Bulls and Olive Oil

 11-May-2022

Today was a big day.  We learned where two of the most important items of Spanish culture originate; fighting bulls and olive oil.

First the bulls.

He's no Ferd'nand.
Needless to say we didn't get out of the bus.

Usually on  these tours we see the story of something that you knew about already.  Wine comes from grapes etc.  But the bull story is a new one.

Our bull farm belongs to a bullfighter named Rafael Tajeda. Raf knew that he would be out of the bullfighting game eventually so he started a farm to raise fighting bulls. There is a small ring where they study potential breeding sources but the trick is, they  only  test the COWS!
If you put a bull in a ring once, he knows the routine and is too dangerous to put in a ring again.  

When a bull goes into a bullfight, that's the first time he has ever seen a bull ring.
To determine breeding decisions, they put the cows in a ring and see which ones have the desirable traits to produce good bulls.

Rafael stopped by to show us his scars and answer questions. Bulls are usually killed at the end of the fight but Rafael says  that sometimes the bull does  such an impressive display that the crowd demands his life is spared.  If this happens, the bull gets to retire to the farm and crank out little bulls. This happens the old fashioned way, no artificial insemination like the horses.

We'll hear about them tomorrow.

We even got to see the Toreador training room where Barney and Bernice tried out the bull simulator.  Barney says he would have let her live.  Bernice says she would have gored him.

 

Next stop was a place called Oleum Viride,  a family owned organic farm and olive mill.

Louis took us around and explained in great detail how the process works. I always thought olives are pressed to produce oil.  Nope.  The oil is extracted in a multi step process with centrifuges that spin the mush from crushed olives to get the oil.  This must be done in less than 4 hours or the olives  go bad.  Once extracted the oil is stored in tanks with nitrogen to keep out the air.  After packaging the oil must be protected from light and air to keep the taste.

The bottom line is that you are consuming crappy  olive oil.

Louis and his family spent a lot of time during the Covid lockdown developing various flavored olive oil blends  The Model bought a lot of it.

After the tour the family provided a picnic where we had a lovely meal and tried out Louis' wine and Vermouth.  Spanish Vermouth isn't like the stuff we use to make martinis, it's made with red wine and flavored with spices. 
I didn't like it.