Today we are travelling aboard the delicacies produced by Lanzarote´s rain-fed agriculture.
The ‘magic’ of mineral flavors
It is impossible to find another place on the planet that produces wines and legumes similar to those of Lanzarote. The reason is simple: they are children of a mineral earth made by fire, water and wind. They also grow in unique cultivation systems in the world, adapted to the peculiar nature of the island. Only here can they be possible.
Adaptation, sustainability and superfoods
To understand the idiosyncrasies of this island you have to bend over and observe. The salt gardens on the coast are flaked to dress tomato and onion salads. The black pebbles (rofe, picón), expelled by the Timanfaya eruption three centuries ago, continue to be the mattress that protects crops from the sun and wind, and also the sponge that absorbs and conserves humidity from the environment. This is how Los Valles potatoes are made.
In La Graciosa fish such as bocinegros or salemas are still haunted (dried in the sun).
In the old days, when ice was not available, it was a fundamental conservation method. Sea mist gives crops greater strength. The wild plants and fruit trees that grow around the holes of La Geria aromatize the grapes with which some of the D.O. Lanzarote. All this is part of the natural technology that Lanzarote has inherited from that peasant generation that was forced to deal with the magma, to start over.
Hiking is one of the activities that can best connect us with the culture of this volcanic island. One of the routes with more history is the Vuelta de Las Quemadas, which begins next to the Hermitage of Los Dolores and runs between craters and vineyards. Sweet potatoes grow not far away, introduced in the 19th century and happily adapted to jable, that band of white sand that crosses the island from Famara to Playa Honda, formed by the remains of shells and crushed seaweed that retain water just as well as volcanic sands.
The island’s restaurants are legion that use local products such as sweet potatoes in their kitchens: local vegetables, typical meats such as Canarian pig, fish with silky meat such as cherne and an essential gofio in desserts (and that is taken from wonder with cocoa). This flour from ground and toasted cereals, which was essential for the survival of the Lanzarote population, is today a superfood that they continue to produce in La Molina de José María Gil, standing since 1870.