Jamones, jamones y más jamones (Abundance of ham)
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2007
1
8
26
Trip End
Aug 01, 2007
Las Alpuharras,
Spain
Monday, July 2, 2007
First off, an introduction to ´jamones´. Most of you will know that Spanish people are fond of their ham (or jamon). ´Jamon´is a reference to cured ham - so it´s not cooked, just preserved using salt and cold. It´s very popular and in most tapas bars, some restaurants and of course delicatessens, you are more than likely to see a couple of cured pigs hind legs (i.e. jamones) hanging from the wall or ceiling, complete with trotters at the top.
Anyway, the reason for all this explanation is that on Sunday (yesterday), I took another day trip organised by the school and went to visit some of the small villages which are situated within the Sierra Nevada mountain range, together, the villages are known as Las Alpuharras. The area is well known for the production of high quality jamones, but more on that later.
The first difference I noticed between this trip and the one to Cordoba last week is that all of the other people on the trip were friendly and keen to chat in Spanish. It did make things a little tricky and sometimes hard work (esp for a Sunday!), but I think it´s done wonders for my Spanish speaking. We could, of course, if we got stuck, revert to English which was spoken by most people - but, in the main, we spoke Spanish to each other. The guide was the same one that led the trip to Cordoba, so in addition to random, stilted Spanish conversation, I also got to listen to ´proper Spanish´. The bus trip from Granada to the first town of Lanjaron took us about an hour and a half.
Lanjaron´s only claims to fame are that it is the source of much of Granada´s bottled water, and the water there is reputed to have healing qualities - which explained the number of elderly people wandering the streets of the village as we drove through. Lanjaron is also the town which is the gateway to the rest of the villages (or pueblos) of Las Alpuharras. We didn´t stop there for long - just long enough for us to take some photos of a tower on a rock...
Next stop on the trip was a town called Pampaneira. (If you can zoom in on the map which accompanies this blog, you should see it near Lanjaron.) As with most villages in Spain, Pampaneira has quite a beautiful small church. Religion is a very important part of the history of the villages in the Alpuharras. When the Muslims were expelled/forced from Granada following the Christian reconquest of Spain, a lot of them moved from the cities into the mountain villages, where they were more or less free to practice their own religion (in contrast to the cities). However, ultimately even those Muslims living in the villages were forced out (to Portugal) and the villages became fully Christian. This was all demonstrated by the church in Pampaneira, as it has some Muslim features to it - I can´t remember whether the church used to be a mosque or whether it was just built by Muslim builders.
While at Pampaneira, we had the opportunity to sample the local Alpuharran ´wine´. It tasted a lot like sherry/brandy/cognac rather than normal ´vino´, and was, in any case, rather strong to be drinking at about midday, but we still got to try at least two varieties of it. And we got our first taste of the local jamon, and cheese. After a bit of free time to wander the (obviously touristy) shops, we got back into the bus to head to the next town of Trevelez.
Trevelez has two claims to fame: firstly, it is the highest of all of the villages in the Alpuharras; and secondly, it is the home to a jamon production factory. Our first stop in Trevelez was the local restaurant which was recommended by the guide. Not sure whether he gets a kickback from recommending it to us (perhaps his lunch is free), but it was still a really nice restaurant and it was where we got our first ´taste´so to speak, of how much jamon is produced in Trevelez. Hanging from the ceiling above our heads (in the restaurant) were numerous jamones...When we asked, we were told that on the upstairs section of the restaurant (which is where we were) contained about 3,000 jamones hanging from the ceiling...yes, you read that right, it´s not a typo...there were about three thousand legs of ham hanging from the ceiling, and that was ony one part of a fairly large restaurant...Not very good if you´re a vegetarian, I imagine...
Our second stop in Trevelez was the jamon factory. Not quite sure how it worked as our guide appeared to have a key and we weren´t required to don any protective clothing. The process starts with the arrival of pigs legs...no other parts of the pig make it to Trevelez - apparently the climate in the mountains doesn´t suit the pigs, so they´re raised elsewhere and bits of them sent to various parts of the country for various purposes. The climate in Trevelez is great for creating jamon, so that´s where the ´raw´pigs legs go...Then they´re coated in salt and stuck in a big freezer. If my memory serves correctly, this process takes one day for each kilo in the leg. The salt is then washed off and the legs are hung up in cold stores. That process can last anywhere from 12-18 months up to about 3 years. There are differing qualities of jamon depending on the type of pig and what it ate during its life. The most expensive is that of ´free range´pigs which take up to two years to reach the time when they are killed (factory pigs take about 8 months to get to this stage). The expensive ham is called jamon iberico, while the normal jamon is referred to as jamon serrano. Anyway, during the course of our tour of the factory, we would have seen at least 1,000 pigs legs. You´ll have to wait for the photos to understand quite how many jamones that we saw...And that was Trevelez.
The next (and final) stop on the tour was the town of Capeileira (also on the Google map if you zoom in enough). It´s a very touristy town, but there are some beautiful streets and window boxes as well as some amazing views of the mountains.
All in all, it was a great trip - made all the better by the other people on it - most of them were American, but there were also people from other European countries there too. Have swapped contact details with some of them and we´re heading out to dinner tonight too.
Next trip on the agenda is a weekend in Sevilla next weekend...
