Arbequine: the Queen of the Aragonese hills

Now that the olive harvest is taking place in northern Spain and the first olives of the season are being milled, it is the best time to speak about the Arbequine variety.

This renowned early and tiny variety of olive is the preference among the virgin olive oil gourmets. It is not in vain that many of them refers to the arbequine juice as the Beluga of the olive oils.

 

Since not every olive juice is the same, we encourage you to check the critical factors that boost this wonderful elixir to the gastronomic Olympus:

1. The best flavour, aroma and palete possible. It has a very  pleasant round taste, boasting a fresh fruity sweetness rounded with a distinctive bitterness. In mouth it feels silky and it leaves an intense long finish. It usually displays a nose of ripe fruit and almond.  It is just delicious when eaten raw over a crunchy slice of toasted bread.

2. It is popular for its green tones, especially when the olives are harvested at the earliest stages of maturation.

3. The arbequine oil is characterized by the inestability of its chemical compositition. Since this variety is more sensitive to oxidation, the fragile balance of its sensory attributes demands proper conservation conditions. Fresh and dark environments increase the product lifetime.   .

4. The growing region. The above said, the arbequine variety displays different sensory features depending on the type of soil and climate conditions associated to the place we find the plant. Arbequine trees require cold and continental climate in order to perform at their best. The vally of the Ebro (Aragon, where Lady Godina is situated) meets naturally these requirements so we can find traditional arbequine crops that need less use of chemicals.  

5. Here in the heart of Aragon, the tradicional cultivation system is the most widespread. For centuries, when the agriculture mechanisation and the artificial irrigation did not exist, the ancient groves followed a low density plantation pattern  (between 80 and 120 trees per ha.) that still remain the same nowadays.  

6. Although traditional cultivation does not allow high production rates, arbequine olive stands out among others for its high fat yield. Once the milling process is done,  we obtaing small but excellent product.

7. In the same way as wine, it is sometimes interesting mixing different varieties of oil - such as Picual or Empeltre among others -  in order to obtain a coupage of more complexity.  

Aragon, a great place to make bussiness in the agrifood sector

Lady Godina comes from La Almunia de Doña Godina (10.000 inhabitants), a small but beautiful and full of life town in the heart of Aragon. 

Apart from the outstandind cherries and extra virgin olive oil produced in our homeland, La Almunia is a slow city that might surprise you for hosting a University Center (EUPLA), where more than 40.000 students have completed their degree on Engineering throughout its 40 year history. 

Or you may find intersting that La Almunia is just 20 minutes drive away from PLA ZA (Zaragoza) , the largest logistics platform in Europe, with a 13.000.000m2 area that benefits from its intermodal transport connections (railways, roads, and air routes).

In sum, the mix of product,  location and innovative aproach is the key for our competitive strenght. As this video states: Aragón, come and connect!

http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpwRQiNGgo4

Works on Mularroya´s dam are still halted

Source: Heraldo de Aragón. http://www.heraldo.es/noticias/aragon/2014/08/30/mularroya_sigue_sin_fecha_para_retomar_las_obras_meses_despues_que_parasen_307336_300.html

After fifteen months the works on Mularroya's dam in La Almunia de Doña Godina are not expected to restart.  In 2013 the Spanish High Court nullified the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) resulting in the stop of  this infrastructure although jobs had began in march 2008 and one third of the total budget (51 millions of euros) has already been spent.

As new building technical report and EIS are both mandatory, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment must include corrective measures into these documents. Although experts are drawing up an alternative project in accordance with the Court's resolution, for the time being official sources are unable to make an accurate prediction on when the dump trucks and bulldozers will return to work.

Mularroya will have capacity for 103 hm³ of water entirely coming from the Jalón river, which is the main tributary of the Ebro river on its right side (the largest Spanish river as well). The dam is being built nearby La Almunia urban area on the Grío riverbed and it is still needed to dig an 8 miles tunnel in order to channel the river Jalón water.

The greatest use of this reservoir will be the irrigation of the fruit crops in the surrounding area of La Almunia and Valdejalón county. The Jalón River Irrigation Community  (Central de Usuarios del Río Jalón) assures that this dam is crucial for investors who want to grow up with guarantees in the coming years. The flow control of the Jalón River through Mularroya´s dike will allow a further expansion to our already significant stone fruit sector.