Every chef across the world pays close attention to what goes into their food, but here at Los Potreros, we're just as concerned about what our food is doing to the environment. Our chefs have always had a "no waste mentality," and now, more than ever, they're minimising what they throw out and developing a menu built around sustainable kitchen practices. Over the last few months, we've been testing new ideas for our zero waste dining approach with great success.
A Farm Full of Foraging Opportunities
Many of our guests enjoy picking "Mirabelles" (a sweet yellow plum) down at the waterfall, gorging on them as a mid-morning snack before riding back to the estancia for lunch.
Anyone who has visited the estancia in December will have seen the abundance of soft fruits in every corner of the farm, which we pick in vast quantities every day. These fruits become the focus for cakes, desserts, jams, chutneys, flavoured ice creams, and infused gins, and they fill our fruit bowl for weeks on end.
As the summer draws to a close, we look closer to home and to our vegetable patch. Our root vegetables come into their own around this time, and roasting a mixture of freshly picked vegetables to serve alongside osso buco is the perfect dinner on an autumnal day. Then come the quinces, found in copious amounts across the farm at Potrero de Niz. The chefs begin the laborious task of making the pinkest quince jelly, and finally the quince paste which the Begg family fondly remember their grandmother making every year.
As the estancia begins to slow down for winter, we get the final harvest of figs from the trees at our cattle station and from the secret bushes by the swimming pool. We can turn to every area of the estancia to find hidden delicacies, all of which add to our extensive homemade jam and chutney collection - sometimes it's just a matter of knowing where to look. Simply ask Kevin where the best places are to forage for walnuts, gather chestnuts, or if you fancy picking and replanting Jerusalem artichokes.
Our Commitment to Farm-to-Table Dining
With an ethos of "farm to table" that's becoming ever more important, we have a genuine commitment to the land we live on. With a large supply of home-reared beef, free-range eggs, and home-grown fruit and vegetables, alongside a wine cellar stocked with some of the finest Malbecs and Torrontés from our local vineyards, we aim to keep everything local whenever we can't produce it ourselves. This is at the heart of what sustainable estancia dining means to us.
Learning From Gaucho Traditions
Looking back on the history of the estancia, we're reminded that the gauchos lived a very simple life and were known for their resourcefulness, from creating their own bridles out of rawhide to preserving their meat to last their families for extended periods without the use of fridges or freezers.
We've taken inspiration from our roots and begun reintroducing traditional meat preservation methods - both to develop our menu and to reduce our impact on the environment. We're currently trialling a process of smoking our beef, a method that cures the meat through prolonged exposure to wood smoke. While hugely successful for preserving our food, it has also produced some fabulous flavours, and by experimenting with fragrant woods, we're achieving some incredible results that we can't wait to share with everyone when we reopen in the spring.
The Heart of the Estancia
The kitchen at Los Potreros is definitely the heart of the estancia, from guests joining the chefs to learn the art of Argentine cooking, to our staff sharing a mate during the day. It's the place that embodies the estancia in its entirety, cooking everything from scratch, including freshly baked bread and cakes, alongside all the meals for our guests and staff. There's always something to see - all you have to do is pop your head in and take a look.
As we look to the future, we're going to continue to develop and change, with an emphasis on what more we can do with our home-reared and home-grown produce, maximising the strengths of our local area to create a closer-to-home impact on our community.
We look forward to welcoming back guests as soon as we can, and showing you all our new ideas, which will ensure we're able to protect our environment and welcome you for years to come.
