Cuenca

This morning, as I was leaving Graja De Iniesta, disappointed that I hadn’t found a Café to stop and rest in, I saw a group of women, all dressed in purple and with hair nets on. They were crossing the road in front of me. I asked them what they were doing, and the yexplained that they had just finished their Almuerzo and were heading back to work in the mushroom barns. I asked if I could possibly take a peek inside, I had passed so many of these big industrial buildings with a name indicating that mushrooms were somehow involved with the enterprise, and I was curious.

One of the shift leaders came over and told me she would love to give me a tour. So in I went. No hairnet needed because of my hat.

It was really fascinating. The women doing the picking were in little cages that went up and down and back-and-forth to the different rows of mushrooms, which were growing in long tubs about 4’ wide, 4 or 5 on top of each other. Each one of these tubs was full of bright white mushrooms of different sizes The women had their instructions for the day about which size to pick. They all have a set of measuring circles to make sure they pick the right size. They work until the order is filled, but usually ends around one or 2 PM.

The mushrooms take about three months from seedling to final product, so they are always cycling the growing schedules to make sure there are always mushrooms ready to harvest. In this factory, they sell to fruterías in the region, and to Mercadona and Lidl nationwide. Mushrooms that don’t quite meet up to their standards get sent down the road to a place that cans and bottles them. All picking and stem slicing is done by hand. The rest of the process is automated, filling a plastic container with a green or red indicator to show whether there are too many or too few mushrooms in the container.

I met one of the owners of this huge business. He was about 40, and he told me that his father started the business 50 years ago, growing mushrooms in caves nearby. And now this has evolved so that their barns replicate cave conditions. Most important is the temperature control. He told me that they are probably the only agricultural endeavor in this part of Spain that remains totally unaffected by the drought. I told him he should consider opening up the place for tours, and he said he would be glad to show any Peregrino around if the time was right.

The shift leader took me outside and told me that the three brothers who are now the owners are there working in the assembly line every day. In fact, the one I met had been driving a forklift filled with pallets of mushrooms. All workers are dressed in purple fleeces, pants, shirts, etc. Courtesy of the company. She says she really likes her job.

Shortly after this tour, the Camino took me through almond groves. There was a man working in the fields, so I asked him how things were going. He said that the main problems he’s having is not so much the lack of rain now, but the damage done by a hard freeze on April 5, And now the damage being done by the pulgon, which is some kind of bug that sucks all the liquid out of the leaves in the branches. He ended our conversation by echoing a very common complaint from the people I’ve talked to, which is that the price the farmer gets is pitiful and he’s not sure how much longer he can continue. But then he said with a shrug, but I’ve been here all my life, what else would I do?

So, with my agricultural lessons concluded, I walked a little further to find a good resting place, so that I could begin my remaining 20 km feeling rested and refreshed. But what a great way to break up the day.Read more