The Ritual of Time: Preservation in the Andes

To preserve, save, conserve, store. One preserves what is important, what has value. In the mountains of the Andes, in the countryside, that value lies in the land, in the chacra, and in the products obtained from it. The work and life of most peasants consist of caring for, preparing, and cultivating the land to obtain the greatest benefit and the best products, as they feed themselves, their families, and generate intra-family and inter-community exchanges. It is said that we are what we eat, and the best way to demonstrate this is by observing the life in the countryside.  When talking about culture, one thinks of many aspects, such as music, art, and clothing. However, I dare to say that the primary aspect of culture is food. After all, the origin of the word "culture" comes from the Latin cultus, colere, which refers to cultivating, protecting, and honoring with worship, as well as to the care of the land. Does any aspect of daily life really matter without food on your table at the end of the day?

Chacra MIL

The knowledge acquired through experience takes on special value at this time of year (December), recognizing the hard and important work behind the tradition of preserving products after the great harvest in May in the Andes. If you visit the producers' market, you will notice the absence of emblematic products from the area such as oca, olluco, and mashua, affectionately known as "the spoiled ones." This is because the harvests are running out and are now buried, awaiting to give life to a new cycle of cultivation.

Producers' market in Urubamba

Although food preservation is a vital practice for the survival and development of civilizations worldwide, little is known today about preservation traditions in Latin America, especially in Peru and the Andean territory that was once part of the Incan empire, and before it, many other civilizations dating back thousands of years. These civilizations developed food preservation techniques and customs that have been inherited, developed, and improved over the centuries. Today, only a few of these preservation techniques and traditions are known at the national level. This is due, on one hand, to the marginalization suffered by pre-Hispanic cultures leading to the loss of practices and transmission, and on the other hand, to globalization.

Foreign products and customs are now better known than local ones, sidelining the practices of our ancestors, which carry with them age-old value and knowledge and represent the culture of the country. Perhaps the most popular traditional preservation products are chuño, moraya (tunta), and charqui, which are still frequently consumed in the Peruvian highlands. Of these, charqui is the best known worldwide, recognized outside of Peru as beef jerky, which gives the false impression that it is a traditional North American product. Hockheimer mentions in his book “Food and Food Procurement in Pre-Hispanic Peru” that this practice gained popularity among allies during World War II. Although chuño remains an essential food in Andean households, especially in higher areas, it is likely to be unknown or out of use in many Lima homes. This is partly because it is an exclusive product of the Andes, given its climatic conditions. On the other hand, in Lima households, everyone knows and frequently consumes products such as bacon, which is native to China (Sirk, 2019), or pickles, coming from the Mesopotamian Empire (Roosen, 2023).

Producers' market in Urubamba

The truth is that there are dozens of Andean preservation techniques applied to different inputs, opening a wide range of preserved products. Techniques that are achieved with the elements that the land provides us: frost, sun, and water. Little by little, these practices are becoming known through the work of people like Claudia Palomino and Roberto Ojeda, a couple who dedicate their lives to researching and applying Andean traditions and knowledge. With this purpose, they founded a self-managed initiative that bets on food sovereignty and conscious eating called “Canasta Solidara Mihuna Kachun” (may there be food in Quechua). When the pandemic started, they considered it of utmost importance and urgency to recover ancestral knowledge, both in cultivation techniques, uses of wild plants, fermentations, and preserved products. They opt for healthy and conscious eating with the environment and other producers. The pandemic for them was a wake-up call that they could not depend on a system that would provide for them. Therefore, the couple, he being a historian and she an architect, have dedicated themselves to researching, collecting, and documenting all the ancestral techniques for preserving food and sharing their findings (Palomino & Ojeda, 2021).

Roberto Ojeda and Claudia Palomino

Although it is true that many of the preserved Peruvian products are unknown in the cities, this is no exception within Andean peasant communities. If we take as examples the K’acllaraccay and Mullakas-Misminay communities, which are nearby the restaurant Mil Centro in Moray, they also are largely unaware of these techniques and products. Some of them remember their grandparents or parents talking about some of them, but they have never put them into practice, except as previously mentioned, chuño, moraya, charki, and in some cases tocosh. Therefore, from Mater in Cusco, efforts are made to replicate these ancient products within the restaurant and return this knowledge to the communities through practical workshops.

Tocosh de papa

Preserving provides peasant families with food security during times of scarcity, whether due to poor harvests, climate change, or simply because they are not seasonal products. In times of abundance right after the harvest, tubers are separated into several categories, the first and best is for fresh consumption, considering that if stored correctly they have a shelf life of approximately 8 months. The second category, of smaller tubers, is preserved to last over time, achieving also a better assimilation of nutrients that will be available at any time of the year, even on a December 21st.

Taking the Inca culture as an example, wealth was not measured by the amount of gold, silver, or bronze one had but by the extent of their territory, their capacity to cultivate, and how full their colqas (Incan storages) were. Therefore, it is only logical that food preservation is the most important after the harvest of it, because to save, conserve, and store means to preserve culture.