Galicia, the Switzerland of Spain

by Annette M. B. Meakin

Although wine is so plentiful and cheap, the very poor content themselves with water, and seldom touch any other beverage. Red wine is supplied free at all the Gallegan hotels, and a very pleasant drink it is; there is hardly more alcohol in it than would be found in an ordinary fruit syrup, and the wines of Pontevedra are said to be even less alcoholic than those of Orense. I have already mentioned how the town of Ribadavia lies in the very centre of the vine country. The people of that part are said to indulge rather freely in the wine that their soil produces for them in such abundance. When a man has made himself drunk after his midday meal, the neighbours say, “He has climbed up into his vine” (estar subido a la para); and the story goes that an English wine-merchant once came to Ribadavia to negotiate with some of the husbandmen for the purchase of their wine, but that at every house where he inquired for the master he was told that the owner of the vineyard had “climbed into his vine,” and could not be seen. Tradition has it that the Englishman grew very indignant, and made a remark in his notebook to the effect that these particular wine-growers should be avoided in future; he did not realise that the men he had wished to do business with were one and all too drunk at that hour to drive a bargain, and that his wisest course would have been to call again later in the day. In this connection we may add that during the English attack on Vigo in 1719, one of the officers wrote in his journal: “Most of the soldiers abused themselves so much with wine that a small body of men might have given us a great deal of uneasiness” (Macaulay).

A species of cabbage, known as the Gallegan cabbage, grows very plentifully all over Galicia; local writers speak of it as “the bread of the poor”; it is said to be the most economical and the most digestible kind of cabbage that exists. The life of this plant is usually four years, and it grows with a long stalk, the heart of the cabbage often reaching a height of a foot and a half above the ground. It is of this cabbage that the famous Gallegan broth—caldo Gallego—is chiefly made; the richer classes add the water in which half a pig’s head has been boiled, but the poor often put in nothing but cabbage, potatoes, and a few haricot beans. In spring, when the cabbage water has a strong smell, the vegetables are boiled separately, after which the cabbage is taken out of its water and placed in the pot with the potatoes.

One of the principal exports from Orense to our shores is the “Spanish onion.” This vegetable, in the words of a local housekeeper, “is often as large as a plate.” It grows plentifully in the valley of the Ulla, all round Padron, and in most of the low-lying valleys of Galicia.

Every kind of fruit known to Europe can be cultivated in Galicia. I have already stated that in all the lower valleys every peasant’s garden has its lemon tree, also oranges ripen well in the neighbourhood of Pontevedra and Noya, but they are never very large. During the fourteenth century an aromatic oil, or attar, was manufactured at Noya from orange flowers grown in the neighbourhood. The Spaniards called this oil atatiar, and it is probable that they learned the art of making it from their Moorish conquerors.

Fig trees are to be found wherever there are oranges. I saw particularly fine ones in some of the gardens; their growth was very sturdy, and not unlike that of the oak. In the vicinity of Tuy there are a good many olives scattered amongst the other trees, but there are no plantations of them. The needle-pointed cypress is also to be seen, but, as I have said, this tree is rarely found outside the gardens of the aristocracy.

Apples are produced in great variety: there is a small sweet russet—manzana parda; a large green apple with little black spots—tartiadillo; a pretty greenish-yellow apple that has its name from the town of Sarria near Lugo; a green apple as large as a football—tres en ramid (three on a branch); and another large green apple, wide at the base and rather tapering, very sweet—fada.

The finest pear for eating is considered to be the Urraca, which is small and dark green in colour. The fact that this variety has been named after Queen Urraca leads to the supposition that it originated in Galicia. Another pear, pera de manteca (butter pear), is of two kinds: de oro (golden) and de plata (silver); both these varieties are very large. Then there is the pera de Judas, a large green pear, excellent for eating.

The earliest fruit is the wood strawberry, which is ripe about the middle of May. Cherries are plentiful in June, especially a large black one, very sweet—guinda. Later there are several kinds of greengages and plums: the claudia is greatly prized for preserving in syrup. Apricots and peaches also abound; one kind of peach, the pavia del revero, was selling in the local markets at fifteen dollars per hundred in 1906. Melons also do well here, especially the water melon, which is very plentiful. Medlars of two kinds are seen in the markets in great quantities, where they are sold at the equivalent of threepence a pound. The earliest grapes are a very small white kind, which ripen about the end of September, and sell at about sixpence a pound. Pomegranates grow in the warmer valleys; so far as I could make out, there are no almonds, though it is probable that these too, like the date and the banana, would thrive here if once introduced.

During the summer months the squares and public places are crowded with fruit-sellers, and the quantities of fruit they bring in from the country round are a sight to see.

Among the plants that interested me there was one called Torvisco (probably from the Latin Turviscus), which is known to us as the flax-leaved daphne. Its leaves are used by the peasants for catching trout. The fish nibble the leaves when they are placed in the stream, and are poisoned at once; whereupon they are taken out of the water and cooked for the table. It seems that this kind of poison does not in any way affect the wholesomeness of the fish for eating purposes.