sustainability Archives

Devagar, lento, vagaroso, moroso, ocioso, desocupado e até tempo livre. Só conotação negativa. Do outro lado a velocidade quase sinônimo de eficiência e qualidade. Será mesmo que tudo precisa acontecer tão rápido?

Slow, or taking it easy, cruising, idle and even having “free time”. These things, generally, only have negative connotations. However, speed and it’s associated words, are almost synonymous with efficiency and quality. Does everything have to happen so fast?

Frida em seu momento ocioso

Escuto e leio muito por aí que a geração da qual faço parte é mimada e quer tudo pra agora. Não temos tempo de esperar por aquela promoção e com 2 vídeos no Youtube nos achamos especialistas em tudo.

Eu diria que não é mal de uma geração, mas de um modelo de vida que todos temos levado onde tudo precisa acontecer o mais rápido possível. Difícil quando aos 30 anos você já é considerado velho para o mercado de trabalho.

We are a generation that wants everything, here, now, instantly. We don’t have time to wait for that promotion and after watching a couple of videos on Youtube, we want to become experts in every manner of fields.

I wouldn’t say that we are a bad generation, but we’ve lost our way somewhere, and now, everything just needs to happen as quickly as possible. It’s difficult however, that at around 30 years old, you are already considered old for the labor market.

Esperando as beterrabas crescerem

Mas não é só aquela promoção que precisa acontecer com 6 meses de empresa. Também queremos receitas de 10 minutos, dietas para perder 20 kg em 1 semana, Fast power Yoga e nada de vídeos com mais de 50 segundos.

Não sei em que ponto isso aconteceu no mundo, mas entramos em um ritmo tão acelerado que mal limpamos a serpentina do Carnaval já é hora de colocar guirlanda na porta de casa.

Not only do we want that promotion 6 months into a new job, we want 10 minute recipes, diets where we can lose 20 kg in 1 week, Fast Power Yoga and we will absolutely not watch videos longer than 50 seconds.

I don’t know at what point this happened to us, but we go about our lives at such a fast pace that it seems the years pass in the blink of an eye.

Não ter tempo para nada é a resposta default.
Lendo o livro Devagar, de Carl Honoré, tem um trecho que ele fala de 2 crianças tentando achar um horário na agenda pra brincar. Tem que desmarcar o balé cancelar a aula de piano. Mudar a ginástica para quinta e faltar ao futebol para conseguir 30 minutinhos de brincadeiras. Soa familiar?

We don’t have time, has become a default response. Reading the book “In Praise of Slow” by Carl Honoré, he has a passage where he speaks about two children trying to find time in their busy schedules to play. You have to clear the ballet, cancel your piano lesson. I’ll change my workout from Thursday and miss the football to get 30 minutes of playtime. Imagine, eh?

Ralph sempre ganha a corrida

Estamos sempre correndo atrás de alguma coisa, e o pior é que parece que estamos sempre para trás. Sempre perdendo. Sempre faltando.

We are always running after something, and the worst thing is that we seem to be always behind. Always losing. Always missing out.

Estamos treinando o desacelerar.

We are trying to train ourselves to decelerate.

Ás vezes me pego no telefone resolvendo alguma coisa da Oficina (ultimamente problemas com Electrolux) e mentalmente já estou ligando para o próximo, pensando em um texto que tenho que escrever ou na próxima fornada de pães.

Sometimes I catch myself on the phone solving something regarding Oficina (probably with Electrolux) and mentally I’m already thinking about the next call or about a text I have to write, or the next batch of bread to bake.

Morar em uma casa pequena em uma cidade pequena. Levar uma vida simples. Tudo isso tem sido de grande aprendizado, mas nesse momento nada tem nos ensinado tanto sobre a vida e sobre o tempo das coisas como quando fazemos pão.

É exercitar a paciência e aceitar ser mero coadjuvante trabalhando em parceria com a farinha e água enquanto quem dá o tom é o tempo.

We live in a small house in a small, simple town. We lead a simple life. But it came with a lot of changes, a lot of lessons, a steep learning curve. Things take longer, and we needed to reassess our level of patience.Nothing has taught us more about slowing down, being present and accepting of the time required, than when we make bread, however.

It is an exercise of patience and we must accept being a mere assistant, working in partnership with the flour and water and the wild yeasts, whom control everything.

Tati se arriscando no pão

Primeiros testes no forno

Não queremos parar o tempo.

Também queremos internet rápida, menos fila de espera, aviões supersônicos, Sedex em menos de 24h, mas não vamos concordar com relações e macarrão instantâneos.

We do not want to stop time.

We want faster internet, less queueing, supersonic aircraft, next day delivery (ha).. But we will not accept instant noodles.

Queremos mais queijos curados, pães naturalmente fermentados, Kombuchá, beijos demorados, longas conversas com os amigos e infinitos almoços em família.

Queremos aprender o tempo das coisas <3 Queremos tempo de qualidade<3

We want more cheeses, matured over time, naturally fermented bread, kombucha, lengthy kisses, long conversations with friends and family and endless lunches.

We want to learn the time of things. <3 We want quality time. <3

This post has been several months in the making, not textually, but from the moment we put the first hammer to a wall, or the first spade was thrusted into the earth to begin the excavation for the new extension footing, thats how long it’s been.

We began in Mid-August. Tati, Tati’s Dad Fernando, myself, my Mum and Tati’s uncle, along with his right hand man, Diego would together, take the brainstorming, drawings, sketches, ideas and dreams and build a reality.

There were ups and downs, electrical outages, thunderstorms that put hold to progress for days at a time, delayed materials, some mishaps and some communication breakdowns, more so to do with my childlike grasp of the Portuguese language. But we always came out on top, this whole idea is built on nothing more than a desire to do something good and support ourselves and those close to us, physically and mentally. No matter what adversities one faces, if you always think of it like that, you’ll not get too muddled up.

Last week, we wrapped up the mainstay of the project. We still have a long way to go, but in terms of heavy construction, things like the slabs, beams, columns, the deck, the wood structure, tiling, flooring, concrete, drainage and guttering are finished.

Now, Tati and I start our mission to make this shell, ours. To make it Oficina74.

The wood fired oven and pizza oven are absolutely beautiful and will allow me to try my hand at baking the old fashioned way, something I’m incredibly excited for. We’ll have a more technologically advanced kitchen off to the side with a gas fired combi oven, vitamix, toasters, juicers, fridges and prep areas.

The bathroom is wheelchair accessible, something that Brazil is embarrassingly far behind with and will mean our space is open to everybody that wishes to share it with us.

The pool is still to be tiled (and filled!), the electrics are still to be wired, the lights hung, switches installed, furnished, decorated, almost all the walls need painting, gates need to be installed, grass and plants need planting, a sound system needs to be installed, mood lighting around the pool needs to be added and we have a ton of other stuff to do still within the actual property.

We’ve given ourselves 5-6 weeks to make this a reality. The workshop still has a few ongoing additions, too. Everyday we think of some way that we can improve these spaces and we run with it.

We want to be serving fresh, local, pour over coffee in the New Year, we want to be serving natural, local, organic food, handmade pies, cakes, sandwiches, sourdough bread, juices, homemade granola and farm fresh fruit and vegetables. We want to be making breakfast for mountain bikers, hikers, trail riders, local residents, passers through and friends in less than 2 months. I think we’ll get there.

Thank you to all of you that have offered inspiration, support and positive energy, every iota is welcomed and very much needed!