Haircuts, Homemade Bagels, and Roosters
Our time at Mama Roja is coming to an end. Tommorrow we are having a big “Giving Thanks” celebration, which will include traditional empanadas, deviled eggs, as well as thanksgiving favorites like mashed potatoes and stuffing. We are also going to be making mulled wine and mimosas, and there has been an overwhelming request from the group for another round of Adam’s famous sourdough bread.
We’ve been very productive in the last week. We learned how to make BAGELS, a welcomed taste of NYC. They were so delicious, and we can’t wait to bring the recipe back with us—although we have to perfect our “everything bagel” seasoning.
Rachel learned how to crochett from Tim, one of the other volunteers here who has crochetted himself a big floppy wizard hat. Adam has also been trying his hand at crochetting, but is having a little trouble getting off the ground with his ‘quilt,’ which is currently just a bunch of haphazard knots.
Adam’s out-of-control beard, mustache, and hair were getting to be too much, so Rachel took up hair dressing.
Adam’s new haircut and beard trim. Not bad for Rachel’s first time cutting hair!
Homemade bagels! Trust us, they are really good.
Adam “harvested” one of the roosters for a big pot of rooster soup. It was a solomn moment that put us face to face with life and death, the food we eat, and the choices behind the food. Because we do not have the technique to break the neck of the chicken swiftly and painlessly (this takes years of practice, we’ve been told), we were instructed to cut the neck with a sharp knife to sever the head from the body. Adam, focused on the task at hand, did a swift job, but the 20 seconds or so before the rooster bled out—where the eyes and tounge on its detached head were still functioning, and its throat still clucking, its wings still flapping—was a significant, life-changing moment. Killing the rooster and then yanking the feathers off its warm body was an intense experience, one that we aren’t so sure was justified by the delicious soup for which it sacrificed its life.
On the earthen building project, we have moved onto plastering from a mixture comprised of sifted dirt, sand, water, and cow poop. The plastering is fun, and with the plaster and other types of mud techniques (“meatballs”), we are building little nitches into the walls of the house which will serve as small shelves, for example, places to hold soap / shampoo in the bathroom. Kim, the founder and director at Mama Roja (and future tenent of the house we are building) has transformed a column in the house into an artful tree, the branches designed to hold small, decorative objects.
The experience of living a self-sufficient life, connecting with nature, as well as the building project have inspired us. We’ve begun discussing how we want our residency / farm to function as well as sketching building designs for writers’ cabins. Adam has been reading books on composting and humanure (composting with human manure!), wild fermentation, and self-sufficent homes. Rachel has been researching small projects for the farm such as root cellers and livestock care. We have decided on keeping chickens (great for eggs), pigs (great for fertilizing soil and plowing land before planting—and sadly, delicious), and of course, our cats will learn how to catch mice. Also, we’re hoping to have a dog to help with wranggling the fowl. We hear that ducks and geese mostly eat food that would otherwise be unfruitful for us to harvest (aqautic life of little nutritional value to humans) and they are also good for stuffing comforters, ect. But one thing at a time. It is hard not to get carried away with all of the possibilites of a sustainable life. Part of us justs wants to come back to the USA and get started! But there is still so much to learn and see.
Jungle Pants! (pre-haircut and shave)
Rachel and Justin in the Kitchen
Lulu, one of the dogs at Mama Roja.
A giant caterpillar (they will give you a nasty sting)
A rooster on the farm. Don’t worry - it is not the one we ate.
Our time in the tent is thankfully also coming to an end; we leave for Iguazu falls at the end of the month and then we’re off to Brazil, where we have rented a home on the beach for two weeks. We are really looking forward to a little R&R and that beachy honeymoon we’ve been prolonging.
