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Sabes?

Things about farming that nobody spells out. This is where we explain where your food really comes from, how it is stored and what gets applied to it: not to point the finger at anyone, but because the route ought to be written down. Every fact that does not come from this register carries its source and its date at the foot.

Do you know why the potato you buy does not sprout?

Storing it cold ruins the frying, so the store is kept warm; and warm, a potato sprouts. What stops it is fogged inside the shed, and saying so on the label is optional.

Do you know what happens to a banana before it reaches your fruit bowl?

It is cut green, it travels green, it goes through a fungicide shower at the packhouse and it turns yellow inside a room full of gas. All of it is legal and almost none of it is told.

Do you know where it comes from and how long it has been in store?

A vegetable may have crossed an ocean or spent half a year in a cold store before it reached your kitchen. It is legal and it is regulated; what it almost never is, is told.

Do you know why the calçot is called a calçot?

The name of the calçot does not describe the plant: it describes what the person growing it does to it.

Do you know exactly what a comarca is?

Neither province nor village: the comarca is the measure farming uses to know who has what nearby.

Do you know why a farm's tomatoes do not all come the same?

Uniform size is a demand of the distribution chain, not a virtue of the plant.

Do you know where the word «payés» comes from?

Payés, pagès, país and paisano all come from the same Latin word: the piece of countryside where people lived.

Do you know the same vegetable changes its name in 30 km?

Bleda or acelga, mongeta or judía, albercoc or albaricoque: the same plant with two names, and neither of them is surplus.

This page is also in Castellano