We finally got a start to our volunteering down here in South America. We found a really great opportunity through WWOOF (Worldwide Organization of Organic Farmers), an organization that basically puts farms together with people willing to work - the key is that if you work you get to stay for free. The place we helped out at was a quaint little place called Finca/Bodega Utama (Utama farm and winery...www.bodegautama.blogspot.com), with the farm owned by Maud and the bodega run by her son. This farm and winery completely depends on volunteers to run, get all the work done, and ultimately to make money. In addition to making wine, they also make jellies, sell nuts, and sell all sorts of artesanal ceramic crafts.
We had an awesome experience here, and Maud is really spectacular. Here´s the rundown...we basically got there to help out with the harvest ("cosecha" in espanol) to make their organic wine and also to help out on the farm and around the house (ie: chores, yardwork, and maintenance!).
Just imagine this environment...you have 10 other people from around the world also helping out, cooking new and different cuisine every lunch and dinner (delicious Argentinian asados, homemade Mexican food, and hand rolled pizza!), and lots of hanging out. What language to use? Not everyone spoke English, nobody was really fluent in Spanish, so it was a strange mix of Spanglish, French, English, and Spanish! It was really cool.
Let's be honest, clearing weeds, fixing leaky sinks, and doing chores isn't that exciting(so I won't bore you with those days)...but picking grapes and helping with the harvest was awesome! The farm has about an acre of cabernet sauvignon grapes that we started harvesting early in the morning. Turns out that grape harvesting isn´t that difficult. Just cut a bunch of grapes and put it in your bin. When your bin is full, go weigh it and put it in the large bin. EASY, right? Wait until the next step...
350kg of grapes that we picked...all morning
Harvesting grapes
Now comes the hard part, sorting all of the grapes from the day. We sorted grapes for literally 8 hours, talk about tedious!!
Pressing grapes to get them ready for fermentation, the old fashioned way
Stomping grapes, AWESOME!!!
Mmmm...wine and toe jam!!
Utama!!
On the farm...
They used to age all of the wine in Argentina in these giant barrels
Maud and our friend...Ninja the kitten
Our house, right next to the 5am rooster cage wake up call. Every day. Yeah.
Beautiful scenery around Cafayate
All of the volunteers, getting ready to harvest
The farm was located just outside the quaint town of Cafayate in Northern Argentina. Here's a pic of the main square in Cafayate
A cool hike that we were able to do on our day off...
Great views in the valley of Cafayate
The farm is located "on the other side of the river" from the town
See Spot run! Again, so many stray dogs...
Overall, we had a great experience with Maud and at Utama. I know that Lisa and I had a great time and felt really useful (always important when volunteering!), and they were glad we helped out. It is just a start to our volunteering though. Since there were so many volunteers there, we had to camp...and camping for more than a week consecutively was a little bit rough!
Sooooo cool. So does this mean you guys will be making us all wine when you return?
ReplyDelete