CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR True, Los Barrios is not the only place in the Campo that is getting overrun with ornages, but given all the bad news about La Villa (a name they like to call themselves), we thought we'd just pick it, for a little positive news, with a nice photo from EuropaSur (as we do so often) of the main square there, where the Council is having the fruit picked so that it doesn't just fall off the tree and rot on the ground. The fact is that last winter's storms, of Biblical proportions, have brought to fruition in equally Biblical poportions, at the groves all over the area. Pickers are out already, concentrated mainly in San Pablo, Jimena, Tesorillo and San Enrique. We hope the growers have a better season... But here's an interesting thing about these 'public square' oranges:>
As happens in many places including the capital of Andalucía, Seville, this variety is not much appreciated because the fruit is very bitter. There are some 35,000 trees in Seville alone.
You guessed it, the variety is known in the UK as Seville and is very much appreciated for marmalade. In fact, many years ago there as a wholesaler who used to comb all the cities, towns and villages of Andalucía and buy up the oranges to send to Britain. A lucrative business, but not any more. Transport prices have gone up the numbers no longer compute.
When Prospero first came to Jimena almost 40 years ago ("Jeez!" he says) he saw all the groves everywhere and wondered why you couldn't buy marmalade anywhere this side of the Gibraltar frontier. Over the years, fruit processors in Spain (more often from the North) have discovered the marmalade market and Prospero has seen British visitors loading their cars with Spanish brands to take back to the UK. (Note: the word mermelada in Spanish means jam, of any fruit. Another word for jam in Spanish is confitura.)
In a slightly different market is fresh orange juice. When the Los Ángeles dairy closed in Jimena, Prospero asked the man in charge, Fernando Gómez, why the soon-to-be-dismantled plant couldn't be converted to making fresh orange juice; they had most of the necessary machinery and a good distribution system. The reply was a shrug. Anybody know what the unemployment rate is in today?
As happens in many places including the capital of Andalucía, Seville, this variety is not much appreciated because the fruit is very bitter. There are some 35,000 trees in Seville alone.
You guessed it, the variety is known in the UK as Seville and is very much appreciated for marmalade. In fact, many years ago there as a wholesaler who used to comb all the cities, towns and villages of Andalucía and buy up the oranges to send to Britain. A lucrative business, but not any more. Transport prices have gone up the numbers no longer compute.
When Prospero first came to Jimena almost 40 years ago ("Jeez!" he says) he saw all the groves everywhere and wondered why you couldn't buy marmalade anywhere this side of the Gibraltar frontier. Over the years, fruit processors in Spain (more often from the North) have discovered the marmalade market and Prospero has seen British visitors loading their cars with Spanish brands to take back to the UK. (Note: the word mermelada in Spanish means jam, of any fruit. Another word for jam in Spanish is confitura.)
In a slightly different market is fresh orange juice. When the Los Ángeles dairy closed in Jimena, Prospero asked the man in charge, Fernando Gómez, why the soon-to-be-dismantled plant couldn't be converted to making fresh orange juice; they had most of the necessary machinery and a good distribution system. The reply was a shrug. Anybody know what the unemployment rate is in today?
No comments:
Post a Comment