Our Time on a Quince Farm

Just as Marea’s family arrived, we confirmed the final details of our next volunteer experience. In fact, I wrote the final “Yes! We’ll see you then” as they walked in the door, and we were excited to tell them all about it.

We’d be helping on a quince farm, we explained, whatever that was. This prompted a bit of research on the asian fruit and the sweet cheese/paste/jam stuff it makes.  We all began to spread to word: we were going to a quince farm and soon we’d be quince masters. Fun!

With so many visitors and so much to see and do, prep and planning to get to the quince farm was placed on the backburner until all company left. “Have fun on the quince farm!!” each exclaimed with their final goodbyes.

That’s when I decided to double check our hosts’ profile to remind ourselves what we were about to get into. 3 hours south of Mendoza in San Rafael… check! English motorbike enthusiast hosts who traveled the world for 3 years….check! 4 dogs and 5 cats… check! Plums, grapes, and walnuts…che…wait…ummmm, Marea!?! I think I made up the story about us going to a quince farm. Whoops. (sheepish, please-forgive-me smile)

In all the rush of being more tourist-than-traveler I must have mixed up stories. Or maybe it was the 4 dogs and 5 cats that I got too distracted by….

These kittens cuddled all day and the cuteness was pretty overwhelming. We had to pat Kristy down before we left to make sure they all stayed on the finca.

Mo- a real opera singer. We enjoyed several of his live performances.

Rosie- Marea’s not-so-secret best friend. They spent their days playing futbol keep-away together with pinecones.

Posh- Wish we would have captured her posh runway trot on camera.

Rita- the family favorite as she is THE original farm dog.

Annette built them comfy shelters, but they preferred their alternative beds.

Grape vines. Can you find the gato?

Never-the-less, we were still excited to be going to a fruit and nut farm, we just hoped all our fans who were expecting us to be quince experts upon our return home would forgive us for the fib. For what its worth, we couldn’t have found a better place to be or more welcoming hosts!

John, the car salesman turned sales director, and Annette, jack-of-every-single-trade-out-there, decided to pack up life as they knew it in England and set out on a 3 year road trip around the world on their motorcycles. As one might expect, life when they returned “home” had changed very little in 3 years’ time but John and Annette continued to feel the itch for something different. So in 2006 they packed up and headed out again but this time as Argentinian fruit farmers in a cozy little spot outside of San Rafael.

Our host, John getting ready for a day of work on the farm.

The cat Annette is holding has a rat in his mouth that he stole from another cat. Annette is teaching him about property rights.

First things first… they got a farm dog. Then, they taught themselves to drive the sturdy tractor from the 60s and obtain all their necessities in Español, BUT planting over 100 fruit trees and refurbishing the run-down farm house was going to take a bit more time, effort, and hands. Thanks to their extensive motorcycle network and stumbling across Workaway, they’ve had a houseful of eager travelers volunteering their limited and masterful skills ever since.

Fortunately for us, we didn’t have to sleep in a dirt workshed this time around as we reaped the benefits of the hard labors of past volunteers and got a comfy bed in our own room with running water and everything!

We spent our days pulling the sun dried plums (prunes) off the racks, collecting walnuts, driving the awesome tractor, donning the proper farmer attire, burning a massive brush pile, and building a brick farm patio. Well, at least Marea did. My cat holding to work ratio might have been a bit unbalanced.

Receiving instructions for the day.

The kitties always prepared to help with the plum drying.

Argentinian farmers, Marea and Annette.

Getting the first bricks of the new patio laid.

Kristy sweeping dirt and sand in the cracks of the patio we built to set the bricks.

Looking fly in my farm clothes.

Our host John with his ancient tractor.

Controlled burn on the finca.

The dogs waiting for critters to run out of the last cool part of the fire.

Yes, Marea wore those clothes and drove that tractor- new profession?

Pulling dried plums off the rack.

Peeling apples so Kristy can learn to bake a crumble.

Hauling brush to the burn pile on a beautiful day.

Controlled burn on the finca.

Posing in front of the brick patio we built.

How many cats can I hold at once?!

In our free time, we were entertained by Annette’s stories of her “crash-free” driving excursions, her successful implementation of HR sensitivity training at a machismo-cultured company, and the times she accompanied John to his high brow work events not afraid to be herself.  John always chiming in with his dry English humor version of the stories kept us in a constant state of giggles throughout our 2 week stay.

On our weekend break, we went camping at the nearby El Tigre campground. There was a brief hike by the dam, our first asado (Argentinian version of a BBQ), and lots of relaxing and reading. Dropped off and picked up the next day, it was just the car camping experience we’d been yearning for.

Kristy grill mastering our first Argentine asado.

Kristy grill mastering our first Argentine asado.

The river right before the dam at El Tigre.

Kristy cartwheeling near El Tigre campground.

Lounging with our hosts under the grape vines in front of their home.

Kitty cuddles!!

Even Marea loved** the cats! **read “love” as she held a cat or two a couple times during our stay.

We left refreshed with great new friends, contemplating our own plans to start a farm. “All we’ll need is kitties, dogs, and chickens, right?!?”

Check.