A small rock in the Atlantic: 20/09/2009

Friday 25 September 2009

Upcoming fiestas for St Michael

Fufu horses, Tazacorte fiesta, La Palma island

Tuesday 29th September is the feast day of St Michael the Archangel, who is the patron saint of La Palma.

St Michael is a big thing in Tazacorte. The fiesta there has been rumbling all all month, but the main event is the Fufu horses, which will dance at 9 pm Monday, followed by a parade of floats.

In San Pedro (Breña Alta) at midnight on Saturday or very early on Sunday morning they're reviving an old tradition where the devil turns up at the party (a man in a costume with lit fireworks strapped to him) only to be vanquished by the cross of Jesus. I want to see this.

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Thursday 24 September 2009

Re-birth already

Regenerating forest, Fuencaliente, La Palma/

New needles on a burnt pine tree, Fuencaliente

It's been raining intermittently for a week or so on the east of La Palma, so I went down to Fuencaliente to see whether the forests had started to re-grow. And here's the result.

Regenerating forest, Fuencaliente, La Palma/

New needles on a burnt pine tree, Fuencaliente

It's not happening everywhere yet, but I didn't have to hunt either. I took all these photos the first time I stopped the car.

Regenerating forest, Fuencaliente, La Palma/

New needles on a scorched pine tree, Fuencaliente

In two or three years, it'll be hard to see where the fire was.

Regenerating forest, Fuencaliente, La Palma/

New needles on a burnt grape vine, Fuencaliente

Even thought I knew this would happen, it was still great to see it. And of course, the other 98% of the island's fine anyway.

Regenerating forest, Fuencaliente, La Palma/

New bracken shoots, Fuencaliente

Labels: fuencaliente

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Tuesday 22 September 2009

Gofio

Gofio made with chicken stock, and chicken stew.

Gofio is sort-of cooked flour (you toast the grains before you grind them) and it's been a staple of the Canarian diet since pre-hispanic times.

In principle, you can use just about any grain, although the commonest ones are wheat and maize. In times of famine, there's even a fern root you can use, although I believe it's very bitter, and not something you would chose to eat if there was anything else available. We like the whole-grain multi-cereal one best.

Gofio tastes better than it sounds -- OK, so that's not difficult -- and it's very versatile. You can mix it to a stiff dough with stock and serve it in place of mashed potatoes (like the top photo) or with warm milk instead of breakfast cereal (like the bottom photo). In fact most Canarian babies have gofio and milk just before bed, rather than baby-rice and milk. You can mix it with mashed bananas, a little sugar, and orange juice or milk for dessert, or put it round your pork scratchings to make chicharones,which are very nice to nibble with a beer. And if you're hiking past a spring, it also makes a light-weight lunch. Just add a tin of sardines and some finely chopped onion.

But don't confuse it with flour and try to bake a cake with it. Trust me, you'll get something closer to a cannonball than Victoria sponge.