Never give up, never sell: The story of Ángela "Pepi" Vives, who reinvented herself with pears and apples to save the farm.

But, look at Miss Pepi selling alcohol! Ángela Vives laughs quietly, hands over the bottle, and kisses the buyer, who is one of her many former students who know her from the era of chalk, blackboard, and recess. But now, since she retired in 2012, the "miss" is known in another role: that of a fruit producer and maker of apple and pear cider (according to the food code it is "pear cider" but here we call it cider). All this happens on a farm in the town of Plottier, Neuquén province. "My grandparents bought this land in 1930, originally it was 50 hectares but it was divided and I inherited nine," says Ángela, whose nickname is Pepi. "I grew up in this place and even though I got married young and moved to the capital, I was always in touch, I always came back, I always spent time on the farm because my parents were there." Her grandparents, pioneers of the region, first had to clear and prepare the land for agriculture. They started by producing arugula seeds (and one would think ...