From field to menu: Tíjola brings five Valley producers together with chef Juanmi Molina
Potatoes, eggs, cured meats, preserves and ham from the Valley were presented to chefs in Tíjola, at a Provincial Council forum with a cooking demonstration and tasting.
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Potatoes, eggs, cured meats, preserves and ham from the Almanzora Valley, and a chef ready to make the most of them in front of everyone. That was the recipe for the gathering that Almería Provincial Council has held in Tíjola to sit those who produce in the district and those who cook in the province’s restaurants down at the same table.
The event, which the local news outlet Tíjola Digital had announced for Friday 23 at the Municipal Library, is part of the activities of the Oficina del Reto Demográfico Rural Dipalme (Dipalme Rural Demographic Challenge Office) for municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. According to the Provincial Council, the aim is for producers and restaurateurs to get to know each other and be able to reach agreements so that local produce makes it onto the menus of Almería’s restaurants.
Five businesses from the district
The exhibition area featured five businesses from the Valley: Patatas La Tijoleña, from Tíjola itself, with the homemade crisps of Churrería Agapito; Huevos La Molata; Embutidos Los Remedios, a family business from Serón founded in 1985; Jamones Cortijo de Canata, also from Serón; and Conservas Boconia.
Cooking, live
In charge at the stove was Juanmi Molina, chef at Rustir Bistrobar, in Olula del Río. The chef cooked recipes live with produce from the Valley and explained as he went where each ingredient comes from and what it adds. Then came the tasting, with some time for a chat between attendees, chefs and producers.
And Molina has been having a non-stop autumn: last Monday 19 he was cooking rabo de toro (bull’s tail) at Almería’s Mercado Central (Central Market), as part of the Semana Gastronómica del Toro de Lidia (Fighting Bull Gastronomic Week) run by the ASHAL restaurateurs.
The forum “brings together in one space those who produce and those who cook”, summed up the provincial councillor for European Initiatives, Esther Álvarez. For the mayor of Tíjola and provincial councillor, José Juan Martínez Pérez, “it is an opportunity for the district’s producers to make their products known to chefs”, and also for residents to see how they are prepared in the kitchen.
Why it matters in the Valley
Three of the five businesses are from Tíjola and Serón, two towns in the Alto Almanzora (Upper Almanzora) with fewer than 6,000 residents between them: 3,573 and 2,151, according to the padrón (the municipal register) figures from the INE, Spain’s National Statistics Institute, as of 1 January 2025. A crisp from Tíjola or a ham from Serón ending up on the menu of a restaurant in the province is a very concrete way of keeping work and money in the district.
From elValle Actualidad, we can only celebrate that what is made in our land continues to earn its place at the table.
