Things to Buy, Local Produce, Arts & Crafts

In Orgiva and the Alpujarra there are lots of things to buy to remind you of your walking holiday or summer rental. Local produce and handmade artifacts, including jewellery and clothes are wonderful souvenirs.

Here are some suggestions and previews.

The Arts & Crafts market in Orgiva, the first Saturday of each month, has a selection of paintings, sculpture, carved wood book covers, ceramics and silver work.

In the Thursday market, besides a wonderful spice stall and one with containers of different cured olives, we can recommend an excellent jewellery stall. Gail has beautiful handmade items at reasonable prices at the top end of the market square, facing the old house with the palm tree.

Up the Alpujarra, in the Pocqueira valley, there are plenty of locally made colourful rugs and piles of baskets made with esparto grass. Also in these villages there is a wide choice of Andalucian ceramics. In Capileira, G Browne makes leather clothes, bags and belts, and in Pampaneira there are hand-made leather shoes. In many of these workshops you may see this artisan work actually created, including old fashioned looms where scenic picture wall hangings are made of wool.

In Pampaneira there is also a wonderful chocolate factory where the slabs of many different flavours look like works of art and taste divine. They have a wide variety of ice-creams, made with real fruit, chocolate or coffee.

In the same village there is the excellent Bodega which has cured serrano ham, sausages, goat and sheep cheeses, meringues, wines and all sorts of other locally preserved produce, all beautifully displayed in a typical Alpujarran building, down a narrow street with a stream running down the middle.

Most famous for ham, of course, is the village of Trevelez, the highest in Spain. Here it is possible to tour one of the secaderos, or curing houses, where you will also sample the produce.

The Alpujarra is also famous for honey. On the old road to the coast, next to the petrol station, there is a shop that appears to sell ceramics. However, in the back there are bins of different flavoured honey:- rosemary, thyme, orange flower, avocado and eucalyptus, and you can sample them before buying a jar. They also sell soaps and handcreams made of honey, as well as fig cake, almonds and other agricultural produce and preserves.

Not to miss a mention of the local costa wine, which features quite a lot at our walking base.!!

"Fantastico" - Lee Murphy