Daniel Gritzer

Elia and Vicente have one horse on their farm, a beautiful yet slightly overweight mare that they ironically named Furia for her tranquil nature. Furia grazes in a large grass field where she moves too little and eats too much. She is well trained for riding, but with all the demands of the farm they [...]

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Yesterday we returned from a two-day adventure in the mountains of Asturias, the region directly east of Galicia. Pablo and his friend Brais had decided to go hiking for the day and they invited me, Vanessa, and Hanna, a wwoofer from Germany, to join them. We set off in Brais’ car, crossing into Asturias and [...]

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Imagine the witches in Hamlet hunched over their cauldron chanting the following words:
Mouchos, coruxas, sapos e bruxas.
Demos, trasnos e dianhos, espiritos das nevoadas veigas.
Corvos, pintigas e meigas, feitizos das mencinheiras.
Pobres canhotas furadas, fogar dos vermes e alimanhas…
The incantation goes on, but that’s the basic idea. It’s in Gallego, the regional language of Galicia, and it [...]

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My second attempt at an emapanada gallega.

The word Empanada is used throughout the Spanish-speaking world, yet the food it describes varies considerably from one country to the next. Generally, an empanada is a filled dough (from empanar, to roll with bread), but the dough, the filling, its shape, size, and how it is cooked are [...]

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I first learned of Galicia’s Pimientos de Padron while reading an essay by Calvin Trillin. He ranks the Pimiento de Padron as one of his favorite foods that can’t be found outside of its place of origin.
Trillin had my curiosity peaked, but I have to admit that I wasn’t convinced a pepper could be so [...]

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Before arriving at Finca As Fadegas in Galicia I told Vanessa that there were two specialties from the region we had to eat or I would consider our visit an absolute failure. One of the two, pimientos de padron, we ate at lunch on the day we arrived. That accomplished, I turned my attention to [...]

After catching a train from Burgundy to Paris, then a flight to Madrid and finally an overnight bus, we are now at Finca As Fadegas, a farm near Ribadeo, Galicia on the north-eastern coast of Spain’s north-western-most region. Green mountains abut the shore, so that if you are even a short distance inland it is [...]

Our last night at La Mothe was a special one. After two solid weeks of entertaining, all guests had departed and we three wwoofers (me, Vanessa, and Jeanine) were able to sit down to dinner with Didier and Evelyne alone. Even though Evelyne had cared for guests without rest, she prepared a dinner that went [...]

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Musseron, from which the English word “mushroom” is derived
There is a cassette recording of me when I am very young, not more than four years old, where my father, in an attempt to entertain me during a car ride, tells me of a drink called “cheese juice.” For the remainder of the recording all you [...]

I grew up being dragged to flea markets and antique shops by my mom. When she and her sister Sue were together it was even more certain we would spend hours riffling through dusty old artifacts, and I learned how to pass the time without too much discomfort. I almost never find anything I want, [...]