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| The Chestnut. |
By Catherine Cunningham
The aroma of delicious sweet roast chestnuts roasting on the streets
of Andalucía from November to the Reyes always brings a warm
hearty feeling. There’s something really special about eating
freshly roasted chestnuts outdoors.
There are several areas of Andalucía
where chestnuts are cultivated: the Sierra
de Aracena in the Huelva province, the Sierra
Norte Natural Park in Sevilla province (especially the villages
of Constantina
and Cazalla), the
Alpujarras village of Valor
in Granada province, and the Serrania
de Ronda in Málaga, in particular the villages of Igualeja,
Pujerra, Cartajima
and the upper Rio Genal valley in general. Costantina has a very
attractive walk aptly name Sendero de los Castañares. All
of the villages mentioned are amazing places to visit with your
family and camera during the months of October and November to capture
nature’s annual spectacle of autumn hues. The foliage is just
spectacular and the fallen husks of the chestnuts resemble an army
of cute little hedgehogs. Deep reds, crimson, yellow and orange
- no wonder so much poetry has been written about the autumn leaves.
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| Autumn leaves |
Pujerra seems to be Andalucía’s chestnut capital;
this remote village’s economy revolves around the chestnut
harvest, and it has its own processing plant and even a festival
dedicated to the chestnut. Pujerra’s heritage is indeed the
chestnut proudly displaying numerous examples of 100-year-old trees.
Local landowner Pepe Gonzalez is the third generation to farm the
land of Pujerra and he delights in the whole family getting together
for the chestnut harvest. Another family told me that their son
returns from university in Málaga during the chestnut season
to give a helping hand at the weekends. Full bags of chestnuts can
weigh between 40 to 60 kilos, so the more hands available the better.
The chestnut trees thrive on the hilly slopes and acidic soils of
the Serrania de Ronda; for first grade chestnuts it’s very
important to harvest and chill the crop on the same day.
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| Pepe Gonzalez collecting Chestnuts |
Pujerras’s
co-operative factory, Castañas Valle del Genal, is a hive
of activity at the end of the chestnut harvesting day, with locals
all patiently queuing with their day’s harvest crammed into
cars, 4x4s, tractors and trailers. The chestnuts are weighed, combed,
sorted, graded, packed and chilled for immediate distribution. Look
out in the local restaurants such as Casa Benito in Pujerra and
El Perol in Igualeja for delicacies such as chestnut cake, chestnut
stuffing and purées. Although most of the chestnuts are on
private land, visitors to the area happily collect the windfalls
on the side of the picturesque roads. Visitors from the coast can
be seen with pockets bulging with chestnuts.
The nearby village of Cartajima hosts a boutique
hotel named Los Castaños www.loscastanos.com
overlooking the vast array of chestnut groves. The owner tells us
that “there are actually four or five different varieties
of chestnuts and the sweetest and most highly prized is the peluda.”
Apparently in the village of Cartajima the village grinds to a halt
with the postman taking the month of October off and the town hall
workers providing only a skeleton service as everyone heads into
the valley to join in the harvest. Like everything in Andalucía,
it’s a highly sociable event - whole extended families are
involved, men women and children.
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| Day trippers Sebastian and Aracile collecting Chestnuts. |
Recipe for roast sweet chestnuts:
- Heat the oven to 200C or 400F.
- Spread one kilo of chestnuts evenly on a baking tray.
- Score each chestnut with small crosses to avoid explosions in the oven.
- Cook for 40 minutes and serve in paper cones.
Three curious anecdotes about chestnuts:
Sweet chestnuts should not be confused with horse chestnuts, which
are found in the UK tied on strings and used in a game called conkers;
these horse chestnuts are poisonous although they are obtained from
a tree of the same name.
Chestnuts have also been sneaking their way into local vocabulary:
a person who ‘tiene castañas’ or ‘has
chestnuts’ is a person who is hard to deal with. The chestnuts
themselves aren’t easy to harvest, with their prickly shells
and protective husks.
Tostón is the chestnut festival, where chestnuts are roasted
and consumed with anis. The chestnut itself isn’t easily digestible
and is consumed with anis to aid digestion. If a person is referred
to as a ‘tostón’, it means that they are rather
unpalatable.
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| Chestnut Groves. |
Chestnut celebration
As you can imagine, after the harvest there’s a celebration.
The villages of Igualeja and Cartajima celebrate their Tostón
on 1st November with roasted chestnuts and anis. However, the place
to celebrate the chestnut in style is Pujerra. Pujerra holds its
festival from 1st to the 3rd of November dedicated to the Virgin
Fatima, the village’s saint. There are roast chestnuts, accompanied
by anis or agua ardiente, and various chestnut-based gastronomic
delights, with music and dancing until the small hours. They even
have a folk dance, known as Los Fandangos de Pujerra, which is unique
to the village, and found nowhere else. Andalucia certainly is a
land of tradition, and this off-the-beaten-track village with a
population of around 300 people is well worth visiting, especially
in the chestnut season.
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