Perhaps the pepper is the best known product of our region, at least, it's the one eich most kilometers has come down to reach us and the more miles accumulates once when leaves the kind orchards that stand between the rivers Ulla and Sar. Pimientos de Herbón-Padrón, an American story.
Because current year is the Franciscan jubilee year, we recall that the missionaries assigned to the order of Assisi were who introduced the rich seeds of this vegetables in the sixteenth century; it is no coincidence that these children were as lead-friars this bridge between America and Galicia.
Shortly consolidate his power in Mesoamerica, Hernán Cortés request of the metropolis a lot of friars to begin the process of evangelization and cultural assimilation of Indian tribes that occupied the territory of present Mexico and US California. The mendicant order was the largest of the Church of the time and answered the call evangelization. Although the eradication of the language, customs and religion of the indigenous native was a fact, the Franciscans were involved when it comes to know the customs and usages of the tribes.
Fatima Gordillo in Teknlife.com collects the written words of Sahagun in his "General History of the Things of New Spain"
The Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, disguised seller peppers, so poor that he was completely naked, to woo the daughter of the lord of Tula (the Toltec capital), Huemac. Inflamed by passion, burns hot as a chili pepper in the mouth, she fell ill, so that the great king was left with no choice but to marry his daughter with pepper to heal. The devotion of Mesoamerican culture pepper deities included among its "respectable lady red chile", named as unpronounceable as Tlatlauhqui-cihuatl-ichilzintli. Sister of Tlaloc, god of rain, Lady red chile required a fast based chilies in preparation to celebrate certain rituals.
Mesoamerican hunter-gatherers appreciated chiles and to preserve food quality very quickly. Researchers have had to dip into archaeobotany techniques to deduce that the chili was cultivated for over 9,000 years. Chilli peppers that most grown in Herbón-Padrón resemble developed in the central-eastern part of Mexico today. Archaeological, botanical and linguistic research concluded that the origin of this fruit was in Bolivia but the current systematization of its cultivation was refined much further north.
Tradition has it that the first Franciscans who returned from the New World brought with them the seeds of this product as appreciated by the indigenous communities they left behind.
The spicy taste of this vegetable made in Spain was known as "pepper" because the flavor reminded them of the paprika kind from India. Gone was its original name, chili, began a new life for peppers.
The adaptation of the new plant was not an easy task. American ground conditions not find an equivalent in Europe but again were the Franciscans who found a solution to the viability of this plant in our shire. When the order occupied the Convent of Herbón, introduced this plant in the open valley between the river Ulla and Sar.
Soil and climatic conditions were favorable for this delicate species but their success was not immediate. Far from it. If religious settled in the sixteenth century, it was not until the eighteenth century that we find evidence of trade in dry or ground pepper was a source of regular income for farmers in the area. Two hundred years of care and cultivation were required to undertake a large-scale production. The resulting species was different from his American mother, smaller, with a milder flavor and less spicy, pepper of Herbón-Padrón recognized acquired its own personality.
Register now about 14 hectares of greenhouse cultivation of pepper, and about 20 hectares of land dedicated outdoors. Annual production is approximately 1.3 million kilos.
Like the best things in life, a pepper is very simple to prepare: you have to fry in plenty of oil, remove it from the pan when it starts to turn dark green, leave a moment on paper towels so that the oil is absorbed and cover it with abundant salt. Accompanied by corn bread and a glass of red wine perhaps -for if we touch the itchy-is one of the quintessential summer dishes in Galicia.
The taste of summer is green, and enjoying the original Padrón.
