Taking a walk through the memories of my childhood, pleasant moments come to mind.
I have very present the marriage of Pancho Farrás and Tomasa Díaz. How to forget such a peculiar and kind couple; because they were none other than the bakers of the town of Yaiza. And not just any bakery, it was a wood-fired oven bakery, the breadmade by hand by Tomasa, while her husband Pancho heated the oven with gorse, this shrub gave the bread a nuance of flavor and a different aroma; making it even more delicious.
The art of making bread in a wood-fired oven was very laborious work and a true art, to say the least. This couple worked as a great team, as I said before, while one heated the oven, the other took care of the dough. Because in both tasks they had to be aware: that the oven acquired the ideal temperature, and that the bread was released, to introduce it to bake. One of the tricks to know if the oven was ready, was to see if the bolts of the door of the mentioned oven were a grayish white color also called the mustaches. And that the bread when released, meant that the dough was puffed up doubling its size.
I remember that it was like a ritual to go buy bread every morning, the mothers sent one of their children to look for it. I have to say that many families bought for breakfast and afternoon snack, because at noon it was customary to eat rather gofio, either stirred or kneaded. Stirred for fish broth, kneaded for sancocho, stews etc.
Remembering what the elders said and say, that in more remote times, due to the very poor economy of the people, consuming bread was more than a luxury item.
It was only reserved as a privilege for very young children, the very old and especially for the sick. It was not surprising that someone went to the market and when asking for bread, those who were present in that small business and even the person who was attending, immediately asked who do you have sick at home?
I am seeing Pancho Farras with his faithful camel going to his farm which was located in the valley of La Degollada, which he did after breakfast which consisted of a large cup of goat's milk with gofio, as the saying goes: in the house of the blacksmith, wooden spoon. But then he put in his backpack a good slice of bread, a piece of a tasty semi-cured cheese, as a snack in the middle of the morning and hold on until lunchtime. He dressed very elegant to work on his farm, he always wore a vest, black hat, tie and pocket watch that he kept like gold in cloth, in a leather case.
When he returned from the valley, he barely had lunch, he took his little nap, then saddled his camel and went to the vega to graze the famous gorse, left it to dry and brought the one he had left cut from the previous day
Who does not remember walking through the ravine, today La Orilla street, when arriving at the height of the Boquete that did not perceive the smells of the wood left of gorse and the rich aroma of freshly baked bread.
I want to emphasize that Tomasa, apart from having good hands for kneading, was also very skilled at crocheting, she made beautiful bedspreads and all kinds of lace.
Passing that art to her daughters Tomasa and Olga, whom I remember seeing them sitting in the shade in the patio of their house, the summer afternoons, practicing that mentioned art, instilled by their mother. By the way, a very typical Canarian open patio, full of plants.
I can not resist telling anecdotes of Mrs. Tomasa, when she was sitting with her daughters in the aforementioned patio, someone passed in front of her house and as it was normal custom, they greeted each other, started a conversation. And after the cordial greeting: good afternoon woman, how are we doing, well thank you, I am here making a beautiful bedspread for my daughters, then when they marry one of the soletuos of Yaiza and get entangled in the bedspread with the rods of the soletas. What turns life gives that both daughters married two good, honest and hardworking boys from Yaiza, by the way they looked very happy. But Tomasa's occurrences always had them very soon.
Another very witty and funny anecdote, in which I was present, occurred in the little store that she installed in the 1970s in the Plaza de Los Remedios: a couple of foreign tourists arrived to buy bread, sausage to make a sandwich, they asked for cheese, then she offered them a small piece of that product, but even so, the young tourists thought it was too much. Tomasa, looking at them and as if they spoke the same language as her, tells them in a very spontaneous and friendly way, as she was: And now I am going to cut this bit of cheese? Look...! they take it as it is; if they want it, they want it and if not they leave it. Even the tourists themselves burst out laughing, paid for the product and left very happy for the sincere and natural treatment they had received.
Those of us who knew those times, how much we miss them. I think that even our visitors would enjoy a lot with that natural culture.
I wonder who would not eat right now a slice of warm bread, from Tomasa, accompanied with a piece of goat cheese, from the one that Matilde González, wife of the famous rancher Don Manuel de Ganzo Quintero, made?.
My mouth waters, remembering a slice of that bread fresh out of the oven, smeared with the famous Mariam La Niña margarine. Miam, miam!
