Olive oil: an olive oil lover's guide to the organic oils of spain

The new Green Earth Guide to the organic olive oils of Spain is now available on Amazon!

Olive Oil: An Olive Oil Lover’s Guide to the Organic Oils of Spain
is for any connoisseur or lover of olive oils. Passionate about olive oil, Dorian Yates, author of the award-winning Green Earth Guide series to traveling naturally and ecologically in Europe takes you on a tour of the abundant, fresh olive oils produced organically in Spain. Olive Oil includes historical and cultural information, growing and processing techniques, as well as full listings of over forty oils. Her mouth-watering guide to Spain’s organic olive oils makes you want to break out the dipping bread and start tasting.

Buy the book and start tasting the over forty delicious oils listed in the Guide. Some of them are available in the United States, others you will have to travel to Spain to enjoy.

Slow Food Spain

Last week, "alive" food. This week slow….. and not as in eating snails (even though that is the Slow Food logo) and sloths, but rather, slow as in the promotion of whole food meals prepared fresh from local and seasonal foods.

In Spain, the Slow Food Farm-to-Table project, called Km 0, certifies restaurants serving local, organic and indigenous foods that have come from farms less than 100 km (62 miles) away. Close to sixty restaurants around Spain have been recognized as Km 0. The highest concentration of Km 0 restaurants are in the Catalonia and Basque regions. The rest are scattered around the country. A couple are listed specifically in the Green Earth Guide to Spain—Kimpira in Valencia and Gaia in Sevilla.

Founded in Italy twenty-two years ago, the Slow Food movement mission is five-fold—to defend food biodiversity, safeguard the environment, advocate sustainable agriculture, protect small producers and their communities, and foster the gastronomic traditions of the world. Within that broad purpose, Slow Food has many projects including Farm to Table/Km 0 and the Ark of Taste. For restaurants in Spain to be accepted in the Km 0 program they must serve at least 5 dishes on their menu made avoiding GMO foods and with a minimum of 40% ingredients from local producers and 60% from foods that are organic or identified in the Ark of Taste project. The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity Ark of Taste project catalogs and promotes indigenous foods at risk of extinction. More than 900 foods from fifty countries have been identified so far. In Spain this includes seventy-nine foods—some olive oils, olives, fruits, vegetables, herbs, cheeses, meat, fish, grains and wines. Restaurants are reviewed annually to make sure they are maintaining compliance with the Km 0 requirements.

Thanks to Slow Food España for administrating the Km 0 project and for providing the list of Km 0 participating restaurants. To find the Spanish restaurants approved as Km 0 visit the new 2010-2011 list of restaurants, organized alphabetically by city:
http://cocineros.slowfood.es/2010/12/09/restaurantes-km-0-edicion-2010-2011/

Public Toilets in Madrid, A Rare Breed

A heads up for those traveling to the capital of Spain and hoping for public toilets. While public toilets are fairly plentiful in Paris and other European cities, Madrid seems to fall short even compared with its somewhat rival city, Barcelona. As the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported, there are only thirty-seven supposed public toilets around the city and of these at least eleven are said to be out of order- some for as long as four years!! This brings the number down to twenty-five public toilets in a city of over forty million people not counting the tourists.

It appears that these concrete structures are valued more for the advertising space they provide than the functional purpose of allowing people to relieve themselves. So when in Madrid, best to consider cafes or the train stations as your best source of toilets, and make use of the museum facilities while there. If you do find a working public toilet make sure you have the necessary .30¢ euros for entry. For more on public toilets while traveling in Europe see Toilets and Traveling.

Green Earth Guide to Spain goes YouTube.....

Here is the Green Earth Guide: Traveling Naturally in Spain - the video version. Watch it, buy the book, travel green and pass it on.... leaving small footprints wherever you go.....

I hope you enjoy the images in this short video - so many amazing sites and not enough room in any book to share them.....

Many thanks!

Always on the Hunt for Good Bread - Success in Valencia Spain!

While I have found some wonderful bakeries making traditional and artisanal breads in Paris, Barcelona, Barcelona again and Madrid (see posts), I had yet to find any such bread makers in Valencia.

While Valencia is dotted with bakeries, it suffers as does the rest of Spain from a shortage of what I would categorize as really good bread. Happily I discovered serendipitously a bakery just off the Plaza de la Reina that makes a large variety of artesano breads and pastries. Among their offerings are a Pan de Gallego made from wheat (trigo in Spanish) grown in Galicia, the region in northwestern Spain, and Espelta Ecologico made from organic spelt.

One friend of mine who is a bit of a bread connoisseur said after sampling the PanPan Gallego baguette, “Wow I haven’t had bread like that since……well, since I was in Paris.” Tall praise for PanPan. The counters overflowing with breads can be accessed all day during the week and on Saturday mornings, and PanPan could not be more convenient as it is right around the corner from the Plaza. PanPan Atelier, La Paz 1, 46003 Valencia; www.panpan.es; open Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm, Saturday from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm.

More Bread Searching in Spain - Madrid Now

 As I mentioned in my posts about searching for really good and artisanal bread in Barcelona, finding made-from-scratch, quality bread in Spain is harder than you might think. In Madrid you can go to one of the six locations for the Cosmen and Keiless bakeries. They offer a variety of bread and pastries, priding themselves on making their bread using traditional methods and with ingredients from  “clean crops”. Find baguettes, as well as spelt, multi-seed, multi-grain and olive oil breads, with a host of pastries. To find the locations for all six of the Cosmen and Keiless bakeries in Madrid click on “Tiendas” at the Web site. The La Salesas store is between the metros Colon y Chueca and the Principe location is between the Goya and Velzquez metro stops.There are no gluten-free options at this time, but if you can tolerate spelt you are in luck.

Halloween in Spain

As you might guess, Halloween is not a traditional Spanish holiday and has only started to be celebrated in the past few years. It differs wildly from Halloween in the United States. For starters, there are not gargantuan bags of candies being sold in stores as trick-or-treating is not part of the holiday in Spain. The focus is on costumes, making noise, partying and being with other people – the basic recipe for most festivities in Spain. Many clubs and bars will feature special Halloween events, people have private parties and some stores will offer special treats for customers. Street strolling and goggling is the most common activity.

Plazas can be packed with people, so if you are crowd phobic, Halloween may not be the best night for late night wandering – and late it is as people start to go home between 2:00 and 5:00 am. The traffic photo here was taken at 2:30am on Halloween “night” – imagine sound effects as well with shouting, honking and music. This is the busiest this particular street sees at any time of day.

Needless to the say, the day after makes for some pretty smelly and dirty streets as all sorts of bodily fluids are “shared” with the pavement, as well as discarded party remnants, as you will see in the photos.

If you love to dress-up and party, then Halloween in Spain is for you. If not, make sure you have ear-plugs in your suitcase.

Segway Touring in Spain

Segways, the brain child of New Hampshire’s Dean Kamen, are two-wheeled, electric vehicles that you steer and maneuver with your body’s weight and balance. With three-speeds, the Segway can go a maximum of 10-12 miles an hour, making it quite ideal for city touring.  Segways have been adopted in many European cities as a clean, energy efficient and fun touring option. Some companies merely rent the Segways, others offer tour groups with all participants riding Segways. Most rental and touring companies require users to partake in a 15-30 minute Segway training prior to use.

Please check each Web site for specifics as they vary per company. Most have a weight range of 100-220 pounds per person and some ask riders to be at least 15-18 years of age. Duration of tour or rental and price vary as well from one to three hours and from 35 to 60 Euros. Some companies will offer special theme tours outside of the cities like in natural parks and vineyard touring.


Segway Renting and Tour Companies in Spain include the following:

Madrid, Leon, Oviedo and Santander: http://www.citysegway.es/english_index.htm
Madrid: http://www.madsegs.com
and Bicycle and Segway rentals: http://www.urbanmovil.com
Barcelona: http://www.barcelonasegwayfun.com/home.htm
and http://www.barcelonasegwayglides.com
Girona: http://www.sobrerodes.cat/homesbrs.html
and http://www.segwaytours.cat/en_index.php
Valencia & Castellon: http://www.segwayvalencia.com
and Bicycle and Segway rentals & tours in Valencia: http://www.valenciabikes.com/es/segway-tours
Malaga: http://www.segwaymalagatours.com

Never Enough Books and Art Supplies!

Well I can’t help myself – I seem to gravitate to art supplies and books. I have found some more stores in my wanderings in Valencia, as well as two magnificent bookstores specializing in travel in Barcelona and Madrid.

Tot en Art Bellas Artes, tucked in the northern part of the historic El Carmen district in Valencia, is a full service art store. They offer lists of art workshops all over Spain on their web site under “Talleres”, as well as an alphabetical directory of artists. Tot en Art, c/ Corona 35-B, 46003 Valencia; 963 917 265;  www.totenart.com

Yet another art supply store in Valencia is close to the train station and the more upscale shopping area of Colon. Civera is on a side street and is a large, well-stocked store. Civera Bellas Artes, c/Pascual y Genis 24, Valencia, open Monday to Friday only from 9:00am to 1:30pm/4:00 to 8:00pm.

Similar to Auralia (mentioned in an earlier post), Astral is a lovely specialty bookstore offering movies and books about most things alternative – health, energy, gardening, food, spirit, as well as selling a small selection of gems, flower essences, and essential oils. Most of their selections are in Spanish, but you can find English titles hidden in amongst the volumes, and welcoming, helpful storekeepers. So helpful in fact that when I told them I wrote about traveling ecologically and used an example of where to find organic food, I was given a box full of organic “kakis” (persimmons) which were delicious! Located down the street from the Quart Towers (Torres de Quart). Astral, c/ Quart 52, 46001 Valencia; 963 922 057; open Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 1:30 pm/ 5:00 to 8:00 pm, Monday from 10:00 to 1:30pm.

If you are on the hunt for English books in Barcelona you can go to Come In ~ Libreria Anglesa (English Bookstore) a couple a blocks form the Diagonal metro stop where most things are English. Come In ~ Libreria Anglesa, c/ Balmes 129, 08008 Barcelona; Tel: 934 531 204; Web: http://www.libreriainglesa.com/cat/index.php

You will find the excellent Altair travel bookstores online, as well as one live store in Madrid and one in Barcelona. While the website is only available in Castilian or Catalan, they sell books in English and other languages as well, with a truly outstanding assortment of guidebooks, travel literature, maps, arts and culture, adventure travel, anthropology and, not surprisingly, the most extensive selection of books about every area of Spain. The store in Madrid is in the more residential area not far from the Casa del Campo park and can be reached by the Arguelles metro stop. Altair, Gaztambide 31, 28015 Madrid; Tel: 915 435 300; open Monday to Friday from 10:00 am to 2:00pm/ 4:30 to 8:30 pm, Saturdays 10:30 to 2:30. In Barcelona, Altair is on the Gran Via, just over a block from the Plaza de Catalunya so you can reach it by the Catalunya or Passeig de Gracia metro stops. Altair, Gran Via 616, 08007 Barcelona; Tel: 933 427 171; open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 8:30 pm; Email: altair@altair.es; Web: www.altair.es