Day 10 - Cork Harvest in Les Gavarres & Organic Winery

We actually slept in this morning and got the sleep we needed!

Our day was spent on the Catalonian Les Gavarres mountains visiting with Joan Botey, a well known cork harvester in Spain. We drove up mountain roads to one of two very old homes he maintains. The first was from the 13th century where we were greeted with a wonderful breakfast of pork, sausage, toast that you rubbed with fresh cut tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and sea salt, and yes, home-made sangria. We have migrated to wine with breakfast, lunch and dinner - the trifecta!.




This cork forest was somewhat different from what we had observed in other regions of Spain. Here the trees were interspersed with other trees, no ladders were used due to the steep terrain and the actual axes that the harvesters used were smaller because they had to work in smaller spaces.  The harvest was every 12 to 14 years in Catalonia as opposed to 9 or 10 years in other regions.  Also, the harvesters were either Moroccan or of Moroccan decent and mainly Muslim and therefore, observing Ramadan.  It cut their work day to 4 hours.

Our guides were approached within the first few days of our tour by Agrosfera, a Spanish televesion show that does stories on agriculture in the country.  They wanted to follow our tour of the cork forests while we were in Gavarres for a few days and do a segment that was to be aired in 3 weeks. Patrick & Miguel agreed on two conditions: all eight of us agreed and it would not take away from our experience. This was a big deal for them yet they said nothing more about it after we all agreed. Several days later when we reached Gavarres, most of us had forgotten all about it until we saw the film crew in the mountains with us.


After observing the harvest we went to a second house owned by Joan Botey for appetizers outside, which consisted of different sausages and then went inside for lunch.  Our lunch started with a watermelon gazpacho followed by a local fish cooked with potatoes and garlic.


We went back to the hotel for a short time and then visited Eccoci, an organic winery that makes three types of wine - a white that is Chardonnay based, a Rose that is Syrah based and a red that is Cabernet Franc based.  Unfortunately, they do not sell in the United States.



Dinner was at a small restaurant in a neighboring town that was usually closed on Monday but the owner opened it up for us.  After requesting light fare, the owner asked our guides - "do you trust me?".  We all said yes and were once again served the numerous Spanish dishes that were delicious and plentiful.  We had sausages, Jamon, 3 types of pate, bread and tomatoes, richly battered calamari, potato chips, chicken croquettes, pork, beef, lamb, salad and finished up with snails - all accompanied by numerous carafes of wine.  He then served 4 different desserts!

We literally rolled back on the bus around midnight and went back to the hotel and straight to bed!

Tomorrow we visit a cork processor and the Salvador Dali Museum.

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