November culinary fairs to celebrate locally grown produce

With the summer festivals now a distant memory and winter settling across the region, several towns in La Serranía de Ronda and the Guadalhorce valley region are gearing up to host their annual culinary celebrations. These festivals and fairs celebrate locally grown produce and traditional cuisine, typically featuring food tastings, cooking demonstrations and a range of activities and entertainment.

These gastronomic events kick off this weekend in Jubrique (Serranía de Ronda) with the Hashtag Castañas chestnuts festival, which begins today (Friday) and continues on Saturday 14 November. This popular gathering offers workshops, tastings, a tapas route, a gastronomic market, hiking trails and live music.

Friday’s programme offers several cooking workshops featuring local produce and with chestnuts as the main ingredient. Plaza de Andalucía will be the main venue for Saturday’s celebration, where most of the activities will take place. Nature lovers can enjoy a morning hike and mushroom-picking excursion through the chestnut groves of Jubrique.

On Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 November, Benojoán hosts its cured meat fair, which, along with cured pork loin, chorizo, black pudding and salchichón sausages, will offer artisan products, tastings and live music. For over a century, the town’s economy has revolved around its sausage factories, which distribute from the Serranía region to destinations around the world. This charcuterie tradition is the focus of the fair, which has been declared a festival of provincial tourist interest by the Malaga provincial council.

The event includes stands selling cured meats, locally made bread, traditional sweets and cakes, cheeses, honey and preserves, along with a cured ham cutting competition on Sunday.

The Cata de Mosto (wine must tasting) festival in Cartajima is a popular annual autumn event, which takes place on 28 November. This event, which honours the village’s artisanal wine making heritage, was started in 2006 by a group of local farmers and winemakers as an informal way to share freshly pressed mosto (grape juice) with family and friends before growing into a major community celebration. The festival typically features official mosto tasting contests in the village squares.

The Guadalhorce town of Pizarrra highlights the flavours of its traditional cuisine with the 19th annual Migas day on 29 November, one of the town’s most deeply rooted gastronomic events. This culinary event offers free tastings of Migas (a traditional shepherd’s dish consisting of rustic bread, chorizo and smoked bacon), along with artisan stalls selling a variety of local produce, a crafts market and flamenco recitals.

Other festivals include the mushroom festival in Cortes de la Frontera between 27 and 29 November, which not only focuses on mycology, but also offers a wide range of complementary activities; and the Fiesta del Mosto in Atajate (28 November), which celebrates the arrival of freshly fermented wine with tastings, music and stalls selling local products.