On the Food of Araucana Lodge
Colombian food, while delicious, is not particularly salad-heavy. Our tropical and biodiverse landscapes mean access to a vast array of incredible fruits. Colombians will always serve you fruit with breakfast and ‘juguito de [insert tropical fruit]’ with your meals and snacks. Veggies, however? Not Colombians’ strongest suit. But not in our family! We come from a long line of obstinate food growers, who delight in growing the ungrowable, who traffic in seeds and heirloom varieties, who where others might see the impossible (artichokes in the tropics?), see only possibilities. Our family must have a farming/mad scientist gene that rears its head in a few members of each generation.
In the early 1960s, our grandmother Alicia found herself craving asparagus, artichokes, broccoli and fine greens (supermarkets at the time only carried iceberg lettuce). La Araucana’s cool nights and temperate days were ideal for growing these types of vegetables. Our acidic, red clay soil, however, was not. It didn’t drain. The pH was off. The rains were heavy. Julio, our grandfather, was undeterred! He began a composting system using chicken manure and organic matter, and slowly, regularly and methodically, began to amend the soil, a practice that continues on our farm to this day.
Suzanne, our mother, arrived in Colombia from the US in the 1970s, bringing with her health and cuisine sensibilities from her Californian upbringing. Soon romaine lettuce, green beans and peas were introduced into the garden.
Over the years, our family has stewarded the soil of La Araucana, and maintained our ancestors’ farm-to-table and experimental spirit. We love building menus from the produce available in our garden and serving freshly picked vegetables to our guests. We now have our own chickens and grow coffee, to ensure our guests are eating breakfasts that are as local as possible. We encourage creativity and experimentation in the kitchen. We bring in professional chefs from around the world to teach our cooking staff new recipes and methods of cooking from our homegrown produce.
During the pandemic, Susanne Capello, a lovely San Francisco based (originally from Curacao) chef and event planner extraordinaire, came to stay at our lodge in exchange for training the kitchen staff on new ways of cooking. She brought sourdough starter and taught our cooks how to nurture the starter and make fresh homemade loaves of San Francisco sourdough. Our kitchen encompasses a hyper local mentality, while embracing all the global influences we’ve acquired from traveling, living abroad and bringing a range of chefs from all over the world for trainings.
When you stay at our lodge, we will cater to your dietary preferences and restrictions, while feeding you delicious meals inspired by our garden and our global experiences.
