The Lavender

July 2024

Around the fifties of the last century and during the months of July and August, a very peculiar activity was carried out in Radiquero, for some now almost forgotten and for young people totally unknown.

It was the harvest and distillation of lavender, named “espigol “in Somontano. It is a wild aromatic plant that was raised in the wastelands and in the mountains, Vallemanzana, Vallebenzas, Capanas, El Tito and other areas. It was harvested by hand with "falz" (sickle) and "zoqueta" (a kind of wooden glove) to protect the other hand, bundles were made and transported on horseback to the location of the boiler.

The activity began with the arrival of a man who came from the company who collected the essence and whom we called the "espigolero". He was in charge of executing the entire process.

In the basement of Broto's old house, the boiler was kept from one year to the next.

By the way, the façade of Casa Broto that faced Calle de Medio was beautiful, with a semicircular arch on the roof and in front of the entrance door, on both sides a brick bench. Above there was a covered terrace with stone railing, a very wide staircase went up fom the courtyard to the kitchen with the fireplace on the floor surrounded by a large “cadiera”  (wooden bench).

The boiler was carried rolling down the street to the village fountain, behind the olive drill. It consisted of two cylindrical parts of the same height and circa one and a half meter in diameter. The upper part was open and the lower part was blind, it was seated in a cavity of stone and clay that served as an oven. In the lower part of the boiler, a sheet with holes served as a grill to separate the water, which would then bake the lavender when the boiler was filled, tightly packed and pressed to take advantage of the volume. The two parts of the boiler, especially the top lid, were then sealed with mud and staples so that there would be no steam leakage.

From the top came a tube that went down vertically to a rectangular pond dug in the ground full of running water from the fountain and the ravine, it entered and left constantly to cool the tube that came and went in a zigzag shape, it was the coil that made the steam liquefy in such a way that the water and the essence in liquid form came out of and it was collected in a metal container. Then the two liquids had to be separated, but since the density of the water is greater than that of the essence, it was not difficult to do so.

At the beginning the lighting of the boiler was done with gorse, dry branches, holm oaks, kermes oaks, then the same cooked lavender that had been taken from the boiler with the iron pitchfork acted as fuel, by the way, very good. On the back was the smoke outlet scraper.

Once this assembly was done, the raw material had to be brought. To this end, it was proclaimed in the surrounding villages that the campaign had already begun. In Radiquero the town criers were the Blasco family. People came from Alberuela, Alquezar, San Pelegrín, Adahuesca and others.

Once the horses were unloaded, the bundles were weighed, which was done with a carrazon (large steelyard balance) suspended from a bar with the seller on one side and the manager on the other supporting the weight. The total weight of the bundles was added and vouchers were issued that were liquidated and collected at the end when people from the company came to collect the essence that had been obtained.

They never gave much information about what they did with it, but it was supposed to be for the pharmaceutical, perfumery, and cosmetics industries, given the multiple applications it has. It was not a great business for those of us who were going to gather since they paid very cheaply, about 1 peseta per kilo, but given that the budgets at that time were very meagre it was still a help that came in handy to people of all these towns, especially if they were expert gatherers, which there were.

During last years the work of manager was carried out by my brother José, (Pepe de Blas), but up to the moment I have not been able to find out exactly how long it lasted, I think until 68 or 69.  They took out the boiler and that was the end of it, I don't either know in what years this activity should have started.

All this has become history.

Nowadays it is a big business like many others, it is cultivated in large areas, in the French Provence, in Spain in Brihuega where hundreds of visitors come to see the blossom of the fields and the entire area of La Alcarria (province of Guadalajara) with thousands of hectares that are sown with care in long rows, They are picked with special harvesters machines and with huge industrial-type stills for distillation. The distilleries themselves market an infinite number of products derived from this.

This writing only aims to maintain the memory of an activity that, like many others, has disappeared from our villages in the hope that one day someone will be able to remember it.