Ode to the Herb

That herb would be my beloved yerba mate, or ka`a en Guarani. That smoky, bitter leaf wakes me up in the morning, tucks me in at night, keeps me warm when it´s cold, and cool when it´s hot. A relative of the holly, jam-packed with antioixidant, vitamins, and life-loving properties, it is probably one of the things I like best about Paraguay.

This entry is dedicated to you, ka`a, because it is your time to shine...harvest time!

Woke up early on Monday to get out to the field and harvest as much as possible before the World Cup game started. Paraguay, being addicted to futbol, declared the afternoon of the Paraguay vs. Italia game to be a national holiday, with classes cancelled and fields abandoned.

Yerba mate is harvested once a year, in the fall. As the main crops grown in my site--sugarcane and mate--are both harvested in the fall, there is a lot of work to be done and finally some profit to be had.

Yerba mate is a sturdy-looking shrub, and could pass for an ornamental tree. It is planted once, and then harvested year after year for decades. Using our hands and a small machete, we pry the smaller branches and twigs off the main plant, leaving a few leaves and stalks to help manage regrowth. The shrub itself is a slow grower, but the leaves reproduce surprizingly quickly. The cut branches are then twisted and snapped into smaller pieces with mostly raw, emerald-stained hands and piled onto tarps. These tarps are then bundled, precariously piled onto trucks, and hauled to a processing facility about 8k away, and sold for 700guaranies/kilo (about about 7 cents a pound).


I guess it´s not that surpizing that, though that mate is sold in the States for a whopping $9/lb, the farmers responsible receive so little. In the factory, the herb is dehydrated, dried/smoked, ground, and then left to age for at least six months.

In Paraguay, there are a wide variety of yerbas sold everywhere from the supermarket, gas station, and my neighbor´s house. It is then served in a guampa, sipped through a bombilla, and shared with family and friends.

The perfect start and finish to your day...