A festival !

We just love a good festival and if it involves food and drink all the better so !!




Earlier this year we were out in Portugal for the weather basically and also for an orienteering event.


While there we stumbled upon a poster in a local shop advertising a festival of olives and smoked goods.....which basically means olives and chorizo !


On this particular day hubby had been running round the town of Idanha on a sprint race and afterwards we headed off towards the village of Proenca-a-Velha. I particularly remember parking was a nightmare as all the locals for miles around had turned out and the whole village was awash with cars parked just about anywhere and anyhow !! No order whatsoever.



I was quite concerned for the car as the Portugese are not brilliant drivers it seems to me, an awful lot of the cars are dented and somewhat bashed about looking !! Also like most country people they drive as if there is nobody else on the roads ever ever - full pelt and in the middle of the road.....you takes your life in your hands it feels like !!


Anyway, the car was safely parked by a church in the end, well tucked away from passing traffic in the narrow lanes. We wended out way towards the bustle and joined in.



The whole affair was a little like a trade fair, each farmer with his stall set up and desperately trying to attract attention and sell his home grown wares. A real old fashioned market place.

There was a food tent, interesting cooking displays of modern cooking methods but using the traditional ingredient and outdoor bread and pizza ovens.


A lot of muttering from the grannies here.....they seemed to like things just as they were, thank you.

The children were not forgotten too - face painting being a great favourite and the costumes of the young ladies were almost carnival like and great fun.



 The Portugese are very indulgent towards their infants, like the Italians, and the children are happy bunnies on the whole.




I have never seen so many different types of chorizo in my life !! We were continually being offered tastings, both of the sausages and also of the olives and in particular the oils.

  I must admit though that after a while the 'smokey' smell was rather turning my stomach and I often had to pop out into the fresh air for a breather.



The stalls were not only selling food, a few had the trappings that country people need - amazingly sharp knives of all sorts with beautiful handles made of horn or bone, home made breads (the Portugese are very proud of their breads), various alcoholic drinks, crafts and knick-knacks and so on....





All the ladies of the villages had been crafting, knitting, crocheting, painting, just about anything you could think of to make a bit of extra money too.

  Sadly we didn't buy any of these lovely craft items - as I would make my own.


One young chap had an amazing drink brewing away - inside a hollowed out pumpkin. It was flaming away and seemed incredibly alcoholic and the old men were queuing up to take a tipple !


Good stuff to warm the cockles of your heart.. it seemed at least so at the time. Good theatre too as he lifted up the beverage in his ladle nd poured into the drinking cups, quite the showman.

 The most popular stall at the fair almost....



We did buy quite a lot from the various stalls, olive oils, home cured olives (in an old coffee jar, and cost about 30p) complete with the odd floating leaf, chorizo, wines and breads.

The olives were a total revelation as they actually tasted of olive oil and not of salt !! We ate these fairly quickly as we had no idea how long we could keep them or how to keep them at all.



Very very few of the stall holders spoke any english and we only had a few words of Portugese, but somehow it was enough to get by with. But, definitely, next time we go we will take a dictionary with us.

A cheery smile and a portugese thank you seems to work wonders. They are, as a nation in general, a lot more welcoming to foreigners than the french and a lot less aloof !

 They actually take pride in being of help whereas the french in general are almost the opposite - service ? non !!



It was fun to see the locals, out in best winter garb, and definitely out to enjoy themselves whatever.


 Once the business side was over it was concert time and the entertainment began.



  Folk music with lots of accordions, guitars and drumming and the vocals reminded me an awful lot of a Celtic festival we attended in Brittany years ago.

The singing was almost like chanting with lots of harmony.



Around the corner from the festival area was a museum of the old olive grinding machines.

Fun seeing how things were done in the old days.










 

Probably if we had stayed later on into the evening there would have been dancing we could have joined in with, but hubby was shattered after his run earlier .

We had another orienteering event to attend the next day too.... so back to the campsite and a munching session of the bread, wine and olives.

Totally delicious.