and our walk through their orchards.
Next up was Finca San Benito – a farm with two hectares of olive groves – 1200 trees, 400 lavender plants, rosemary bushes and fruit trees – not to mention plenty of hens, chickens, sheep and the newest arrival, Matilda the donkey. Run by Benito, another businessman who shunned office life and created this amazing place, was waiting for us at the entrance and was so proud of the place he has created. Not only does he do all the planting and working on the farm, but he has also built a separate, two bedroomed, beautiful house which is available to rent on booking.com. Once again we were able to enjoy walking around the lovely groves, no lavender to see as it is not the season, but Benito did take us into his lavender oil extracting plant where he had also built a special press which steams the oil from the flower for the process – a whole jerry-can of lavender oil was on the table – imagine how much lavender that would have been. The whole place smelled delightful and we were very happy to be able to have the chance to buy some of his lavender oil and lavender mists!
Our final stop was Finca Caballo Blanco, a ranch and vineyard opened by a lovely couple from Buenos Aires seven years ago. Nestled among the vineyards and fruit trees, the architecture and décor of the place is that of a modern-style Bodegón and incorporates elements with historical significance such as reclaimed wood from the old Piedra Buena Pier in the port, and a collection of vintage agricultural machinery. Pinot Noir and Malbec grapes were in abundance and amazingly, today was the day they were harvesting the Pinot Noir grapes! It was a beautiful space, and we were lucky enough to be also having our dinner here. All set out in their typical Argentinian ranch dining room, we started with a delicious, lighty pastry empanada followed by lamb, both courses accompanied by a Pinot Noir and a Malbec wine, with a traditional crème caramel to finish - all the while being entertained by a delightful pair of gaucho dancers. The finale of the day was in their barn where their chef treated us to a Mate demonstration. Mate is Argentinian’s national infusion and is prepared with yerba mate leaves in a gourd container and drunk with a metal straw, it is shared as a social symbol of friendship and hospitality and consumed hot throughout the day. It was quite the ceremony watching him boil the water on wood embers, then put some of the embers into the water, sieve it and then serve the Mate, I was pleased that we weren’t all sharing the same straw, as is the tradition, and we were each given a cup of the hot smoky brew to try!!!
We left feeling that we really had cracked the jackpot with the tour we chose today, it was such an awesome experience and so neat to see four separate groups of people following their passions and dreams, leaving traditional work behind and creating wonderful lives and livelihoods for themselves.