I’m quite convinced that some people are natural hunters and gatherers. I know for sure that I am one of them – well, a gatherer at least. . There’s nothing I enjoy more than poking around for mushrooms, picking wild herbs, finding abandoned fruit trees and filling my bags with quantities of foraged delights I know theres something totally primitive about it, something reaching far back to my cave man survival instincts. I can actually feel the adrenaline rush when I come across free wild food.
- Chestnut collectors, Northern Spain
And so it was the past week, driving the back roads of northern Spain through Portugal. It is autumn and the ground is a prickly carpet of fallen chestnuts…I have never in my life seen so many. With no idea of what to do with chestnuts other than roast them over a fire, we accumulated ridiculous quantities, unable to resist. Some we collected, from outside our own house, and others we bought from farmers in markets along the way.
By the time we got home we had enough food to open a market stall. Not just chestnuts, but almonds, figs, fresh herbs, walnuts and strings of purple onions.
And really that should have been enough to keep us going for a while but no, the urge to gather persists and off we went into the mountains to look for mushrooms.
But sadly, there were none to be found. It’s been too dry or we are too early and all we found was this magic one which of course we quickly threw away!
Not to be deterred in our quest, we headed off to our secret spot of abandoned olive trees. Lucky we did, since when we got there we found two guys loading sack after sack into the back of their van. Any later and we would have missed the lot. We filled our 4 bags – about 16kg in all – and headed back to the coast. Now my 8 kgs of black olives are packed in a box with about as much salt and ready to do their thing..
And as for the mushrooms, well now we just have to wait for the rain which will no doubt come. And the hunting? …hhmmm, that might not.
BTW, Click here if you did not see the previous post on Pomegranates. I had a slight technical hitch when posting and you might have missed it…Also, I’ve put a couple of other pics of the molasses to give you an idea of how it should look if you make your own.
Suzanne says
I’m jealous!! The olives in the purple bag photo is fabulous! When are we roasting chestnuts??
Sharon says
Just as soon as you are back…and Persian Delight the week after…
Néstor says
Preciosas fotos, algunos de los recolectores me resultan rostros familiares, pero os veo muy integrados en la naturaleza, supongo que los frutos podrán catarse algún día, al menos esas aceitunas.
En la Ciudad de Cádiz, en los mercados, se celebran los Tosantos es cómo un Halloween, y con frutas, verduras y algún pollo, los puestos montan sus estructuras escénicas, en las que cada cual representa alguna historieta. A las pocas horas -reconozco que huele muy mal. Pero lo que quería comentar es que en Cádiz ir a comprar tosantos, significa comprar castañas, nueces,almendras e higos, ya que aquí los árboles los vemos en fotos.
Enhorabuena, precioso post.
Diana Baird says
Hunting and gathering is alive and well where I live in Newfoundland. Our freezer/larder is pretty full with berries we’ve picked, fish we’ve caught – and some of which we’ve salted – as well as preserves such as dogberry and crabapple jelly we’ve made from foraged fruit, and herbal oils and vinegars. Each time they’re consumed it takes me back to their collection or preparation. Thanks for sharing another poignant article!
Sharon says
Yes, I can definitely see you two as fellow hunters gatherers!!Theres such satisfaction from foraged food besides the fact it tastes so good and fresh. I was just thinking today about all those berries you get in North America..we get so few here unfortunately.