rescoweb.com
Chef tools | Marketplace | Account Corner | Recipes | My consulting | Register | Employment Opportunities
 
  ·Bibliographies
  ·Consultations
  ·Chefs & cía
  ·Information
  ·New developments
  ·New tendencies
  ·Restaurants in Madrid and Barcelone
Chef tools
     
  14/08/2006
Flowers and herbs: fresh to eat at your table

Text: Brigitte Müller

Work starts at 7:00 am. The mountains of the Sierra Tejada natural park in Málaga’s inland area still cast long shadows, but in just a few hours the sun will be beating down relentlessly. The agricultural engineer Ragna Protzen, her partner Peter Knacke and trainees Anne and Tobias are bent over the field picking the day’s deliveries.
Chickweed, mountain spinach, sorrel, musk mallow, purslane, mizuma, Chinese mustard and green bean sprouts: herbs forgotten long ago and some even considered weeds until recently, form blends that are highly in demand, supplying luxury restaurants on the Costa del Sol.
Harvesting takes place rapidly and in silence. The delicate herbs are under an awning, fed by a drip irrigation system. At the end, the flowers are also picked to decorate the restaurants’ dishes and salads adding a special touch to each dish. Bright yellow chrysanthemums are particularly popular for the way they stand out in salads. The tiny julianas that Peter is carefully gathering under the awning are also yellow. They contrast with the borage flowers, which are also small but an intense blue colour. Finally, it’s the turn of the orange and yellow nasturtium, also healthy and organic, like everything that comes from Sabor&Salud (Taste&Health).
Next to the house, we find Peter’s wife, Thekla Krupjuweit. While she prepares the children for nursery school, she checks her list once more. Today, she will visit Marbella, more than two hours away, where the chefs are triumphing with the organic herbs and flowers.
The three young people arrived in Spain two years ago to make their dream of a year-round herb garden come true. The terrain is sloped and rocky, water is scarce and the sun is implacable. Although the stream adjacent to the terraced plots is still flowing, summer has only just begun and the neighbours also need water. “No, we don’t believe we’re indifferent. On the contrary: we came to Spain with a specific market idea and worked hard to build a company that works” says Thekla Krupjuweit storing the herbs in the portable fridge. She is responsible for clients. She used to call the restaurants herself or visited them directly with the products; now, it’s the clients who call her. Here on the coast, the system works by word of mouth.
Consequently, distribution is gradually expanding. At the Madrid delicatessen fair even the Catalan chef Ferrán Adriá took an interest in the three Germans’ singular herb gardens. During these moments of success, problems, parasites and droughts are forgotten and Thekla gets on the plane to deliver her herbs and flowers to “El Bulli“ in Catalonia.

 
     
  Area:  New tendencies  
     
Sponsers
OLEO HISPANICA
Frank Abegg Consult
Schiller Abogados
Erlebnisbuero
toptrip
Norak
Miele.es
Adamá
eHotel Reserve the hotel you want right now
Tavira y Botella
Promotora Productos Artesanos
©2001 - 2012 www.rescoweb.com. All rights reserved.