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In The Small Town Of Lebon Régis, In Santa Catarina, A 70-Year-Old Farmer Shares His Home With His 90-Year-Old Mother, Tends The Garden, Tames Horses, Plants, Harvests, Prays In Silence And Proves That A Simple Routine Still Sustains Bonds, Health, And Dignity In The Catarinense Countryside Of Calm And Resilient Life.
Brazil Talks About The Future, Technology And Smart Cities, But In The Heart Of Santa Catarina, There Is Still A World Where Time Is Measured By The Ride, The Hoe In The Garden And The Smell Of Wet Soil. It Is There That A 70-Year-Old Farmer Chose To Stay, Alongside His 90-Year-Old Mother And Sister, Persisting In The Same Land Where He Was Born, Raised, And Grew Old.
While Many People Rush After More Consumption, More Screens And Less Conversation, This Family Follows A Different Script. The Bet Is On A Rooted Life That Doesn’t Fit Into An App, Made Of Cattle, Medicinal Herbs, A Cold River, Prayer At The End Of The Afternoon, And A Horse That Is Still A Means Of Transportation, A Tool For Work, And A Companion At All Times.
The House Where The 70-Year-Old Farmer Chose To Stay
The 70-Year-Old Farmer Lives In A Simple House, In The Heart Of Lebon Régis, With His 90-Year-Old Mother, A Widow For Many Years, And A 62-Year-Old Sister Who Also Participates In The Work.
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From 130 producers in the year 2000 to just 15 today: the dramatic decline of passion fruit in Araguari shows how the lack of labor in the Brazilian countryside is killing a decades-old agricultural tradition, even with Brazil being the largest producer in the world.
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Agricultural drone sprayed poison into the air and destroyed the neighbor’s crops, causing 1 million in damages; 48 cows died from nitrite poisoning in the pasture, and Russia is hiding a possible outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease: the week was brutal for the rural sector.
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Russia cut fertilizers, China cut fertilizers, and oil prices soared with the war in the Middle East: sugarcane producers in the interior of São Paulo are seeing costs explode from all sides and warn that the effects will take months to be absorbed.
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It does not come from flowers, is produced only every two years, and more than 90% goes straight to Europe: meet the bracatinga honeydew honey from Santa Catarina, considered one of the rarest in the world and overlooked by Brazil itself.
No Luxury, Modern Renovation Or Catalog Furniture.
The Greatest Asset Is In The Phrase He Repeats With Conviction: “Born, Raised And Grown Old In The Same Holy Place”.
He Knows He Has Not “Evolved Materially” As Many Would Expect, He Has Not Accumulated Capital, Has Not Filled The Garage And Has Not Surrounded The House With New Things.
But He Doesn’t Say This With Regret. He Speaks As A Choice.
In The Mind Of The 70-Year-Old Farmer, True Security Lies In Continuing To Understand The Ground He Walks On, The Climate, The Rhythm Of The Land And The Mood Of The Animals.
This Permanence Creates Something Rare Today: A Predictable Routine, But Not Empty. His Mother Decides What To Cook, Organizes The Day, And Oversees The Garden.
He Helps, Carries, Cares For The Cattle, Horses, Cart, And Garden.
The Sister Joins The Same Routine, In A Type Of Family Arrangement That Used To Be Common In Rural Brazil, But Has Now Become An Exception.
Garden That Is A Garden, Pharmacy And Memory Room
Dona Ernestina’s “Kingdom” Is The Garden In Front Of The House. There, She Does Not Allow Weeds To Take Over. Even At 90 Years Old, She Insists On Weeding, Reorganizing Beds, Replanting, Cleaning, And Starting Over.
She Does This Not Out Of Obligation, But Out Of Identity.
This Space Holds Vegetables, Herbage And A Collection Of Herbs That Have Supported The Family For Decades.
She Points Naturally To Plants That Many City Dwellers Only Know By Name: Ora-Pro-Nóbis, Horsetail, Fennel, Balsam, Leaves For High Blood Pressure, Teas For Pain, For Colds, For “Weakness”.
The Recipes Come From Older Generations, From Father, Mother, Mother-In-Law, From A Time When Pharmacy Medicine Was Not Available Or Too Expensive.
The Garden Functions As A Popular Laboratory, Where Every Leaf Has A Function And A Story. The Logic Is Simple: If Health Depends On The Land, The First Pharmacy Remains The Garden.
While Many Brazilians Have Lost Their Connection To This Knowledge, There The Transmission Is Still Direct, Eye To Eye.
It’s The Mother Explaining That An Herb Is Used To Lower Blood Pressure, But Should Not Be Used By Those Who Already Have Low Blood Pressure.
It’s The 70-Year-Old Farmer Repeating What He Learned, Keeping In Practice A Cartography Of Healing That Is Not Found In Prescriptions.
Horse, River And Cart: The Routine That Does Not Fit Into An App
Without A Cell Phone As An Extension Of The Body And Without Relying On A Car For Any Travel, The 70-Year-Old Farmer Continues To Rely On The Horse As A Means Of Transportation And Work Partner.
He Explains: “The Horse Is My Preferred Means Of Transport Since Childhood”.
He Cleans Each Hoof, Avoids Shoes To Not Hurt The Animal, Respects The Rest Time After A Day Of Stone And Climbing.
He Enjoys Training The Horses In The Woods, On Narrow Trails, Where The Animal Needs To Learn To Maneuver In Tight Spaces Without Bumping Their Heads Or Knees Against The Rider.
It’s Technique, It’s Custom, It’s The Culture Of Someone Who Experienced Drovers Passing Through The Property And Maintained This Standard Of Care.
The Cart Is Also Still Active. It Has Pulled Corn, Pumpkin, And Pigs, Everything The Production Requires.
In The Cattle Ranching, He Works Together With A Brother, Using Both His Own Area And His Relative’s.
It’s A Family Consortium System, Based On Trust And Labor, Not On Digital Contracts And Electronic Signatures.
At The Back Of The Property Flows The Bonito River. There The 70-Year-Old Farmer Takes The Horse To “Acclimate” With Cold Water, Getting The Animal Used To Swimming, And Removing The “Itch” From Its Skin.
He Himself Goes In, Faces The Cold Water, Stays Minutes Inside The River, As Part Of A Ritual That Blends Animal Hygiene, Physical Resistance And Simple Pleasure.
Faith, Health And Choices Outside The Urban Script
The 70-Year-Old Farmer Has Not Married. He Says That In His Youth, He Went Through A Phase Of Excessive Drinking, Many Parties, Many Dances, Until He Almost “Lost The Good Plan In His Head”.
The Constant Hangover, Weakness, And Sense Of Losing Control Led Him To Change Course.
Today He Treats Sobriety As A Condition To Continue Riding, Working And Caring For The Animals.
Dona Ernestina, In Turn, Found In Faith The Way To Organize Her Day. In The Late Afternoon, After Weeding, She Uses The Garden To Pray.
She Asks For Health For Herself, Her Family, And “For Those Who Need To Live”, Not For Wealth, A New Car, Or A Trip.
She Does Not Enjoy Birthday Parties And Does Not Picture Herself In A Decorated Hall. She Prefers A Simple Cake At Home, Made By Her, Without An Audience.
This Combination Of Practical Faith, Silent Discipline And Refusal Of Certain Consumption Rituals Creates A Unique Code.
The Family Accepts Laughter, Criticism, And Judgment From Those Who Think They Have “Fallen Behind”, But Remains Firm In The Way Of Life They Have Chosen.
For Them, The Greatest Achievement Is To Remain Active, Getting On The Stirrups, Crossing The Mountains, Caring For The Garden And The Cattle Without Feeling That Life Has Been Wasted.
What The 70-Year-Old Farmer Reveals About The Brazil That Resists
There Is A Brazil That Discusses Artificial Intelligence, Electric Cars, Blockchain.
But There Is Also The Brazil Where A 70-Year-Old Farmer Still Lives With His 90-Year-Old Mother, Keeps A Clean Garden, Knows The Water Of His Own River And Knows How To Tame A Horse In The Woods.
This Brazil Does Not Appear In Quarterly Reports But Sustains Food, Culture, And Memory.
The Routine Of This 70-Year-Old Farmer Shows A Rooted Life That Still Resists In The Catarinense Countryside. It Is Not A Romantic Tale.
The Work Is Hard, The Body Demands, The Knee Remembers The Old Injury, Fatigue Arrives.
But There Is Something There That A Good Part Of The Urban Population Has Already Lost: Continuity, Belonging, Clarity About Who You Are And Where You Came From.
When Dona Ernestina Refuses To Put Down The Hoe And Insists On Caring For The Garden, She Is Not Just Weeding.
She Is Holding A Thread Of Knowledge That, If Broken, Will Be Difficult To Rebuild.
When The 70-Year-Old Farmer Decides To Continue Without A Car, Without Big Parties, Without Accumulating Possessions, He Makes A Choice That Quietly Questions The Dominant Standard.
In The End, There Is A Question That Affects Any Reader Surrounded By Screens, Deadlines And Notifications All Day Long: Would You Trade Part Of Your Urban Routine For A Few Days Living Like This 70-Year-Old Farmer With His 90-Year-Old Mother In The Catarinense Countryside?
Hhaa nao ne ,como eles nao viveriam em SP capital ,imagina ele a mae dele vivendo aqui ,ou imagina um paulistano vivendo la ,nao vejo problemas em viver em cidade com tecnologia e essa rotina **** que eu tanto amo ,eu nao conseguiria viver no meio do mato ,cada um com suas mania
Viveria sim
Parabéns pela reportagem. Deixaram-os, bem a vontade, eles se expressaram do modo ea maneira deles, com clareza, riqueza e inteligência! É, uma das poucas e excepcionais matérias sobre a vida real, com tudo que há de perfeito na vida e da vida no interior….. Parabéns à essa família e equipe de reportagem!