Olentzero.net

Olentzero is a collier, sure. But, what is that? Difficult in our times to see one of them in action and even to see coal. Gas, petrol and electricity, have taken it away from kitchens and heaters and have relegated it to some outdoor barbeques.

The work of a collier starts with the fell of a tree, normally oak, beech or evergreen-oak. Afterwards needs cutting the wood with the axe or the power saw and then he needs to crack it with wedges hit with clubs.

Afterwards the soil, where the coal bunker-«txondor»- is going to be built, needs to be flattened or at least marked the contour of the circumference where he is going to work in order to fix it to the ground. In the middle of it, the coal-man needs to lift a chimney of 30 cm. of diameter made out of vertical stakes crosses among themselves radially. Consequently, initiates the positioning of the logs, inclined and held around the chimney.

The firewood is set in 2 or 3 levels with thicker and bigger logs at the base, the middle ones in the middle and the little ones on top so that the bunker seems to be a circular hillock-sometimes conic.

Covers the hillock with more logs and envelopes the whole thing with a thick layer of dry leaves, moss and fern…..that in turn, needs to be covered with “idurie” or very fine soil, burned already and coming from another coal bunker. That will prevent air going inside.

From the mouth of the chimney that one accesses with a ladder located on the skirt of the “txondorra”, the collier introduces little pieces of wood («betegarri» o «cisco» ), ember and on top of it again fine pieces of wood.

When the fire arrives to the external mouth, the collier covers the chimney.

As the wood cooks-not burning -the volume of the coal bunker needs to be reduced. The coalman, then, opens the chimney, stirs the interior and hits the top with clubs to matt the wood. The space resulted, is covered with more betegarri and then covers again the chimney.

To get a slow cooking going, small vents need to be opened in the top part of the coal bunker. When smoke goes through them showing a blue tint, means that the wood in that part is already carbonized. That is the moment to open new vents lower down continuing with this process, till the end of the cooking.At the end, all of those mentioned vents need to be blocked out so that the fire goes out by itself.

A production of 200 bags of 40 kilos each need between 10 and 15 days of cooking; to produce 400 bags, a little more than 20 days.

They say that if someone does not behave, will have coal as a present. Don’t believe it, it’s so hard to produce…..