A fête worse than death?

´A fête worse than death´ is the last thing that can be said about the folkloric festivals and feasts in and around Tarragona. There is such an enormous variety, great and small, modern and traditional, low-impact and high-impact, musical and gastronomical, religious and pagan, winter and summer, that everyone will find some event they like. The province´s tourist service publishes a guide of all festivals, with dates, places and descriptions, that should be the starting point for any tourist or visitor who wants to experience something more. A shortlist of what there is on offer:

1. Gastronomic festivals such as the calçotada festivities in the capital of calçots (barbecued spring onions dipped in romesco sauce, if you are new to this local delicatessen), Valls, in January; the cherry festival in Miravet in June; the ´sindriada´, a night-time watermelon festival in Llorenç del Penedès in August;

2. Winter festivals such as the Tres Tombs (or, Three Circuits) in Valls

3. Holy week celebrations, with some of the most spectacular occurring in Tarragona and in a little place called Vilalba dels Arcs;

4. Pilgrimages and holy processions such as the Mare de Déu de l ´Aigua (´Holy Mother of God of the Water´) procession in Siurana;

5. Bull festivals in the Ebro valley, completely unique to Catalonia;

6. Fire & Water festivals, with traditions such as the San Joan bonfire and fireworks in every city and village; and the feast of Sant Magí in Tarragona on the 18th of August when miraculous water is brought on horse-driven carts from the village of Sant Magí de Brufaganya to Tarragona;

7. Historical re-enactments such as the Renaissance festival of Tortosa, the Siege at Miravet (narrating the story of the Knights Templar), Tarraco Via and a Moorish festival in Móra d´Ebre;

8. Patron Saint´s festivities all year round but especially in the warmer months, with the Santa Tecla festival of Tarragona and its giants, large-headed dwarfs, ´devil dancers´, mythical beasts, castells (or, human towers) and pyrotechnics as one of Catalonia´s best patron saint festivities worth experiencing for its folkloric richness.

And the list goes on and on. Bored will be the last thing you´ll be. Check out the brochure on this site. The Santa Tecla festival has its own website.

Do you fancy red pepper marmalade?

For a listing of the best agrobotigas or farm shops of the region, with the widest range of locally produced foods, drinks and other natural produce, check out the following government website dedicated to agriculture and food.

Here you´ll find addresses, websites (not all of them have websites though) and a sampling of what they have on sale. They are by and large located in the countryside, in villages and small towns with a strong tradition of agricultural co-operatives. Apart from the mainstay of wines and oils in all their wonderful varieties and from all the different D.O.´s of the Tarragona province, there are also a number of more exotic products on sale, ranging from olive-oil shampoo, almond flour, onion jam, red pepper marmalade, chocolate and orange marmalade, thyme honey and sugarfree turrón. These agrobotigas are essential stopping-off points whenever you are travelling through the local countryside.

The Land of Hazelnuts

An unmistakeable marker in the landscape of Tarragona and its surrounding comarcas (portrayed above in an early 20th-century painting by Joaquin Mir, a lover of the local landscape in and around l´Aleixar and Alforja) is the hazelnut plantation. An amazing 90% (!) of all Spanish-grown hazelnuts are produced on the small hazelnuts farms - thousands of them - of this region, especially in the Camp de Tarragona lowlands. A 600-year old tradition, hazelnut cultivation spread by the late 19th century to replace the vineyards wiped out by the great wine blight. Now there is another blight sweeping the region: Turkish competition. The biggest world producer of hazelnuts is flooding nowadays even the Spanish domestic market, so local growers have been working hard on raising the quality of their product. The first major step in this direction was the creation in 1995 of the DOP Avellanes de Reus (Denominación de Origen Protegida - or, in English, Protected designation of Origin); worldwide there is just one other hazelnut-producing region that has this same quality label.

The nutritional and health benefits of hazelnuts have been demon-

strated by several scientific studies: it is a source of protein, carbohydrates, vitamin E, antioxidants, minerals and a fat content that is primarily oleic acid. Most hazelnuts end up in the confectionery industry - worth mentioning is turrón, an ancient and artisanal nougat that comes in many varieties. But the gastronomy of hazelnut goes far beyond confectionery, sweet deserts (like hazelnut cream) and the well-known hazelnut romesco sauce. Top restaurants in the region like Falset´s Celler de l´Aspic or La Gigantea in La Selva del Camp offer dishes such as langoustine salad with hazelnuts and green Benac tomatoes or with hazelnut bread and aubergine mousse. Step into any of the region´s better agrobotigas or farm shops - usually in villages with an active cooperative - and you´ll find a range a hazelnut-derived produce: hazelnut spread (puré de avellanas tostadas); hazelnut oil (e.g. from Reus-based Afruse S.L.) - sold both as an edible oil great for adding flavour to a dish and as an essential oil for aromatherapy and massage -; hazelnut horchata which is a creamy, refreshing drink that can be served as an aperitive; etc.

Now a new quality label has been introduced under the name of ´Productes Locals de Qualitat - Camp de Tarragona i Terres de l´Ebre´ (PLQ, in short), bringing together not just hazelnuts (DOP Reus) and quality wines and oils but also peaches (IGP Ribera), bluefish (MQ Peix Blau), rice (DOP Delta de l ´Ebre), clementines (IGP Terres de l ´Ebre), potatoes (IGP Prades), calçots (IGP Valls) and honey (Perrellò). No better place to start sampling these gastronomic goodies than in one of the many fairs that are celebrated year-round in the region. The small village of Riudoms near Reus will soon - during the second weekend of August - celebrate its annual Hazelnut Fair, the meeting point for all local hazelnut fanatics.