Rum Distilling Equipment La Palma has a small rum factory, at Puerto Espí,ndola, in the borough of San Andres y Sauces. Unlike most rum factories, they start with sugar cane rather than molasses. After all, La Palma had commercial sugar cane plantations in the 15th century, before the West Indies had them. At harvesting season, the factory’s south building smells of sugar cane being crushed and fermented. Distillation happens in…
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…
It’s World Book Day, the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and Cervantes’s death. And as usual, La Palma is celebrating. There will be kiosks selling books all along the Calle Real in Santa Cruz (the main street, parallel to the sea front). I’m happy to say that a couple of them have my own book. The Cabildo (island government) will be leaving books scattered over the island for anyone to pick…
Carnival traditionally ends with a funeral for a sardine. Lots of places hold sardine’s funerals and they’re all deliciously silly. Even better, many of them are held well after carnival, on a vatriety of dates, so you can go to several of them without collapsing from exhaustion. The most famous one on the island is at Los Sauces tonight, starting at 9pm. Tazacorte’s sardine is also tonight, starting at (I…
Here’s a short video of Los Sauces Sardine’s funeral, 2012 It’s not a properly edited video, but if I wait until I’ve had chance to do that, I might be waiting forever. Enjoy! On Friday night, El Llanito in Breña Alta (between San Pedtro and Las Ledas) will be holding their sardine’s funeral at 9 pm. And on Saturday at 9:30 pm, Los Sauces will be holding their sardine’s funeral, with a…
The sardine’s funeral in Los Sauces had a Roman theme this year. As always, the bier was carried by lots of humans (rather than a lorry) and they danced it through the streets and around the square. Los Sauces has the reputation of putting on a much better sardine’s funeral than Santa Cruz, and I think it’s true. Of course it’s self-perpetuating. People make more effort to get to the…