Runa Nation

Conversations Under the Guayusa Tree pt. 3

I met 65-year-old Don Francisco after spending a couple hours with Silverio Mamallacta, one of the Runa technicians, touring nurseries and chakras owned by families from the community of Lucianta.  I listened intently as Silverio gave the families practical advice in Kichwa to improve the productivity of their land and shared a large stalk of sugar cane with everyone.  The group finally dispersed, and Silverio and I went to Don Francisco’s house, where a pot of guayusa, complete with stems and all, was heating up over a wood fire.  I asked Don Francisco a series of questions about guayusa and Kichwa culture, with the help of Silverio as my Spanish-Kichwa interpreter, and we all drank chicha de chonta (a traditional fermented drink made out of an orange-colored fruit called chonta).  Below is an excerpt of our conversation, with my comments in italics.

 

La Chagra

A critical part of Runa's mission in the Ecuadorian Amazon involves supporting the Kichwa people's traditional ways of living in harmony with nature.  Central to the Kichwa people's way of life is the chagra, or forest garden.

A chagra is a small horticulture plot located in forested jungle used for subsistence farming for family needs.  It is generally located near the family home in order to provide easy access to food, medicinal plants, and wood for construction and tools.  The garden has a variety of food crops; including yucca, plantains, bananas, guayusa, beans, peanuts, and a variety of luscious local fruits; medicinal plants such as churiyuyu (used to heal cuts), shia (anesthetic, helps with toothaches), ayahuasca (sacred plant used for shamanic rituals), and bagarimandi (another sacred plant that provides good luck for fishing and helps men to attract females); and trees like cedar, balsa (used to make river rafts), and pilche (whose fruit is used to make gourde-like wooden bowls).   The guayusa trees that Runa is currently harvesting from are growing in family chagras.

 

Conversations Under the Guayusa Tree pt. 2

I went with one of the Runa technicians in Napo, Alex, to interview these two cousins, Edwin and Milton Alvarado, at Edwin’s chacra near the community of Nueva Esperanza.  After helping them measure out an area to grow more guayusa, we sat on a log and chatted a little bit about guayusa.  Both men are active farmers, and Edwin’s family works some in cattle raising as well.  Edwin currently has 18 guayusa trees, while Milton has 32 guayusa trees.  They are very fun and hard-working men, and it was a pleasure to interview them.  Below is a portion of our conversation, along with a photo of the three of us and some of my comments in italics.

Life of a Guayusa Leaf: Post-Harvest

Afte the farmers harvest and bag the leaves, the field technicians weigh the bags on site and pay the farmers fair trade prices right then and there. The bags of leaves are loaded onto the bed of a truck and driven to Fundacion Runa in Archidona, where the first guayusa factory in the world is located. The dryer technicians take scrupulous notes on which technician collected the harvest, which farmer the leaves came from, the condition and date of the harvest, and how many pounds are unloaded.  Up to 1000 pounds of guayusa leaves can enter the factory daily.

The Early Years: A Guayusa Leaf

Before volunteering at Runa, the closest I ever came to gardening was at age nine, when I wanted a sunflower in my backyard. I don’t remember any details of how I planted the seed or if I watered it diligently, but I can write with certainty that no sunflower, nor even the beginnings of one, sprouted. But now, eleven years after my sunflower failure, the gardener inside me has reawakened: I want to grow guayusa. Fortunately for Runa and my self-esteem, there is already guayusa in the backyard of the Archidona office. My curiosity about the growing process persisted, however, so one of the Runa field technicians, Pedro, gave me the lowdown on how to grow our favorite tea.

Conversations under the Guayusa Tree pt. 1

 

This posts launches a new series, featuring our beloved guayuceros, the farmer's whose effort and product are the basis for our work! Chris Jarret is a student from Elon University.

Following Runa’s commitment to transparency and fostering respectful relationships between producer and consumer, throughout this summer I will be sitting down with some of the farmers who grow the tea that ends up in your mug and chatting with them about their lives, what guayusa means to them, and what they think of working with Runa.  The first producer I had the chance to interview was Juan Pedro Grefa, a 48-year-old man with two sons (Jorge Mario and Juan) and three daughters (Blanca, Irma, and Cindy).

When I interviewed Juan Pedro, he had just returned from his chakra (traditional horticulture plot) around dusk. He sat beside me on a bench in his house, and one of the children nearby helped me with the filming of the interview. Juan Pedro is a very sociable man from the community of Kinti Urku. He grows cocoa, yucca, naranjilla (little oranges), and plantains, in addition to his 15 large guayusa trees. He also has ten heads of cattle that he raises. Our conversation continued for about a half hour after I had finished asking him all of my prepared questions. Here are a few excerpts from our interview, with my reflections in italics.

The Essentials of Essential Oil

Hello All! My name is Ellison Berryhill and I am an intern here at Runa. Most of you know Runa for its work with the wonderful guayusa tea, but here at Runa we work with indigenous people of all professions to give them a better standard of living. During my first day of work I was given the opportunity to meet, observe, and work with three indigenous men making Lemongrass essential oil (Hierba Luisa in Spanish). Runa is working to set up connections that allow this community to sell their product to the United States. This organic process is simple and straightforward, but ingenious. First they cut down sixteen bushels of their homegrown Lemongrass.