As I mentioned in my last blog, food tourism has become a large
market, even Airbnb offering food tours, cooking classes and traditional meals
cooked by locals. I have been fortunate to spend time, living and working on a
Finca in Majorcan which had olive trees and Cortijo in Andalucía which had a
vineyard and bodega, olive, almond and pomegranate trees and gardens growing various
vegetables and fruits. Which were used to feed the guests who were staying.
A Finca is generally a decent sized plot of land usually over 2000
m2 that may or may not have a building on it. A Cortijo is a large working farm
of usually more than 10 hectares with a farm house building which would include
minimum of one main building with two wings giving it a “U” shape. These often
have a courtyard in the middle.
This is derived from the Latin word- cohorticulum, a diminutive
of cohors, meaning courtyard. Many Cortijo’s became deserted
following General Franco's Plan de Estabilización and the abandonment of
traditional agricultural practices by the local youth that swept over rural
Spain during the second half of the 20th century. However, many of these are
not been renovated by the English and Germans for tourism and small specialist
farms.
The wide variety of olives produced in Spain is combined with the
great variety of existing microclimates throughout the country to produce an
extensive variety of oils, 250 in total. Because I have greater knowledge of
the Majorcan olives, I am going to focus on Majorca.
The American president, Thomas Jefferson, once said, the olive
tree is surely the greatest gift from the heavens. With more than 750,000
olive trees, 90% of them more than 500 years old, Mallorca
is truly blessed. These ancient gnarled and twisted trees are an intrinsic part
of Mallorca’s landscape.
Have you ever tried a Majorcan olive? Not the round ones, the
Spanish table olive or the Manzanilla, but the one which is matt green with an
elongated shape and slightly bitter taste. Just like the island where it is
grown, the Majorcan olive is bursting with a character and distinct taste
of
its own! It wasn’t until 2002, that the Denomination of Origin ‘Oli de
Mallorca’ was created. This hallmark is applied to some of Majorca’s best extra
virgin olive oils, which are produced specifically from the mallorquina,
arbequina, and picual varieties.
Much of the farming is still
done by the traditional methods, in October the trees are bashed with sticks,
called gaules, and the olives fall onto the nets that are placed on the ground below.
One tree will yield about 40 kgs of olives. In some villages the oil produced
is for personal use rather than for sale, and the villagers held each other to
pick the crop in return for some finished oil. As soon as the olives are
picked, they have to be taken to the olive press or tafona, as too much contact with
oxygen in the air can turn the olives bitter and compromise the flavour of the
oil.
The actress, Carol
Drinkwater, has written a series of books on her own experiences of owing and
running an olive farm in the south of France. I enjoyed reading about the
trials and tribulations of both renovating a property and growing olives.
It is possible to experience the flavours and aromas of authentic, rural Majorca as many of the renowned estates hold gastronomic tours and events. The website below gives details.
Some of the most popular oils are listed below;
Treurer
The Miralles family’s make first-class oil is made only from arbequina
olives grown at their Finca near Algaida. Fruity and spicy, with delicate
bitter notes, their oil is well balanced with aromatic hints of almonds,
walnuts, and fennel. The name Treuer comes from the word tresorer, which means keeper
of the treasure.
Son Catiu
Three oils; picual, arbequina, and a coupage, are produced at their
Son Catiu centre situated between Inca and Llubi. They have a shop,
tasting area and the islands largest and most modern olive press.
Biniagual
The Moors planted the first olive trees on the Biniagual estate in
the 13th century and, today, the Finca has around 1,000 olive trees. This
high-quality extra virgin olive oil is made from hand-harvested arbequina
olives.
Son Moragues
Son Moragues, is an estate between Valldemossa and Deià. The
700-year-old Finca, dates back to the 14th century when the Moragues family
first started cultivating the olive groves. The estate became famous due to
Archduke Ludwig Salvador of Austria who acquired numerous plots of land around
Valldemossa. Son Moragues was at the centre of his agricultural work and his
olive oil won its first international award in 1888 at the world fair in
Barcelona. He was a progressive man: a non-conformist, keen traveller,
passionate scientist and visionary who was a keen advocate for preserving the
environment and its local agriculture and culture. The olives
are still harvested by hand and processed in the oil mill using the cold
extraction method. Each individual, wild-growing olive tree (Ollastre) has been
enriched with the “Majorcan variety” so that the oil from Son Moragues still
originates from the same trees that the Archduke used without any use of
pesticides or chemicals.
In 2006 the change to ecological farming began. Ancient knowledge
is now being used to bring ancient traditions into the 21st century.
The nature conservation and sale of the products supports the preservation of
the Serra de Tramuntana which has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site.
Agriculture
is viewed from a holistic viewpoint and they strive for trees, animals, plants
and insects to be seen as one all-encompassing ecosystem.
We cultivate and
preserve the trees of our predecessors and use similar techniques.
Ecological
farming makes an important contribution to the protection of the environment
and the regeneration of rural regions as projects such as these catch the
interest of young people
Uta Werner- Son Moragues
Special events are hosted, offering an outdoor tasting of
the critically acclaimed olive oil, a visit to the estate’s olive press ending
with a three-course Majorcan lunch from a two-Michelin-star local chef. See
their website for more details. www.sonmoragues.com
So next time you are visiting Majorca and you want to try a
different experience what about going to an olive farm?
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