El Ripollès is a very extensive region with a long history of livestock and agriculture behind it, which shows a very extensive and quality variety of local products.
This variety ranges from meat, through dairy, potatoes and ending with sweets.
Where can we buy or taste Ripollès products?
Below we leave you a map where you can find all the stores where the products that we will now present to you are sold.
All the locations have been extracted from Productes Ripollès.
The importance of consuming local and regional products.
Ripollès product, the guarantee mark. This brand identifies the agri-food products produced, transformed and/or prepared in the Ripollès region. The products with this have a quality control and guarantee of the origin of the food, such as the native breeds such as the Ripollesa sheep, the brown cow of the Pyrenees and the Catalan Pyrenean horse.
That is why we have made a list of the 10 typical foods of Ripollès.
1. Beef
El Ripollès has a large area of meadows and pastures where calves and heifers are raised, following a diet based on 100% natural forage. This meat has not been produced with substances that can interfere with the normal rhythm of growth and development of animals. Product of the Ripollès makes that from the birth to the plate it complies with an exhaustive control and monitoring that guarantees its quality.
Although there are different bovine breeds in Ripollès, it is worth mentioning the breeding and conservation of the Bruna de los Pirineos.
The care and sustainability of the mountain thanks to the pasture means that traditional cattle breeding is also an incentive for the territory. The cows graze and increase the richness of the fertile soil to be cultivated or so that each year the land itself is regenerated.
The historical pasture or even transhumance make the final product acquire value, that is why we can see pastures at high altitudes such as in Vall de Núria or in Vallter. You can see it here.
2. Sheep and goat meat
As we said, the geographical and geological qualities make this region an ideal place to raise lambs in a semi-extensive way.
Among the deceased breeds of lambs that we can find, the Ripollesa Sheep breed stands out, a native breed from the northeast of Catalonia that weighs between 10 and 12 kg. These sheep are loved by their mothers’ milk, this makes the meat tender and tasty.
One of the virtues of buying this meat is the valuation, conservation to promote the activity of grazing, making the profession of rancher accessible and worthy. This thousand-year-old trade, so traditional in our lands, makes traditional grazing a culture. This is how the whole wheel closes and keeps turning.
3. Ripollès mountain foal meat
It is one of the unknown and very nutritious and healthy products.
In the first place it is sweet, very suitable for low or salt-free diets. It has few fats and strength healthy unsaturated fatty acids type Omega 3. It is suitable for people with cholesterol problems. It has a lot of iron suitable for children and the elderly. And lastly, it is a very tender and tasty meat that can be lost in round and round fillets to prevent it from losing water and becoming dry.
In Ripollès, more than fifty breeders have and make first-class meat from the foal.
This cattle in our lands is extensively exploited, which means that they roam as they want through the meadows and high mountains such as Núria and Vallter.
The mountain colt also has its native breed: the Catalan Pyrenean Horse. This breed was recognized as such in 2008 by the Catalan administration. Currently the approximate census is about 5,000 animals destined for human consumption located in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees regions.
Photo: Wenderson Araujo
4. Potatoes- Trumfa
The most famous tuber in the world, the potato. Also the most consumed and cultivated since its nutritional value consists of the high contribution of water and carbohydrates in the form of starch. It is low in fat and protein.
In our territory, Trumfa del Valle de Camprodon is grown, an area where the potato has been cultivated generation after generation.
The potato adapts to all climates, snow, rain or a bright day, the potato is nourished by the richness of the soil, since it grows buried. That is why it is important to maintain a rich soil as we have previously mentioned thanks to extensive grazing.
At the end of August, beginning of September, the harvest of the year is obtained. That’s when restaurants fill up with these potatoes and people enjoy their unique flavor.
Photo: @producteurslocaux
5. Pork sausages
In Ripollès we find few pigs and there are few farms that are dedicated in some way to the breeding and fattening of pigs. That is why almost all the meat does not go towards fresh meat, but towards the elaboration of sausages in an artisanal way.
The gastronomic culture has meant that the elaboration of these products has acquired an artisanal curing technique typical of the area. There is a wide variety of butcher shops and delicatessens that offer white, black, egg, perol, liver sausage, blows, bulls, moleta, culana longaniza, peasant longaniza, xoriçada longaniza, whips, chorizos, dry loin, pork rinds, belly liver, ham and bacon.
Photo: Productes del Ripollès
6. Coca del Ripollès
In 2009 several bakers participated in a contest to make the most authentic cake in Ripollés. From all the possible mixtures they created a new and differentiated product called Coca del Ripollès.
You will recognize this cake as it is round, about 20-22 centimeters in diameter and has pine nuts and sugar on top. Inside is a cake-shaped biscuit. It has a spicy flavor of anise and cinnamon.
It is sold packaged in a box common to all the establishments that adhere to the Ripollès Product brand.
Photo: Productes del Ripollès
7. Dairy products
Dairy products such as milk, cheese, cottage cheese, soft cheese, fresh cheese, yogurts, cottage cheese flans and flans, cheesecake and cream cheese are also carefully prepared.
Many of these products come from the same cows, sheep or goats in the most artisanal and traditional way possible.
Photo: Productes del Ripollès
8. Honey
Honey has always been a very precious commodity due to the costly and artisanal elaboration with which it has to be produced. This honey is collected by bees in areas above 1000 meters. It is a dense, dark, sweet honey with very healthy natural properties to drink with any tea, cake, toast or coffee. Among the types of honey we highlight milflores and rosemary
Photo: Productes del Ripollès
9. Mushrooms
El Ripollès is lucky to have leafy forests that grow a very large range of mushrooms. These mushrooms have been decisive in determining the culinary history of the region. In Ripollès we can find vines, chanterelles, marzuelos, roads, nightingales, peasants, black pine chanterelles, mollerics and trumpets. Under the forests of hazel, ash and birch trees hide these appreciated mushrooms that we like so much in the casserole.
Photo: @lluisrodriguez
10. Cookies and sweets
And to finish, the most awaited for after-meal or to make a breakfast: the sweet!
Moixaines and Carícies from the Vall de Ribes, Mets and Daines from the Camprodon Valley, the roscones… Typical products from Ripollès with a lot of tradition and history. Few grandmothers make them, but they can be purchased with a well-baked flavor in any bakery or pastry shop.
The cookies. Biscuits such as Birba are famous for their traditional taste and suitable for any season. You will find them with their classic boxes in any produce store in the area.
Photo: Birba.es
