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Ferns and ferneries in Lapurdi

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Posted on 2018-09-14 in
Mechanized harvesting of ferneries. Urruña (Lapurdi), 2009. Michel Duvert

Mechanized harvesting of ferneries. Urruña (Lapurdi), 2009. Michel Duvert.

Moorland (larrea) is the natural setting for the commons (herriko lurrak), historically open-access territory, where enclosures (borda-barrukiak) were built for livestock and clearings (labakiak or luberriak) opened and regularly burned (lur-erretzea) for maintenance. (more…)

Traditional uses of ferns

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Posted on 2016-02-26 in
Metearen argazkia

Stack of fern. Arrazola (Bizkaia), c. 1960. Jose Antonio Retolaza.

In the past ferns had a great variety of uses. The common bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, a fern species familiar to us all, has tradionally been used for animal bedding in stables. It was harvested in the autumn, when brown, and stored while it was dry. There were different storage methods, stacks of fern, known as ira-metak in the Basque-speaking area of the territory, among others. (more…)

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