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Photo credit: Itziar Rotaetxe. Labayru Fundazioa Photography Archive.

Life at the traditional farmstead revolved around what the land needed and provided at each time of the year. And autumn is apple season. Time to harvest the fruit. Each year is different and yields are better in some than others. This has been one of them. We now have to work out what to with such a glut of apples. So, we make apple compote, eat them fresh from the tree or even share them out among our friends, so the apples do not rot.

In the past, cider was made on most farmsteads and where cider was produced, pitikin or ciderkin was usually made as well. Alejandro Olabarria, from the Udiaga neighbourhood of Orozko, still makes ciderkin. That is what he had already seen at home and what he continues to do year after year. One of his uncles, it seems, used to make cider, but that was before Alejandro’s time. He remembers that there was a time when apples used to be sold to a wholesaler from Basauri. The apples were taken down to the town in a cart pulled by oxen and were then transported by car to Basauri. He also remembers apples being sold to private customers at a flat rate per apple and they had to pick them.

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