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Maize bread making

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Posted on 2019-11-22 in

Grain drying. Armintza, Lemoiz (Bizkaia), 2019. Enrike Gaubeka. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

This is a follow-up of a previous post, published on 26 April 2019, dedicated to the cultivation and harvesting of maize.

Freshly-harvested, tender maize ears were roasted in the traditional wood-burning oven used for baking bread. Flour from oven-roasted maize grain (labartoa) is ideal for making flatbreads (taloak), typically soaked in milk or accompanied with pan-fried pork products (sartenekoa) such as chorizo and other fatty meat cuts. Maize flatbreads used to be toasted on a griddled placed over the glowing coals of the hearth (behesua) in the very old days, and on the kitchen stove (txapea) more recently. (more…)

Winter chores on the farm

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Posted on 2018-02-02 in

Ears of maize drying. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Not much work would be done out in the fields during the winter. Inclement conditions did not allow it, and the soil was given a chance to rest. Farmers took advantage of this time of the year to tackle other chores which also required attention and dedication. (more…)

Little Saint Martin

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Posted on 2016-11-11 in
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Oven-dried ears of maize. Akaitze Kamiruaga. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

While in Greek mythology Prometheus managed to steal fire back from the gods and give it to humankind, the Basque mythological character Samartintxiki thieved wheat seed from the jentil and became the very first to farm the land. Saint Martin (316-397), bishop of Tours, acquires a special role in Basque mythology, its diminutive Samartintxiki —literally, “little Saint Martin”, and affectionately translated into Spanish as “san Martinico” by Barandiaran— being him who not only seized wheat, maize or turnip seed from Basajaun —or Basajaunak, its plural form— and even the Devil himself, but also found out the exact time to sow it. (more…)

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