If you write the 14th of March American style, you get 3.14, so American geeks call it “Pi Day” and generally celebrate by eating pie. This strikes me as silly and arbitrary an excuse to eat pie. So of course we celebrate it. I don’t cook pie often because pastry is a bit of a faff on and cleaning up afterwards is worse. One of the few exceptions is Pi…
The persimmons are ripe. On La Palma, persimmons are called Kaki or Sharon, and I believe the tree comes from Asia originally. They’re much nicer when really ripe. The catch is that by the time they’re ready for eating, they’ve gone squishy, so they don’t travel well. Personally, I love them with Greek yoghurt.
Today is Canary Day. Like the national day in most places, it’s an excuse for lots of patriotism. So here’s a picture of some traditional Canarian food – wrinkly potatoes. As you can see, they’re small potatoes, cooked in their skins. Actually they’re boiled in very salty water – you can use sea water – for at least 20 minutes, then allowed to dry with the remaining heat. They…
The Cistercian convent of the Holy Trinity at Buenavista in Breña Alta is surprisingly new. It was founded in 1946, and it’s the only closed order on the island. I was surprised to find out that there are only ten nuns who live there. The convent has a small shop. I first went there about ten years ago, in search of a rosary made of dragon-tree seeds, for a Catholic…
This is the Rabbit’s Foot Fern Davallia canariensis, which likes to grow in the warmer and damper parts of the island. It particularly likes dry stone walls, barrel-tile roofs and cliffs. As you can see, the name comes from the root, which is very pretty. I believe that the Awara used to make gofio from it, and so did more modern Palmerans when there was nothing better available, although I’m…
Yams (ñame in Spanish) are a relative of sweet potatoes. They need a lot of water to grow, so they’re only cultivated in Los Sauces and inside the Caldera. You can recognise a yam patch easily, because they have huge leaves shaped like elephants ears. The root has to be boiled for hours, so you usually buy them from the supermarket already cooked.Then, traditionally, you serve them with honey or…