Back in the 1960s when inland Andalusia saw few travellers or cars Penelope Chetwode wife of John Betjeman explored the area on horseback and wrote about her travels in the book "Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalusia."
It is a fascinating view on the social history of the area I live in and the amazing changes that have taken place in the fifty years since her visit and today. Chetwode, from England, was amazed at how backward the rural towns that she passed through were.
There was some electricity but only one or two lights per house and the norm was no plumbing. This meant no toilets they went outside in the yard or in the deep litter in the stables which housed many other animals too.
I particularly enjoyed her writings about the food or often lack of food provided and that no matter how poor the families she encountered were they always shared the little they had with her. Which was often to her great embarrassment when she couldn´t chew or couldn´t stomach it, fortunately she says that most establishments had cats that were also hungry and disposers of all she secretly gave them.
The staple diet of the time was churros for breakfast, often made in the street or market place it is a dough rather like a doughnut that is piped and fried in olive oil and offered with sugar and maybe (but often not) chocolate to dip it in.
If the town didn´t have its own churros maker, then breakfast might be fried bread or even dry bread, day old bread.
Lunch, being the main meal of the day to keep the workers strength up would consist of a cocido or puchero vegetable soups or stews based on pulses or sometimes rice, cooked together with potatoes, onions, peppers, garlic and any green vegetable that might be to hand.
Supper is usually a lighter affair of slices of home-cured sausage, broth or a Spanish omelette.
As an example of a typical day´s diet for Chetwode I quote from her book
"After my breakfast of delicious crusty bread and barley coffee I asked the Landlady to boil me an egg for my lunch and I went to one of the three village shops to buy some lemons and Marie biscuits."
"For supper at 9pm we had a very good puchero. We each had a spoon and ate out of a bowl in the middle of the round table and drank out of the communal wine-jar. I also had a glass of delicious spring water."
I´m so glad things have changed around this area with roads, cars, toilets and a wider variety of food, which doesn´t all have to be home grown or home cured.
Rachel L. Webb - Rachel L Webb lives in and writes mainly about Andalucia. She enjoys exploring the region and shares her explorations through her website ...
