The paddies of Pals - the world’s tiniest rice-growing region
The paddies of Pals – the world’s tiniest rice-growing region
Between the wooded promontory of Cap de Begur and the barren massif of Montgrí lies a broad alluvial plain, fed by the Ter and Daró rivers, where rice has been grown since the fifteenth century, though back then the paddies stretched beyond Montgrí as far as L’Escala.
In early spring, the bare, flooded paddies serve as a perfect mirror of the endless skies above and the snow-capped Pyrenees marching across the horizon to the north. In summer the paddies are transformed into a sea of almost indecently verdant green, while in early autumn, following the harvest, they revert to a rich brown mantle lying voluptuously across the plain, absorbing the late summer sunshine and throwing it back up in a shimmering heat haze. And in winter the fields take on the old gold hue of low, late autumn sun, punctuated by denuded elms and slender cypress trees and visited by vast flocks of screaming seagulls.
Yet behind this bucolic image lies a tale of hardship and grinding poverty, of pestilence and death, or feudalism and revolt, not to mention a morass of political shenanigans. Plus ça change.
Rice-growing in the Pals and Torroella municipalities began at the end of the Middle Ages when it was introduced by the Arabs from Valencia. One of the earliest documented records of this industry is dated 1458 and refers to a flour and rice mill in Empúries; the mill in Pals, which still stands today, was built in 1452 and is one of the oldest mills still in operation in Europe.
The cultivation of rice really took off in the eighteenth century, though this very fact would ultimately lead to its downfall. The population of L’Escala quadrupled as a result of the migrants attracted by jobs in the paddies, rising from a population of 390 in 1718 to 1,383 in 1787, with a corresponding increase in the amount of land under cultivation. This overuse of the land resulted in water stagnating rather than flowing naturally down to the sea, providing the perfect breeding ground for putrefaction, insects and disease. In 1789, the famous traveller and chronicler Francisco de Zamora visited the area and was shocked to witness the hardship and poverty in the region and the number of deaths attributable to the ‘rice fever’, known as tercianes.
In 1792, a ban on rice-growing was decreed during the Great War “due to being the cause of a great many diseases and prejudicial to the health of the troops.” In 1797 attempts were made to reintroduce cultivation but a revolt broke out, headed by a feisty local woman named Gaietana, who, along with the mayor and the local blacksmith, rode up and down the paddies to destroy the crops. Their main complaint was that more thought and care had been given to the troops and their horses billeted in the local towns than to the villagers themselves. Nevertheless, commerce prevailed.
Cultivation resumed in 1836, but between August and January 1837 a dreadful malaria epidemic ravaged the town of L’Escala, killing 408 people – one-fifth of the entire population. The records in the Register of Deaths point unequivocally to the cultivation of rice as the culprit, noting that no other town in the whole of Spain had experienced such a devastating loss of life. Meanwhile, in Torroella some 371 deaths were recorded, when the annual average was 90. The Academy of Medicine and Surgery in Barcelona also attributed these deaths to the rice industry, and rice-growing was banned again on 8 August 1837 in the interests of public health.
In 1853 the ban was reiterated, though some farmers continued to grow arros de secà (upland or rain-dependent rice). With the discovery of quinine it was recommended that local councils should get stocks in to stimulate the sector, but it was not until the end of the century that rice-growing would be adopted seriously again, at the instigation of Pere Coll i Rigau.
The lavishly-moustachioed Coll i Rigau was a native of Torroella who had left at the tender age of 13 to try his luck in Cuba along with so many other Catalan emigrants at that time. Over the years he amassed a vast fortune, specializing in the production and sale of matches and breaking the Spanish monopoly by exporting directly to North America. When he returned to the land of his birth in 1894, he was determined to reintroduce rice-growing, buying the Mas Gelabert farmhouse which came with a large tract of abandoned paddies and marshes, some of which fell under the jurisdiction of Torroella de Montgrí.
He moved heaven and earth to implement his project and was finally granted permission to plant in 1890. His idea was to introduce the latest rice-growing techniques, such as constantly flowing water, a system of irrigation channels with sluice gates, and thorough cleaning of the channels in the fallow months. However, his plans were swift to attract controversy. In early 1899, when the Girona press announced his intentions, it provoked huge opposition from the residents of neighbouring Torroella, who still remembered the ravages of malaria, to the point that the town council resigned en masse in protest. Coll rapidly became public enemy number one; people gathered outside his home, stoning it and preventing his carriage from leaving. Even so, he persevered, with the result that two bitterly opposing factions sprang up – on the one hand, his supporters, who organized themselves into the Sindicat Arrosser de l’Empordà de Pals; and on the other, his opponents, who formed themselves into the Local Association Against Malaria of Torroella, whose members ranged from Republicans to conservative Catalans.
The Diario de Girona reported on 8 June 1900 that “the conflict caused in Torroella de Montgrí by the Royal Decree authorizing the cultivation of rice is taking a turn for the worse. The villages of Ullà, Verges, Albons, Bellcaire, Gualta and L’Escala have all joined the protest.” The whole uneasy situation came to a head in 1906 when an increase in malaria-related fevers was identified. On 2 September, more than 800 people demonstrated in Torroella, chanting the slogans “Long Live the King – Death to Rice” and “Long Live Public Health”.
One of the leading opponents of rice-growing was Robert de Robert, the Count of Serra i Sant Iscle, who in January 1907 became the district’s candidate for the Conservative party. He wrote to the then-prime minister Antonio Maura to report his “profound alarm at the effects of malaria caused by rice-growing” and set out in no uncertain terms exactly what needed to be done if he wanted to hold on to the district of Torroella in the upcoming elections, against the looming challenge of the Solidaritat Catalana party – in other words, to ban rice-growing forthwith. Robert also enlisted the support of the civil governor of Girona in his campaign, Manuel Morero, who sent another letter to Maura calling for his help in “averting this imminent conflict and preventing the sowing of rice at the end of March.”
On 23 February 1907, the Conservative government headed by Antonio Maura passed a Royal Decree stating “the growing of rice in Torroella de Montgrí and other municipalities in the area known as Bajo Ampurdán is hereby prohibited”. However, Robert de Robert’s delight was short-lived. One month later, the government retracted its ban. It turned out that the people behind the rice project had influence in high places and managed to persuade the government to set up a commission to determine the optimum conditions for growing the crop. When canvassed for the report, the residents of Torroella painted a very black picture indeed, while those of Pals were much more positively inclined.
Robert de Robert failed to inform the people of Torroella of the government’s increasing bias in favour of the rice-growers to make sure he would win his seat at the elections as the great saviour of public health. Furthermore, the candidate for the Solidaritat Catalunya party, Josep Torras Sampol, was branded as a “foreigner” by the locals simply because his mother had sought permission to grow rice.
Given the situation, the district of Torroella was one of the very few in Catalonia in which a Solidaritat candidate lost his seat in the general elections of 1907. The conspiracy based on the premise of malaria enabled the Conservative government to hold on to an electoral district. The whole episode was a monumental con – rice-growing started up again just a few months later and continued apace through to the late 1950s, when the agricultural sector went into a sharp decline with the advent of tourism and its associated service industries. Quite understandably, working in a bar or a restaurant held far more appeal than standing for hours, bent double, in water. However, rice growing was never completely abandoned and a few families persevered through to the present day by introducing mechanization and putting an emphasis on quality.
Today there are three main producers: Arròs Molí de Pals, www.arrosmolidepals.com, Arròs l’Estany de Pals, www.arrosestanydepals.cat and Arròs l’Avi Trias, www.arrosdepals.com, all of which are sold under the Arròs de Pals trademark. Pals rice has always been renowned for its high quality; indeed, as far back as 1794, a leading French trader, M. Lipp, wrote “the Empordà plain is a land of mashes, especially around Torroella de Montgrí, that produces excellent quality rice which is stronger, whiter and tastier than any produced in Lombardy, Valencia or the Carolinas.” Pals rice is still famed for its ability to remain intact during cooking, and even the most inept cook would have difficulty in turning out a less-than-perfect rice dish. It is the rice of choice of Michelin-starred chefs such as Joan Roca at the 3-star Celler de Can Roca, Pere Massana at his eponymous restaurant in Girona, and Quim Casellas at Casamar in Llafranc. None of the three producers’ output is exported, so if you’re visiting this is the only chance you’ll have to buy some locally to take back with you.
Arròs de Pals is not only the trademark but also the name of the most ubiquitous local rice dish. The rice itself may be white, but the dish is dark, dense and sticky. It is cooked and served in a traditional high-sided metal or earthenware pot, tinted deep brown by caramelized onions and squid ink, studded with slightly charred pork ribs and sausages and plump, tender chunks of cuttlefish. It should be accompanied by a bottle of full-bodied red wine in winter, or a condensation-pearled jug of sangria in summer, and followed by a siesta of at least two hours.
Varieties:
Bahia: short-grain pearl rice. Cultivation of this traditional variety has declined quite significantly in recent years. It is ideal for the more broth-type rice dishes.
Tebre: short-grain pearl rice. For many years this was the most widely-grown variety in Pals. It is ideal for boiling and casseroles.
Jsendra: short-grain pearl rice. This modern variety has ousted the Tebre and Bahia varieties and is currently the most widely-grown rice, being perfect for boiling and casseroles.
Loto/Nembo: medium-grain white rice. This fast-growing rice is ideal for ‘dry’ rice dishes (salads, arroz a la cubana, sautés, side dishes and the dryer Valencian-style paellas).
Bomba: short-grain pearl rice. This is an old and not very productive variety but is much esteemed by cooks and gourmets. It is ideal for making paellas, casseroles and broth-style calderetes.
Carnaroli: medium-grain pearl rice. The quintessential Italian rice is not especially productive either, but even so it is much sought-after for risottos, rice puddings or boiled rice dishes.
Akita Komachi: medium-grain white rice. This organically-grown Japanese rice is perfect for sushi, though at present production is still very limited.
Sowing takes place from late April to early May, and harvesting between late September and late October.
Pals Rice
Ingredients for 4 servings:
· 400 g Pals rice
· 400 g cuttlefish chunks
· 8 prawns or langoustines
· 150 g clams
· 200 g chicken pieces
· 200 g rabbit pieces
· 8 sausages
· 100 g peas
· 2 finely-chopped onions
· 3 ripe tomatoes
· 4 finely-chopped cloves garlic
· Parsley
· 1.5 litres fish stock or fumet
Preparation:
In a separate pan, heat the fish stock to a simmer, keeping it on a low heat.
In a large, high-sided casserole, fry the prawns or langoustines briefly in a splash of olive oil, then remove and keep aside. In the same oil, fry the chicken, rabbit and sausages until golden, then remove and keep aside. Add the garlic and onion and as soon as they start turning golden, add the tomato and slow-fry until you have a dark – but not burnt! - sofregit. Finally, add the cuttlefish and cook over a low heat for 20-30 minutes, adding a little stock if necessary to loosen.
When the cuttlefish is cooked through, return the meat to the casserole along with the peas, a ladle of stock and a pinch of salt. At this point, add the clams, rice and the remaining stock. After about 5 minutes, add the prawns or langoustines, stir well, and cook for another 5 minutes until the rice is al dente. Put a lid or a clean cloth over the casserole and leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Take a tour of the paddies with El Xiulet!
Whether you’re visiting or a resident, you shouldn’t miss the chance to take the charming little land train, El Xiulet, around the paddy fields for an up-close insight into the entire process of rice production, not to mention the sweeping ‘big sky’ vistas across the paddies and marshlands from the sea to the Pyrenees. Visit http://www.elxiuletdepals.com/en/schedule/ for tour dates and times (they also run tours of the Gothic Quarter of Pals and the nearby medieval villages).
Alternatively, take a walk through the Basses d’en Coll, a completely flat, protected wetland between Mas Gelabert and the sea that consists of three distinct habitats: rice paddies, marshes and dunes. The area is a haven for wildlife, especially kingfishers, moorhens, mallards, egrets, storks and herons. Below your feet, the irrigation channels are full of mosquitofish, slipping silently like dark wraiths through the barely-moving water, a pair of fleshy lips occasionally breaking the surface.