1. The Veria System's Under The Sun Series About Sustainable
Living : Review Of The Oaxaca Episodes
An international documentary film production firm was drawn to your central valleys of the State of
Oaxaca while investigating aspects of the world where eco friendly living still plays a major role in the
manner people live. Following a preliminary visit to hawaii capital to opportunity out the feasibility
regarding story lines, its production team in the end shot two, five-segment episodes in the heart of
Oaxaca.
The mandate of the Veria Network's satellite tv series Under the Sun would be to capture a broad
variety of locales, businesses and individuals involved with healthy, harmonious, alternative , and
environmentally friendly living and business enterprises. Each and every episode features united
kingdom born Nathan LeRoy, a self-proclaimed adventurer, investigating how age-old means of
production continue to persist into the 21st hundred years , and examining eco friendly systems and
products. This is accomplished with a not-so-subtle underscore : maintaining and promoting unity with
the pure world provides teens the best opportunity to make it through and thrive regarding
generations to come.
Episode One
LeRoy accompanies internationally commended native Oaxacan chef Pilar Cabrera Arroyo (Bon
Appetit, the newest York Times, greater Iron Chef decide & competitor) to Oaxaca's Pochote natural
and organic Market. An interesting discussion ensues as to the accreditation process in respect to
organic products. LeRoy propounds that making growers to leap through hoops throughout
attempting to obtain accreditation is actually inconsistent along with supporting small- range local
production. Then he accompanies Chef Pilar to her casa de los Sabores (House of flavours ) Cooking
School for a lesson in getting ready three dishes - an organic salad which has a honey mustard garlic
oil dressing; world famous mole negro, the most labour intensive of the many moles , traditionally
made with about 35 ingredients; and also a delightfully fresh and also uniquely flavorful natural and
organic rose petal sorbet.
Our adventurer and then meets up with children of San Martín Tilcajete timber carvers and artists ,
headed by Jacobo Ángeles and also María Mendoza. His goal would be to learn about the town's
longstanding Zapotec woodcarving convention. While trekking through the countryside he and also
Jacobo discuss your properties and employs of the copal tree from which most stats - known as
alebrijes - are created. Leroy then explores the use of natural tones for coloring your pieces; María
deftly uses her hands as palettes as she variously mixes tree drain and bark, darling , pomegranate,
corn fungus infection , berries and other pure substances to create a veritable rainbow of color colors.
Next this individual receives a session from a triumvirate regarding absolutely charming apron-clad
abuelitas (little grandmas ) on how to make a few refreshing drinks, as both versions is typical to the
place and commonly present in both urban and also rural Oaxacan market segments : agua de
Jamaica (juice or h2o of hibiscus bloom ), agua de limón (a natural limeade made with the exterior
peel), and the distinctly indigenous pre-Hispanic ingest , tejate. Making tejate is a true artwork , and

2. highly ritualistic. If a step in the process goes awry, the end result simply won't work. Being the Drink
of the Gods in pre-Hispanic times, process have to be perfect.
Leroy and then gets out to the fields just after birth one morning, which has a woman whose loved
ones has been making your naturally fermented ingest known as pulque, regarding generations.
Pulque is in all likelihood the single least comprehended drink in mexico , at times mistakenly known
as the first period in the production of mezcal and tequila. Guarana , one of several pulquero kinds of
agave or maguey, must mature inside the field for 16 - 18 many years before it yields aguamiel or
darling water. At sunrise and sunset your liquid is religiously harvested from a deep well in the center
of guarana. Natural fermentation of the aguamiel occurs over just a few hours. Be it myth or science-
based, the indigenous manual counsels as to pulque's curative and life-prolonging properties.
In the last segment of the event LeRoy learns concerning cochineal ( cochinilla ), once insect which
rss feeds off of the nopal cactus. Cochineal has been commercially cultivated, harvested and also
exported since early colonial times due to the unique property - it yields a solid , natural red coloring
which to this day is utilized in the production of these kinds of diverse products as Campari, Knorr and
also Campbell soups, lipsticks and make-ups, Danone yoghurt, hot dogs and also cookies. Manuel,
your engineer / manager of the museum and also educational facility known as Tlapanochestli,
explains your historical importance of your cochineal industry whilst going through the lifecycle of the
insect and generation technique currently applied. Experimentation into the usage of other natural
inorganic dyes and fibers proceeds at the research station.
Episode Two
LeRoy brains out to the rug weaving village regarding Teotitlán delete Valle, where lambs have been
sheered, and also their wool unique , dyed and stiched into rugs throughout basically the same
fashion , since the mid - 1500s. He watches a villager sheer a sheep using nothing but a simple
scissors and rope to tie it down ; then takes a intriguing tour with Mariano Sosa, the head of the
sixteen family co-op, to witness all of the subsequent steps for example washing the made of wool
without detergents, and then drying and content spinning it into wool , followed by using plants from
an experimental site to create pure dyes - with the process' uncontaminated h2o returning to the
earth; last but not least weaving the most intricate of both conventional Zapotec and more modern
designs into tapestries and rugs.
For the next segment each of our host remains inside the rug village, awareness well before sunrise
to accompany Rocio and also Malena of the extended family known as Casa Santiago to a mill to get
corn ground in to masa - in planning for a lesson back again at their homestead. Together with Gloria,
your matriarch of the loved ones , they prepare amarillo, the mole found in making a very specific and
typical fun dish unique with their town, tamales delaware amarillo con pollo. Breakfast includes hot
chocolate also produced from scratch, enjoyed inside the traditional fashion - with a small lf of pan
delaware yema or egg cell bread, for dipping. The quaintness and also welcoming nature of the family
member is each striking and memorable.
Leroy then trips back in time to sixteenth century Toledo, italy. The ancient and also well-chronicled
Old World knife-making technique is still used in the town of Ocotlán, by Apolinar Águilar. Your

3. master craftsman styles knives, machetes, swords and much more, using only remade materials. He
demonstrates the use of his timber and skin bellows, stone and mud hearth, and a series of
hammers, chisels, as well as other forging tools this individual himself makes to his exacting specs.
His products range between letter openers, to hunting and butchers' knives, to egypr carving and
cutlery sets, to fighting styles weapons, and custom collector pieces. Even fine finishes of the blades
and handles are creating effortlessly , without the use of chrome or perhaps nickel, varnish or
perhaps lacquer.
Our adventurer next arrives throughout Santiago Matatláin , the self-anointed planet capital of mezcal
(also referred to as mescal), for a visit with Enrique Jiménez, a spirits producer which has a pedigree
dating to his ancestors' 1870 arrival in the little village. Enrique taking walks LeRoy through most
stages of production of mezcal from the farming of agave inside the fields, to cooking it in a hole over
flaming records and river rocks , then mashing the idea with the use of a moose dragging a multi-ton
stone, to aging in pine vats, and finally distilling in a brick and mortar firewood-fueled oven. The
sampling of the finished product includes a two-year-old añejo aged in maple barrels, a much youthful
mezcal, and of course a single "with the worm."
LeRoy concludes his stop by at the State of Oaxaca which has a much needed relaxing and also
rejuvenating temazcal and also massage. He arrives at the home of Doña Emilia, a outdated nurse of
Zapotec heritage. After decades of tutelage coming from her grandmother she gets become an expert
inside the ancient art and science regarding temazcal. One of the outline of temazcal is the
environment in which the practice is enacted - an adobe hut with water and also lava rocks utilized to
create and handle steam. It's quite like a sweat lodge where chanting in addition to aromatic and
healing herbs and branches cleanse the body and also soul.
Watching the two episodes of Under the Sun provides the viewer a glance into some of the present-
day manifestations of eco friendly living in the central valleys of Oaxaca - and can just as easily be a
precursor to the experiences of the contemplating a visit to town. Virtually every individual and also
institution highlighted is available by tourists inside context of a handful of well-planned tours on the
towns and communities surrounding the state cash.
Learn About the Nopal Juice called Nopalea