Miguel Saldanha dedicated his whole life to keep alive one of the most important traditions of the South-American gaucho cultura: the Yerba Mate. Over 30 years ago the farmer started his crop - then a very lucrative business - and now is one of the few that hasn't switched to something else. While most of his neighbors in Venâncio Aires have torn out their Yerba Mate trees, Saldanha keeps his 15 hectares of native vegetation with pride.
This effort to keep alive the state symbol of Rio Grande do Sul - the southernmost state of Brazil - most of the time is not noticed by the final consumer. Not even the locals are aware of where the tea comes from or even know how the tree, that can grow up to 15 feet, looks like.
After a full morning of work cutting yerba leaves, Miguel Clécio Saldanha takes of his muddy boots before he goes inside help his wife Jussara make breakfast. His whole plantation, with red soil, has turned into a big mudslide with the previous nights showers.
Jussara Maria Saldanha and her husband Miguel started a small 16 hectare plantation 30 years ago. Today only a couple survive. The low price of the yerba mate forced the couple to switch most of their land to other more lucrative plants, like yuka. "I think it's beautiful. If it wasn't, I would have taken it all out already", says Miguel.
José Inácio Scherer, flowerist, was born and raised in the lands that are today Miguel and Jussara's. He kept company to the couple as they worked that morning and had to use a machete to remove the mud from his shoes.
Jussara makes breakfast only with ingredients she makes herself from produce from her own property. The bread she baked the previous day, the eggs were just gathered in the back yard. The butter and jelly she cooked last week. From the supermarket, the only thing on the table was instant coffee.
Jussara poors water she just boiled to make yerba mate tea. At the Saldanha's, there is always hot water for the "chimarrão", how the gauchos call the tea from the traditionl leaves. "I drink chimarrão every day. This one came from my crop", says Miguel.
Miguel helps out setting the table. On the wall, their daughter Simoni's graduation picture decorates the kitchen. "She never worked as a farmer. She always wanted to study and now she's graduated", says Miguel proudly.
Jussara is startled by spashing oil while she fries some eggs for breakfast. "We planted and raised everything we eat here at home", she says.
Miguel spreads homemade sweet potato jelly, called schimia by the German immigrants in Brazil, on his bread. The cream is still warm from the oven.
The yerba mate seed is really small. "In each little pellet there are about four seeds. You just stick it in the ground", teaches Miguel.
The house the Saldanha's live in is just across the road from their crops in the outskirts of the quiet small town of Veranópolis.
The truck full of yerba branches stops on the scale to be weighed. The branches is tied together with rags and taken to a place where it is ground and heated.
João Cleomar Pereira fills the over that heats the yerba. The leaves go through this process to dry them out. After this they are ground.
João Batista de Souza stops the pounding machine. "I am proud of making yerba mate, but only when it turns out good. If it doesn't, it wasn't me", he jokes.
As a yerba pounder, João's job is to recieve the ground leaves and make sure they are turn into a thin powder. The longer it stays, the greener it gets. "The color makes no difference in the taste, but people choose with their eyes", he explains.
