A taste of home

More trees today.  




The Aleppo Pine comes in as third and is a species of tree that is native to the Mediterranean. It was once commonly tapped for its resin, which was used to make airtight seals on caskets of wine, preventing the wine from spoiling while also imparting a unique resinous flavor and aroma.

The Scots Pine is a bit more intriguing.  Should you want to know more about the planting of these and their growths I suggest this article.  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168192315000829   It is commonly used in the sawn timber industry.   The top five tree types used are Scots pine, Salzmann pine, European oak, sweet chestnut and poplar are the most common Spanish grown species used in structures as sawn timber. The most common imported species for construction are Norway spruce and European oak.

One of the surprises is common hawthorn.  I always imagine that it is a general thing for English hedges,   It’s 12th on our Teruel list,  When looking up for this I thought I would check details and found this site and a map.  https://sensationalspain.com/spanish-tree-names/






Our final tree for the day is one for all slo gin fans, the Blackthorn.  This then threw up the rabbit hole of Spanish gin.  We still have several bottles of somewhat weird and wonderful bottles of Spanish gin which had been knocking about in the shop since the age of the peseta - we bought it in the mid 2010s.  Not enough information is available so this is the general gist of it,  What does that have to do with Spain?    Apparently during the 1700s, the when Menorca was part of the British Empire they begin making a taste of home.  When the British abandoned the island in 1802, the people of Menorca developed the recipe with what was available - eg gra[es. They produce alcohol from fermenting cereals, adding juniper berries for flavor and aroma. This is one of the reasons the Menorcan gin is unique to this area and has its own D.O., Gin de Mahón.  

Tomorrow, a settlement.








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