Kodkod

"We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons."

Alfred E. Newman

The food we grow, the food we serve

There are several reasons why we are able to offer such great-tasting food in our restaurant at Kodkod Meeting Place. Amongst these, probably the most important is that we use really fresh, simple ingredients, locally-produced. Where possible, we grow the food ourselves in our own organic vegetable gardens, which in summer are filled with a bountiful supply of salad crops and potatos. We also avoid the products of intensive agriculture, in particular meat and eggs, and so you can be sure that the beef, fish and eggs that we do serve are of the highest quality - great tasting and high welfare.

Kodkod food is all about commitment to healthy living and healthy lifestyles, where our own health is as important as the health of our environment. Thus, we take many steps to reduce our environmental footprint - we cut down on "food miles", we precycle ( minimising packaging of our raw materials, and hence the generation of plastic waste, we choose returnable bottles, and recycle what cannot be reused. Importantly, we compost all our organic waste, so that the vital nutrients that it contains are returned to feed the soil.

Living healthily and well includes having fun, and enjoying the pleasures of life. Potato chips, ice cream and beer are right up there among the secrets good living, and so we pay special attention to getting these special treats just right. Oh yes, and good music, preferably live, whenever we can. We do offer other dishes too, with an emphasis on traditional Chilean cooking, done well, quality meats, and a good vegetarian selection.

Our restaurant is a great place to come for lunch or high tea with the family or friends, refresh yourself after a hike or a dip in the thermal spring, a drink or cocktail at sundown, or just to chill out and enjoy the peaceful woodland surroundings. Maybe you would like a traditional Chilean whole roast lamb ("asado al palo"), which we offer (with 24 hours notice) with all the trimmings, for groups over 10 people. Whatever the occasion, Kodkod will be waiting for you with an experience unlike any other in Pucon.

Take a look at our menu

The vegetable gardens

There are few greater pleasures in life than wandering through a vegetable garden in high summer, picking off peas, or lifting carrots at will. There is something about the taste of freshness that is hard to beat. At another level, in eating direct from the plant, we make the obvious connection with food for what it really is. The living, respiring plants that require so much care and time to provide us with the nutrition that we need. It is an experience utterly unlike that as we are faced with plastic-packaged offerings on the supermarket shelf.

You are welcome to come and have a wander around our gardens. Bring the children, and you can help to harvest the day's supplies, or help with the many other daily routines of garden maintenance. Get your hands dirty, and feel the soil that we all ultimately depend on. Learn about organic gardening, and why it is so important. Gardening is one of those life skills which ought to be an essential part of all our most basic education. It is a rich and varied science, and a profound art.

Everybody has a vegetable plot somewhere. We all eat food that has been grown by somebody in a great virtual field, spreat around the planet. But, how much do we really know about where our food comes from, what conditions the people who produced it live in, what chemicals were used in its production, what habitats were destroyed to make way for it ? Will the land that grows our food today still be able to produce as much for our children?

I like to philosophise as I garden. The garden was made for contemplating big questions, while doing small things. Come and join us, share your knowledge and experiences, and let's make more gardens together to feed both body and soul.

 

The park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kodkod Meeting Place restaurant is set in 5ha of wooded grounds, in one of the most beautiful landscapes of the Pucon area, with a great view of the towering mountains of Huerquehue National park in the distance. We are situated on the way to the Cañi Sanctuary - a stunning ancient landscape of monkey-puzzle trees awaits those who make the 2-hour hikeup there.

For those who choose to stay at Kodkod, there is still much to do. Our woodland play area, with its baby-canopy zipwire is always a firm favourite with the kids. You can take the half hour self-guided walk around the woods, and learn about the history and ecology of the temperate rainforest. Another alternative is to potter about in the vegetable gardens and watch our Araucana hens scratching about. Or you can simply find a nice quiet spot to relax.

If something is sustainable, it means we can go on doing it indefinitely. If it isn't, we can't

Jonathon Porritt

What is sustainability, anyway?

So many people seem to use this word nowadays, with so many different, and often conflicting meanings, that it is sometimes tempting to think that the term is becoming obsolete, and in need of replacement. This may well be true, but for now, and until I think of that better word, we are stuck with it, as probably the most important principle affecting human life in the 21st century.

There is a proverb from Kenya that goes: ""Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children". We live in a world of exponential population growth that sooner or later (the experts only disagree on the date) will be limited by the amount of food we are able to produce. The "Green Revolution" of technological agriculture has achieved what was previously only a dream - of making available high quality food to a great number of people. It is increasingly apparent, however that the green revolution has its limits. These limits are measured in deteriorating soil quality, soil erosion, groundwater contamination, pesticide resistance, the increasing price of fossil fuels, and in arid areas, depleted aquifers and salination. As we need more and more food through this century, so our technological farming will be ever less able to deliver its promise.

Sustainable farming seeks to work with nature, rather than against it, bringing the people it feeds back into the natural rhythms of the seasons, making us more in contact with the ecosystem in which we live. "Feed the soil, and let the soil feed the plant" is a core principle of sustainable farming. We use food residues and other organic material to recycle nutrients in a soil teeming with life as the basis of crop nutrition, rather than relying on mined and petroleum-derived fertilizers that leach into and contaminate watercourses and lakes. "Diversity limits proliferation of pests" is another principle that is directly opposite to the technological farming practice of monoculture sustained by chemical pest control.

There is very much more to the subject of sustainable agriculture than we have space for here, but also many resources available elsewhere. Suffice it to say that at Kodkod Meeting Place, we hope to demonstrate that it is possible to live well while eating local food, and reducing our ecological footprint. Life closer to nature is a challenge that we will all have to face at some point. We would prefer to start now, and enjoy it for it is both fascinating and enriching for the soul.

The people behind Kodkod Meeting Place

Jerry Laker

Director

Pia Bustos

Director

Anna Lena Kaltenbach

Administrator

Miguel Martinez

Handyman

Loli Salazar

Cook

Isabel Gonzalez

Cook

Maribel Saavedra

Cook

Susi Bustos

Cook

Mariela Martinez

Waitress