La Vida Alcalaína

If you ever visit the splendid city of Jerez de la Frontera (a 45 minute drive from Alcalá) you will probably have at the top of your to-do list a trip round a sherry bodega (complete with sampling session), or a visit to the Real Escuela to see the fabulous thoroughbred Andalusian horses in action.  But there is another, slightly less well-publicised attraction which I urge you to fit in - the Alcázar. Thanks to Alan Bowman, who visited Jerez in January, for letting me crib the following description and photos from his weekly Bulletin: Inside the mosque The Alcázar of Jerez , one of Jerez's most important monuments, is located in the southeast corner of the city, forming, with the walls, towers and gates a complex defensive system. The term Alcázar, from the Arabic al Qasr , defines a set of buildings surrounded by ramparts, which was the seat of political and military power. It was a palace fortress with autonomy, a small town, seat of po...

Hidden behind the Aljibe visitor centre is one of Alcalá´s greatest treasures - a secret garden, with a stone path spiralling through specimens of all the native trees, shrubs and wild flowers of the Alcornocales natural park.  It is so poorly signposted that unless you actually drive past it down the A2228 from Alcalá to Benalup, you would never know it was there. We've visited several times when there was nobody else around at all (bliss!) There does seem to be a bit more activity going on on the promotional front now, with monthly newsletters and a series of exploratory tours for the public over the coming weekend (10.30 and 12.30 am, 26-28 February).  Maybe one day they will even have their own website and one of those big brown tourist information signs on the motorway ... in the meantime, enjoy it while it's quiet! The garden is now in its fourth year, and the cork-oaks and wild olive trees are fully mature, offering a haven for various varieties of songbirds...

"Guess what I am going to eat today", my Spanish friend asked me yesterday, her face a curious mixture of triumph and embarrassment.  " Pajaritos - zorzales! " She was obviously anticipating my exclamation of horror, and explained that she only ate thrushes once a year, as a special treat.  She likes them skewered and roasted en la chimenea (in the chimney).  Hunting thrushes and other caza menor (birds and rabbits) is an important source of income for the many unemployed men in the area, along with other produce freely obtainable in the campo, like espárragos (wild asparagus), tagarninas (edible thistles) and caracoles (snails). Thrushes have been trapped for food for thousands of years.  The practice is still widespread around the Mediterranean, and is not illegal, provided you have a licence.  On the contrary, there is a whole tourist industry built around it, with thrush-hunting expeditions available throughout the season (mid November till the en...

  “Pan y queso saben a beso” [Bread and cheese taste like a kiss]   “Pan, queso y uva, saben a beso de cura” [Bread, cheese and grapes taste like a priest's kiss] (Alcalá children´s sayings, as recalled by Juan Leiva) Of the eighty or so cheese-producing dairies in Andaluc í a, fifteen are in the Province of Cádiz and our own  Quesería El Gazul  was recently identified as a model example of agricultural industry , combining traditional cheesemaking techniques with innovative products and helping to sustain the viability of Alcalá's numerous flocks of goats.  The regional government is keen to support such local businesses and help their products reach their full market potential. Local bigwigs inspect the cheese-making process Owner Jorge Puerto first had the idea of opening a dairy for goat milk products back in 1998.  Starting completely from scratch, it took four years to set it up.   All the products are made from the pa...

I love my vegetables.  I love buying them, cooking them and eating them.  I used to love growing them too, but I'm restricted to herbs in pots these days as we don´t have a garden.  I did attempt some green peppers and tomatoes our first year here, but quite honestly it wasn't worth the effort of watering them twice a day.  In the UK we grew our own veg because they tasted better; that just doesn't apply here. People in Spain eat more fresh vegetables than in most other European countries (220 kg per person per year), and they cost less here too, especially if you buy them from local suppliers or street markets.  There are at least thirty shops in Alcalá (pop. 5,600) selling fresh vegetables, as well as a twice-weekly street market, and lots of people grow their own in huertos or parcelas, plots of land squeezed in between the buildings or perched precariously on the steep slopes around the edge of the town.   Vertical vegetable plot, Alcalá style...