Life on the Farm – Part III

Lago Rupanco, Chile

I’m going to use this post to highlight some of my favourite things from our time on the farm. Check out my other farm posts here and here.

Sunsets

I’m a pretty big fan of sunsets, and the ones we saw here on Lago Rupanco were pretty incredible. The best one of all was probably at the end of the first sunny day that followed the nine days of rain. A little sun can make anyone happy!

The Hot Tub

This hot tub is unlike any other that I’ve seen, and the whole experience was unlike any other too! When we decided that we wanted to have a soak in the tub, we first needed to drain it. After all the water was out, we mopped/scrubbed/brushed it clean and rinsed it out. Then we had to fill it again (with lake water) – this took 1 hour & 10 minutes with the hose!! One filled, we got to work on the fire. We started the fire at 6pm on a Tuesday night. We then continued to stoke it right until we went to bed.

We were up early on Wednesday morning to relight the embers and get it going again. We then tended to it all day. Slowly but surely the water heated up! Watching the sunset from this spot was unreal. But the truly amazing part was coming back a couple of hours later to gaze at the stars. Just a completely blissful evening – and totally worth all of the effort! We even got to go in the hot tub again on Friday. The water kept a lot of the heat and it only took 7 hours to get hot hot hot!

The Food

I consider myself to be pretty capable in the kitchen. Since going vegan almost two years ago I’ve really fallen in love with creating meals and experimenting with different flavours. While traveling I’ve had to tone down my ‘experiments’ because many of the ingredients I’m used to cooking with simply aren’t available. Coming to this farm has completely reinvigorated my cooking knowledge! I’ve learned that it’s incredibly easy to have a totally delicious meal with very few ingredients but with TONNES of flavour. Our breakfast spread typically included oatmeal (with jams & peanut butter), a fruit salad (mainly pears, apples, and oranges), homemade bread, and the occasional scrambled eggs for those who wanted them.

Lunch was where the simple culinary methods truly shone though. Lunches varied from week to week, but we’d typically have a giant salad accompanied by a warm main course. This included a whole range of options such as: rice & beans, a hearty soup, vegetable stir fry, or even veggie burgers. When I say rice & beans, I don’t mean those that we grew so accustomed to in Nicaragua. I mean rice that’s been toasted and cooked with bay leaves, and beans that have been simmering since morning with a few key spices (mainly merken – a Chilean spice that’s made from garlic, coriander, and smoked chili peppers) as well as onions, garlic, and sometimes some other veggies (like squash or carrots). The result is an extremely flavourful stew of sorts – so many explosions of flavour!! Never again will I underestimate the power of the mighty bay leaf!

Like I mentioned above, it’s been so refreshing to have so many vegan meals that are honestly SO delicious and made so simply. Of course, not everyone here was vegan so the odd time there were vegetable dishes that had been split into two pans – one with some sautéed sausage, and one without. Another time, some chicken breasts were cooked up. On the whole though, the meals are mostly vegetarian, with cheese and eggs showing up only occasionally.

The Lifestyle

Another awesome thing about this farm is the lengths gone to to conserve energy and reuse materials. If anyone wants to have a hot shower, a fire must be started in one of the wood stoves (in either the kitchen, or in the bread house) as the stoves are connected to a water tank which is then connected to the showers. Planning is essential here because it takes about 3-4 hours of constant fire to get enough hot water for a semi-short shower!

No piece of food goes to waste either. All food scraps are given to the chickens. Any leftovers from meals that are a bit past their prime get stirred together to make a stew of sorts for the 3 dogs. Another form of compost for the gardens is to sprinkle ashes from the fire onto the soil. When the only form of heating is via fireplace/wood stove, a LOT of ashes get made!

One thing that is hard to combat no matter where you are is garbage. In this day and age, it’s hard to escape packaging no matter how “green” you try to live. To appease this, a new-ish system has been started that uses clean & dry plastics (such as the packaging used for bagging dry pasta & rice for example) as stuffing for clean & empty milk cartons (ie tetra packs). The plastic-filled cartons can then be used as “bricks” for insulation. Obviously garbage still accumulates, but with innovative solutions like this, it’s possible to reduce the amount of garbage by a big amount.

I also loved how peaceful this area was. On the days that it didn’t rain, I would go on long walks (always with the pups) up the road and through the forest, or down to the lake to chill out on the pier. It was so relaxing just being totally absorbed in nature.

The internet access was also pretty limited at the farm. Because of this I really toned it down on my usage and was able to see how much I actually use my smart phone every day. I started being more mindful to how often I used it and what I was using it for. It made me realize that most of the time I’m online, I’m just scrolling mindlessly on the internet not really accomplishing anything. I’m going to try to keep this habit alive once we leave and return to civilization. I mean, how can you be on your phone when there’s views like this to appreciate?!:

All in all, our 4 weeks on the farm were amazing. We each learned so much about this unique way of life. Living simply, and surrounded by beauty was totally perfect and absolutely rejuvenating. Mac & I agreed that being here was so good for the soul. (And yes, we are 100% aware that we are now border-line hippies. No shame.)