Woofing (and tomb raiding) in Sevilla

The second farm in Spain where we woofed was about 50 minutes outside of Sevilla by bus. It was just about right in between two towns- Mairena del Alcor and Alcala de Guadavair. The first thing we noticed: the heat! At 6pm, the hottest part of the day here, it was 100 degrees and at 9pm when we got off the bus, it was about 90 degrees.



Pablo, the main steward of the organic farm we would be working on, picked us up as we got off the bus at Mairena de Alcor. He showed us around the small property that he doesn´t own but lives on with his wife and two daughters and pretty much runs in terms of cultivating organic produce boxes or cestos para clientes as he calls them. During the summer months there is not much business (locals leave town if they can to avoid the heat) and he tries to dry and conserve what he harvests. His wife and daughers had just left for vacation in France (where his wife is from) a few days previous to our arrival so we only met them one time via skype. But we met the farms two resident dogs- Manchita ("little spot") and Suki and the cat who had a name but everyone called gatita- "little kitty."

Manchita

Suki

Gatita- she looks cuddly but is quite the catcher of lizards.

He showed us the little dorm with a few beds kitchen and bathroom where we would be staying- right at the edge of the garden which is about half an hectare and very fertile.  Ricardo who was our roommate for a week described it on his blog: "[the garden] has a very fertile sandy soil. The zucchinis can reach enormous dimensions if even for a short time you are not careful to harvest them. The chard leaves grow up to half a meter and the carrots sink down in the soil without any modesty."

I would add to this that the weeds - la mala hierba- grow with equal vigor. Julio and I spent a lot of time de-weeding and lets just say I think some could have be considered trees due to the thickness of their stem and astounding heights!

View of our little dorm from the garden.

The "before" picture before deweeding.

The "after picture"- 8ish hours later!

The amazing satisfaction after pulling an enormous weed out.

And we met Ricardo, who would be our roommate for a week. Ricardo had been at the farm for a month alread. He is a 70+ gentlemen who left Argentina at the age of 30 who as a journalist was in danger under the Pinochet regime and has been living in Spain 40+ years. The economic crisis that hit Spain hard in 2008 hit him just as hard and he lost a lot that he had- including a house in Mallorca. For a year or more he has been woofing around spain and hopes to continue to wwoof in Portugal, France, and Italy after some repairs to his vehicle. He travels on all back roads and small national highways in his little van- his motocarro. This is his blog of his adventures: http://aeuropaenmotocarro.blogspot.com.es/ 

Ricardo greeted us with a dinner consisting of fresh veggies from the garden and rice with egg, some recently pickled peppers, wine and beer upon our arrival and the four of us sat talking, eating, drinking, and getting to know each other until about one in the morning.

Our roommate Ricardo

 Thus we were introduced to the Spanish schedule- eat and party late, wake up early to work in the cooler hours of the day, and take siesta for two to three hours to be able to repeat. With the extreme heat, it was not hard to switch to this schedule. The coolest hours are in the evening and yhou want to be out and enjoying it with others, whereas you WANT a siesta during those hot afternoon hours.

Our time at the farm consisted of five hours of work in the morning, then making and sharing lunch with Ricardo- always accompanied bya a Spanish beer- mostly Estrella or Cruzcampo- that tasted oh so good after a sweaty five hours of work. We really enjoyed our lunch time conversations and meals with him.  Not only was he fun to talk to, but he was a great cook and introduced us to calabacines a la plancha and pringa which was a local specialty sauce made from blood sausage and fresh bacon. Plus one evening he made us tortilla espanola and another night paella. Such a treat!

Julio, Ricardo and Pablo eating the paella Ricardo whipped up for us.

Calabacines a la plancha

Pringa- an Andaluzian specialty- with pasta

Siesta followed lunch. We tried to lay low until around seven when the worst heat passed. In the evenings we headeded to the house patio to sit outside and use internet. A few nights the four of us dined together and chatted until the wee hours of the morning.

One night Pablo took us on a special outing. It turns out that next to our farm there are dolmens- ancient burial sites dating to 3000 years before Christ- the Bronze Age. The basically just look like hills- ten meteres in length and three to four meters across and some have tunnels where bodies were kept.

Some are seen from our farm- to quote Ricardo, "Salir de la casa de los voluntarious ya te asoma a otra epoca"- "Stepping out of the volunteer´s house you are peeking into another era."

Pablo´s garden to the right, I stuck my hand through the fence for this picture. In the distance are three small dolmens visible from the garden and dorm.

The site is only known to locals unlinke the monolithic dolmens in Antequera Spain that are now recognized by UNESCO. In this area, some private properties have dolmens and there was a large open space that until a few years ago this area was an open area to the public. Unfortunately they fenced it in and is not a military zone and used for testing military grade tanks, which we saw them doing from the farm a few times. Pablo said he was pretty sure there would be an agujero- an eye of a needle- on the fence somewhere and sure enough there was. We followed him crawling through a hole that somebody had tried to patch up right next to the no trespassing sign. We had a great little stroll through this ancient burial site and got a better glimpse of the glorious landscapes of the area. 

Crawling through the "agujero"- needle´s eye- in the fence to access the dolmens.

walking through the military zone to the dolmens.

Ricardo entering a small tunnel in one of the dolmens that we had to enter crouching and that led to a circular room with a peep hole to the sky.

A roman tomb mixed in to the bronze age tomb sites.

"The dolmens are silent watchmen of the passing of time and the memory of those who populated these places a long time ago." -Ricardo

Ricardo left about a week after we got there and we immiediately missed him. We continued to ejnjoy late night beers and conversation with Pablo. One night he took us to La Cansina- a community nearby where some of his friends live. That night there was a magic show. We didn´t pay to go into the official show but afterwards at an onsite bar we caught a few post show tricks. We also had a few drinks at their bar called AlmodoBar- named after the famous Spanish movie director Pedro Almodover who filmed a movie on site.

We left two days short of two weeks because the heat was getting unbearable and Pablo was winding down work in the garden and preparing to meet his family in France for vacation.

While the landscape and weather in this region weren´t exactly paradise, we really enjoyed getting to know Ricardo, Pablo, and the way of life in a rural Andaluzian setting. The hours spent chatting over countless themes in life were some of our favorite of our whole time in Spain.

Some pictures of some of the conserving work we helped out with:

Sun drying tomatoes in the open air.

Preserving chiles.

Sun drying chiles.

Sun drying eggplants and tomatoes on this long netted plank in the hot Andaluzian sun.

Hanging onions to dry out.