Chestnuts are a big deal here in Galicia. You can tell by the sheer amount of words en galego associated with them. There's a verb for specifically picking up fallen chestnuts, soutar. There are also several words to describe chestnuts that leave the spiky burr on their own, restrelo, baguto, degaro. Words to describe chestnuts that didn't quite reach their peak (also valid for potatoes), bolerca. Words for chestnuts that have been boiled with their shell, zonco, mamota. Plus Galicia's favorite autumnal event: magosto. And with such an abundance of chestnuts in the provinces of Lugo and Ourense for centuries, structures were built specifically for them. Two-storey shacks (sequeiros) can be found near some forests, used expressly for drying chestnuts. Ouriceiras are small, circular stone structures without a roof, and a narrow opening just wide enough for a person to fit in. They were used to store the chestnuts in their burrs while safeguarding them from animals such as wild boars. On a visit to Marronda Forest which has a trail lined with chestnut trees, we noticed several of these ouriceiras. If I hadn't just recently read about them, I would have thought they were some sort of castro.
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| Inside an out-of-use ouriceira |
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Pumpkin dip and wine bowl
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This year for the first time, I've spent sunny fall afternoons collecting chestnuts myself. Sixteen pounds in three days! And there are still more to be collected. Needless to say that is a lot of chestnuts for one (or even two) person. One way to eat chestnuts is boiled with milk and cinnamon. I had never tried it like that until now, and it's delicious! Like eating a bowl of cereal. Chestnuts are actually more like a grain than a nut. That's why before America was discovered, Galicians basically lived off of chestnuts. Now potatoes have become a staple, and chestnuts are reserved for autumn snacking.
With so many pounds of chestnuts collected this year, we just had to celebrate a mini-magosto of our own. I'm not even sure it could be considered a real magosto since that is traditionally saved for the first 11 days of November. We did, however, have all the necessary foods. Aside from chestnuts roasted on an open fire, we also roasted chorizo and sweet potatoes (a tradition imported by our Catalan friend) and sipped red wine. And a very festive kuri pumpkin spread, if I do say so myself. With COVID-19 looming, that may have been our only magosto for the year.
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| Some of the harvest drying, but alas, not in a sequeiro |
