As you drive along the short stretch of dual carriageway that links Valencia in eastern Spain with the beaches of El Saler in late May or early June, you soon notice what appears to be a field bright green cricket in dire need of trimming. They are the rice fields of the Albufera, one of the largest in Spain and part of an area that was, in Roman times, the most productive agricultural region in the then known world.
Take a ride on one of the boats, long wooden boats plying the lake, with their bright umbrellas shading the blazing sun’s heat, and get a close-up view of the dense ‘islands’ of reeds, known locally as mattress. There are six of these islets, where herons ride majestically, and above you flutter cattle egrets, mallards, mallards and wigeons, some of the 250 species that visit the Albufera, ninety of which use it as a nesting place.
The boatman will point out the towns that ring the lake in the distance – Valencia, Alfafara, Silla, Benifai – shimmering at the edge of the twenty-five square kilometer expanse of water, but the density of deep green that ripples across the prow hides the fact that, should you go overboard in most of the lake, it would barely cover your knees.
The lagoon, one of the largest in the Mediterranean, receives around eight times more water each year than it can hold without flooding the surrounding area and these days large gates control the flow of water into the sea, without the salt water flow in the opposite direction. address.
The Romans first colonized the Albufera, but it was with the introduction of rice by the Arabs in the 15th century that large areas of the lake were drained for agricultural purposes. Rice farmers did not have a healthy or long life. Due to the infectious diseases inherent in cultivation, few lived to the age of 60 and disease and death led to the depopulation of the area, which was not helped by a series of bans on cultivation.
Most of the agricultural workers were Moriscos, Moriscos who had converted to Christianity at the time of Jaime I, and they were responsible for the design of the high-peaked huts, barrackswith its steeply sloping roof covered with two layers of densely packed reeds from the mattressand its low side walls, supposedly because at that time no one slept in beds, everyone slept on the floor.
the oldest barracks in the Albufera it is only 150 years old, but they still preserve the original lines, including the small cross at the apex of the roof that the Moors placed in times of religious persecution to declare that it was a Christian house -although what they felt in their hearts was their deal.
As the lake was reclaimed for rice production, fishing declined, although it remains an important part of commercial life in the Albufera. Perch, mullet and sea bass are the main catches, but the pearl of the lagoon is the freshwater eel, found in all the local restaurants like everything that pebblesa rich stew in which a paste of almonds, garlic, saffron and parsley is mixed with the broth in which the eel is cooked.
Nature reserve, fishing preserve, duck hunter’s paradise, the Albufera means different things to different people, but there’s no escaping the fact that rice is king and it should come as no surprise that that icon of Spanish cuisine, the Paella It had its origin in the rice fields of Valencia.
