Day 7 – Scavenging Outside Valencia I skip the big city and head right to the fertile countryside just 6 kilometers northeast of Valencia. From the farmland I can see Valencia’s silhouetted skyline. Why here? I’m on my way to Restaurante Barraca to spend the day with the farmer/owner Toni Montoliu in his organic fields of vegetation and orange groves, harvest my lunch and prepare the local dish, paella. Come along. With Toni’s guidance, I collect the salad ingredients fresh from his fields and pick oranges from his groves. Toni oversees my paella preparation, cooked over an open fire sparked by orange wood that infuses into the paella. Time is not of the essence, so we maximize the time between collection and consumption over fava beans, almonds, beer and vino. I receive a lesson in how to pick out the critters from the produce so that they can be returned to the soil as natural predators for other organisms. I also learn the proper way of adding individual ingredients to the paella and stirring the grand cauldron filled with paella rice and tomato sauce so that the paella can slowly simmer away into its divine goodness. Here’s lunch: homemade strips of jamón and slices of local Queso Manchego, sautéed red bell peppers and olives, fresh bread made with both wheat and corn flours, fried potatoes with aioli, steamed artichokes with fresh lemons and olive oil, my (!) composed salad, the pièce de résistance (punto fuerte?) paella with chicken, rabbit and beans, oranges with walnuts and honey, baked squash with walnuts and a simple olive oil cake, all served with water and more beer and wine. This day was definitely the highpoint of my trip–thus far. What could possibly top this outing? Mallorca (Majorca) lies ahead!