tradition « Estancia Los Potreros

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Yerra 2008

The annual ‘Yerra’ at Estancia Los Potreros is always a much-anticipated event, by staff and guests alike.

Usually taking place over a weekend in early March, the yerra is the branding of the calves before they are sent off to market. Robert Begg (Kevin and Robin’s father) is a strong believer in keeping rural traditions alive, and so the yerra is completed in the same way that it has been done for centuries in Argentina.

Calves are released in pairs into a corral, where a team of gauchos await, lassoes at the ready. The calves must be lassoed by their front feet and brought down for branding. The yerra is a real community event, with workers from the neighbouring estancias coming to help for the weekend, in return for the promise of the party at the end, where an animal is slaughtered and cooked on a traditional ‘asado’, with plenty of wine to wash it down.

There is always exciting action to be seen, with the natural macho spirit of the gauchos very much to the fore. The honour of putting the brand on the calf lies with the ‘dueño’ or senior member of the family, or in his absence the farm manager.

Always as interesting as the events themselves are the people . . .true country folk for whom participation in the yerra is as much a rite of passage as a job to be done.

Posted by Lou & Kevin at 15:34:59 | Permalink | Comments Off

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

One in the oven?

We are pleased to announce the completion of our new bread oven! These ovens, made of mud and bricks, are the traditional way in which rural folk in Argentina make their bread, and can also be used for cooking meat. The problem nowadays is finding the people with the skills to make them, so we were delighted when Veronica, one of our neighbours, friend and occasional guide, kindly offered to help us. Veronica is self-taught, and despite the usual interferences of weather, rampant puppies and children and so on, made our wonderful oven for us just before Christmas. We are told that the test of a good oven is to stand on the top of it and if it is made properly it should hold, but as Kevin and Lou have been eating too many ‘postres’ recently we didn’t think it a good idea!!!