“Yes, you are literally eating a piece of tree”, answers the missionary Vanina Pascutti before the incredulous question of Pablo Brajkovic, a porteño who visited Mappa last Sunday and came across the stand of Yacaratia Delicatessen, one of the 350 producers that formed part of the great federal gastronomic fairwhich was held at the Matienzo and Zapiola property, in Colegiales.
Pascutti speaks while pointing a half-inch thick machimbre board from which the chips are extracted, the raw material to make this product, which is a rarity in the world of gastronomy and, for this reason, is chosen by several renowned chefs to experiment, create new dishes and surprise their customers, such as Pedro Bargero (Chila and Proyecto Amarras), or Fernando Rivarola (El Baqueano) currently do it in their kitchens.
His name is Yacaratiá, and being the only tree that does not have cellulose, it is also the only one whose wood can be eaten. It is a typical species of the tropical forest of Misiones, and with which the Pascutti family has been working for more than 30 years, when Roberto Pascutti, a professor at the University of Forestry Sciences of El Dorado, had the idea of starting to investigate after having found a Jesuit manuscript that made mention of a strange custom of the Guarani: that of roasting worms that were born in the bark of the yacaratiá.
Yacaratia Delicatessen: from fallen trees in Misiones
Today, El Dorado is a town known for being, among other things, the cradle of edible wood. It is also the home of the Pascutti and their singular enterprise, which produces exclusive and patented wood from fallen trees in Misiones. It started in 1992 with research from its founder, and between 1997 and 1998 it obtained all the marketing permits.
However, it was from 2010, recognizes Vanina, when they began to come to the gastronomic fairs of the City of Buenos Aires that there was a kind of “boom” in sales. The investment, says the entrepreneur, is not high. But they have difficulties getting basic inputs such as glass containers and lids to package the products they make. Each production batch is unique and depends on where the tree comes from, so the company is part of a circular economy project.
Her father, Vanina explains, did not have the path paved nor was it easy for him to demonstrate that a piece of wood from the jungle could be edible. “He presented the first investigations in 1992. Then, they spent another five years of paperwork to do the patenting, because since there was no wood in the food code Many obstacles had to be overcome. Dad passed away in 2007, and we carried on with everything,” says the woman behind the Mappa stand, proudly noting that her father received two international awards for his scientific research, in 2004.
The Pascutti family has been working for more than 30 years with Yacaratia as raw material.
How many kilos of wood have you produced so far?
“The truth is that I never started to calculate in so many years. We have spent 30 years of research and another 20 selling the product. But, I calculate that we must be between 4,000 or 5,000 kilos of wood per year“, Pascutti averages. “What happened is that with the pandemic many stores closed, and let’s say that it is only now being reactivated.”
In addition to being an exclusive product, its consumption is beneficial for health. “It has magnesium in exorbitant amounts, and then minerals such as iron, phosphorus, potassium and calcium,” Pascutti describes as he invites you to try a little piece of sweet (similar to quince, although more fibrous because you feel the “splinters”) made from of this wood. How is it consumed? As jam, juice or nectar to make drinks or use in preparations. Also, high-end cooks who work with this product are encouraged to experiment and create new recipes, and the wood ends up in chocolates, desserts and alfajores. “The Yacaratia wood is naturally sweet, but of course we add sugar. It is not light, but it is natural and suitable for celiacs.”
The factory where the products are made is 8 kilometers from the city of El Dorado, but the wood reaches the entire country. Restaurants, Pascutti says, buy boards per kilo, which today is priced at 1,850 pesos. “In addition to Misiones, we have clients in Buenos Aires, Tierra del Fuego, Las Grutas, Córdoba, Bariloche -he lists-. Then we sell to people in a private way, who buy jams or smaller tables vacuum-packed.”
Yacaratiá: a secret kept under seven keys
Revealing the process by which bark becomes edible wood for humans is a closely guarded secret. People ask them on social media, everyone wants to know, but Pascutti only says that the process takes about three days, and that one of the first steps is boil the bark in water, in the form of tables. “This is then followed by a second very slow cook with cane sugar, and sadly now we’re having a hard time getting the sugar,” she says.
The missionary family has been researching Yacaratia for decades, the only edible wood.
The production is completely handmade. There is no yacaratia plantation, rather it is the birds that do the work as natural sowers, depositing the seeds in the yerbales and other places. “We are a circular economy project which means that we produce from fallen trees. People call us and we go looking for them. They can come from yerbales, from tea plantations, from farms that are dedicated to citrus fruits like there are in Misiones, from cassava plantations. But always in Misiones. It is an exclusive tree of the province and there is no other place”.
The fallen yacaratia, moreover, are not suitable for timber, that is, they are not used for the forestry industry. Neither is its pulp to make paper because 90% of its composition is water. “Basically, we reuse what is no longer useful and transform it into an exclusive and gourmet product“concludes the entrepreneur.
