Agriculture, flora and fauna

Sunday, February 07, 2021
Haría, Canary Islands, Spain and Canary Islands
Some very unusual and unique agricultural practices on the island allows them to grow a wide range of crops, especially given how dry and windy the island is. Growing grapes for wine is one example. In the area known as La Geria in the south west grape bushes are grown. Before the volcanic activity of 1730 - 1736 the land in the area of La Geria was relatively rich and productive but ash from the volcanoes covered the land restricting agricultural activity. But grapes could be grown by digging down through the ash and exposing the richer soil, Grape bushes were planted in the holes, the holes acting as wind breaks and also encouraging night time moisture to produce some water for the bushes. We tasted the wines from a couple of wineries and they were very acceptable. The wine is really only consumed locally as it does not travel well. See section on Viticulture for more info
Other crops can also be grown and using some of the same attributes of the ash tuff as is used for the vines. Salads, potatoes, dwarf beans, onions and even pineapples. A thin layer of tuff is often laid out on the fields and the crops grown through this tuff layer. Again the tuff encourages night time moisture to form
The drink Campari, meanwhile, gets its characteristic red colour from cochineal, a dye which is extracted from a species of crushed beetle found extensively on Lanzarote. Thousands of female cochineal beetles are nurtured on the leaves of cacti in Lanzarotes northern villages of Mala and Guatiza. The cacti are expressly grown for the cultivation of the beetles.
The parasitic beetle, which leads a relatively stationary existence, obtains its nutrients from sucking juices from the cactis leaves. The workers in the cactus fields of Mala and Guatiza, many of whom are women, ensure that the insects are spread out among the plants. After two to three months, the insects reach maximum size and are then ready for the harvest.
The harvest is carried out by carefully scraping off the beetles from the cactis leaves with a large spoon--like tool. The gatherers wear thick gloves to protect their hands from painful prickles. The beetles, which look white on the leaves, and endow whole fields with a strange whiteish veil, are dropped into special boxes which both kill them and separate the beetles from unwanted stalks and other impurities.
Farmers then dry the cochineal beetles in the sun before packing them in sacks for export. Being nontoxic, cochineal, the extracted dye, which is also called carmine, is used widely in industry as a colouring for a range of products including lipstick, sweets, toothpaste, and, of course, Campari. The company that produces the bitter red drink, with the sophisticated image, is one of the biggest users of cochineal.
Although Lanzarote does not have a cactus covered landscape there are large numbers of cactus on the island, in gardens. The magnificent Jardin de Cactus based toward the north of the island in Guatiza, is one of the island's hottest attractions all year round. Developed under the guidance of César Manrique it showcases over 10,000 different plants - cacti and succulents. Attention to detail can be found not just in the planting within the garden itself but also within the structure and colours of some of the 1,000 plus species on show, with many displaying incredible complexities and colours on close inspection and stunning flowers at certain times of the year. We were so impressed that we visited the garden twice. See section Cacti for more info
Wild animals are very limited in Lanzarote due to the dry conditions and poor grazing. Birds are more abundant
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2025-02-15

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