Maru

Equateur

We met Maru while volunteering. She is the owner of the only organic dairy farm of Ecuador. A magical place situated at 3700 meters height in the mountains of the Ecuadorian Andes.

Living conditions can be pretty tough up there. Most days the rain and the fog are invading the place but if you are patient enough to wait for the sun to reveal the very essence of the valley, then everything makes sense!

Cows are freely grazing in the mountains along with some horses watched by the impressive 4000+ summits around. At Marullacta, the cows are milked twice a day and once in the plant, nothing is added or taken out of the product. A dairy is considered organic because the cows only eat organic products and because the use of hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and preservatives is forbidden.

We spent 3 weeks there with Maru, her Brazilian husband Georges and her brother “Flaco”. Once again we discovered a whole new world. We took care of the cows, learnt how to milk them, how to separate the cream from the milk, how to make cheese, yogurt, manjar, ghee… We learn how complicated it is to get and keep the organic label. We realize the amount of work it is to produce a litter of organic yogurt… We saw how intense it is to run such a farm…

We spent our stay outside or in the plant, wearing a pair of boots and a big jacket, spending time with the dogs, the horses, the cows, eating great food from the garden, going around in the mountains, reading books by the river… We were in the middle of nowhere but we had everything to be happy !

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