These palm trees symbolise the islands and in La Gomera especially there is a strong bond resulting from the palm honey production.
Palm honey short story
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It’s late, the sun is about to set and the air is already fresh. I prepare myself to ascend the guarapera palms. Climbing the palm tree is in itself an art; you have to be extremely careful with the leaves near the trunk because they are very sharp and cut easily. I remember the first times, when my hands were still sweating when climbing.
Now it’s different, I climb skilfully, the bees are my friends, I do not bother them and they do not bother me. I go from one palm to another without difficulties.
I take the chisel and begin to scrape the bud following my style; people have different ways of scraping the bud, choosing what they find best. I am proud of mine; it is a beautiful and effective drawing. When I have already scraped all the dry part and the sap begins to come out, I place the bucket underneath. I check that it’s secure. Once I didn’t double check and lost all the guarapo. I repeat the process in 3 other palms.
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It’s early, the sun has not come out yet and the air is fresh. I collect last night’s guarapo, 8 liters per palm tree. I try it, fresh in the morning is when it tastes better.
I save up one part, Pedro surely wants more for his kiosk, the parties are approaching and more and more customers want to try it.
I boil the remaining guarapo until it reaches the ideal viscosity. And so I get palm honey.
Although there are factories to make honey, the process to get the guarapo is completely manual, and that is why we should appreciate it as the craftsmanship that it is.
