Region to Which it Belongs

The Araucania Region is located 700 kilometers to the south of Santiago, the Chilean capital. Our farm surrounded by native forest of millenary species like: Robles, Araucarias, oihues, Raulis,and hundreds more; pure water brooks,clear water lakes and volcanoes.

Before the spanyards discovered Chile, our natives The Mapuches, inhabited our territory. The conquerors called the area: Arauco.  Today the main region where their communities are located is called The Araucania Region.

They were brave warriors who couldn t be conquered by Spain. Fierce wars and battles were held during more than three centuries.

Their language and culture was orally transmited.

Mapudungun, their language, is rich in words and expressions for describing their people, objects, surroundings and their special and magical view of life: cosmovision.

Mapuche means people of the land .

Mapuches lived in communities, based in families and their leaders: machis (women curanderas) and toquis or loncos (men chiefs).

In the past they were hunters and collectors. Small farming was practiced, based in quinoa, corn, potatoes, wheat and barley.

Merken is used by Mapuches in almost every plate of their diet, so we have learned from them about its versitality . We studied since the year 2004 this traditions, and discovered more than 100 different verisions on Merken (every family had their own recipe). That is why Merken was not exported before and forced our decision to start producing Certified Merken, under the supervision of Universidad Catolica de Temuco.

500.000 Mapuches live in Chile in present times. They face difficult conditions and discrimination. In Chileangourmet we believe in changing this reality by supporting the production of value added products like Merken for the gourmet market worldwide.