Obituary of Amando Barzola Hidalgo

Amando Humberto Barzola Hidalgo Amando Barzola Hidalgo, 61, passed away March 19, 2011, at home in Olympia, Washington. He was born July 11, 1949, to Blanca Judith Hidalgo Guerra and Amando Agustin Barzola in Quito, Equador, Province of Pichincha. Amando attended high school in Ecuador and Columbia, and went on to the Universidad Estatal de Guayaquil in Ecuador where he studied marine biology from 1973-1977. He studied biology at the University of Alaska in Anchorage from 1984-1987, and graduated with a BS in ecological agriculture from The Evergreen State College in 1990. He also completed a sustainable food systems apprenticeship at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1991. He married Emily Decker Lardner on September 6, 2009, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Olympia. Amando was the sole proprietor of Tierra Bonita where he produced world-famous garlic sauces and Olympia’s best salsa which he sold at the Olympia Farmers’ Market, the Columbia City Farmers’ Market in Seattle, and the Olympia food co-ops. Amando was also developing new strains of semi-tropical plants adapted to the northwest, including Andean Lupine, Peruvian Ground Cherries, Sweet Cucumbers, Achira, Quinoa varieties, and Yacon. Prior to this, Amando practiced commercial organic farming in Santa Cruz, CA, and Cottage Grove, OR. He led workshops on solar box cooking, seed saving methods and appropriate technology in Manabi Province, Ecuador. He served as an appropriate technology volunteer at the Refugee Camp for Central Americans, in Harlingen, TX. Amando also worked in Alaska—processing king crab in the Aleutian Islands; catching and processing fish in Kujack Bay, and doing quality control at a fish processing plant in Bristol Bay. He also worked at the international youth hostel in Anchorage, and was caretaker for cabins in the Brooks Range. Amando read widely—favorite books include Riccardo Petrella’s El Manifesto del Agua, Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, and Helen Caldicott’s If You Love This Planet. He also loved music—ranging from Los Incas, Inti-Illimani and Violetta and Angel Parra to Bartok and Vivaldi. Amando studied and worked as a field biologist as far south as the Galapagos Islands, where he tracked the behaviors of flightless cormorants, and as far north as Alaska, where he counted salmon. In 1996, Amando returned to Olympia and began selling garlic sauce and salsa at the Olympia Farmers’ Market. Customers appreciated his fresh, tasty sauces. Those who paused at his table were inspired by stories of recipes: sliced baguettes slathered with cilantro garlic sauce, ripe tomato slices and fresh basil leaves; spaghetti topped with the original garlic sauce and then salsa enhanced with sautéed olives and onions; Bolivian mashed potatoes made with olive oil, encircled by steamed vegetables and topped with garlic sauce. April customers enjoyed winter sweetened collard greens; late fall customers welcomed Peruvian cherries tied in bundles or dipped individually into chocolate, and Amando’s famous quince butter. Throughout the season, customers and friends were treated to an ever-changing palate of garlic sauces—from arugula and parsley to cilantro and then—at the height of summer—basil both purple and green. Some customers were lucky enough to sample Amando’s patacones—deep fried green plantain slices lightly salted and then dipped in salsa. Amando loved to encourage courting couples to try his sauces, promising great romance to whichever one would take the chance and try his recipes. He also welcomed young customers who came sometime to try his wonderful noodles—without any garlic sauce at all. As much as Amando loved talking with people in the market, he also loved growing food. For nearly ten years, he was gardening at his friend Jon Stanton’s place, growing ingredients for sauces, experimental crops like yacon, and extra rows of Swiss chard and collard greens for the Thurston County Food Bank. Amando believed that access to healthy food, like access to clean water and clean air, was a basic human right. It grieved him deeply to track the continuous decline of forests. He yearned for the time when enough people would wake up and organize effectively. He despaired that people were too enamored with the cathartic function of community gatherings and neither fierce nor organized enough to bring about genuine change. Amando was a story teller. He liked to regale customers, employees, coffee shop patrons, friends and families with tales based on his experience, his reading and his deep knowledge of politics. Some tales were amusing, like the story about his cross-country trip in a squareback Volkswagen with two llamas as passengers. Eduardo Galleano included one of Amando’s stories—“El Abuelo”—in his collection, El Libro De Los Abrazos. Other tales were informed by Amando’s deep despair about whether we as humans are capable of changing the current course of biological destruction. In a letter marking the occasion of the Procession of the Species in 1999, Amando wrote “The day USA started to bomb Yugoslavia, while the bombs were destroying bridges, water treatment plants, markets and nature, we were dancing in the streets.” Amando’s despair was tempered only by his deep love for people, for animals, for the earth itself. Although he was realistic in his assessment of the state of the planet, he stayed focused on the present, frequently quoting Karl Marx, saying “reality is richer than fantasy.” As Amando’s illness progressed and he lost his ability to speak, he was supported by people in big and small ways. The servers at the Iron Rabbit, a favorite Friday night haunt, continued to take his order and receive his trademark tap on the forehead. Baristas at Dancing Goats helped him choose “half caf, half decaf” or hot chocolate on Saturday and Sunday mornings before the market opened. Special thanks go to Donna Wiess and Lassen Electric for being wonderful landlords and supporters of Tierra Bonita. Charlie Haney, OFM manager, worked with Amando to bring on his assistant, Yazna Ruiz. The love and support of friends in this community meant everything to him. He will be greatly missed. Amando is survived by his wife, Emily Lardner; three step children—Sam, Becky and Eliza Jessup of Olympia; and his extensive family in Ecuador, including his mother, Blanca Judith Hidalgo Guerra; sisters, Maria de Lourdes Barzola Hidalgo (her children, Daniela Izurieta Barzola and Jose Luis Izurieta Barzola) and Maria Eugenia Barzola Hidalgo (her children, Hernan Ruilova, Xavier Ruliova Barzola, Maria Eugenia Ruilova Barzola, Andrea Ruilova Barzola); his deceased brother Xavier Barzola Hidalgo's children (Amaru Barzola Santos and Fidel Barzola Santos); siblings from his father's previous marriage, Ruth Barzola Martinez, Roberto Barzola Martinez, Susana Barzola Martinez, and Patricio Barzola Martinez; and many friends across the U.S., in Canada and in Ecuador. Memorial donations are suggested to Thurston County Food Bank or South of the Sound Community Farmland Trust. To leave memories of Amando or condolences for the family, please click on "View Guestbook" below.