Midnight nearly, and I’m too full of Marmite and olive oil on toast to sleep properly. Marina bought the Marmite – strange considering only 50% of British people are supposed to be able to stomach the yeasty black spread (I think it’s genetic, you have to like it at birth), and it is said to be all but deadly to anyone from beyond the UK at a distance of anything less than 10 feet.
A small jar cost us 7 euros in Madrid. Worth every centimo. Especially when spread over Extra-Virgin Olive Oil on white Galician bread. Really. I feel like I’m en la gloria.
Actually I think this insane happiness coursing through my veins at midnight near the end of February has got a lot to do with a) a very sunny afternoon walk in Madrid’s early-blossoming Retiro Park, and b) fruit trees.
We (‘the company’) just bought 120 fruit trees through a charity in Asturias called Fapas: the “Fondo para la protección de los animales salvajes”. They will be planted somewhere in the Picos de Europa mountains to help feed, and thus repopulate, the dwindling wild bear population, (plus sort out a bit of this pesky CO2 problem at the same time.)
The money for these trees came from the sale of our latest product at notesinspanish.com, the ‘Crisis Collection’, recorded with our good friend Isabel who is profoundly and infectiously in love with the environment and suggested we donate our promised percentage from this latest launch to this particular charity.
So, there are to be 120 trees with Spanish learners names on them (figuratively) in those wondrous fairy tale mountains in Northern Spain, and that makes me very happy and incredibly grateful to everyone that buys our stuff. This post is really by way of thanks, thanks for El Bosque Notes in Spanish – The Notes in Spanish Forest.
We shall continue to send a percentage of any profit we make to worthy destinations, and I hope you won’t mind if I very occasionally tell you about it. I feel genuinely happy about it, and really hope this doesn’t come across as smug or ‘halo-polishing’. It simply makes work even more rewarding and fun than it is already. And again, this is by way of thanks to anyone that reads this or uses our Spanish materials.
On a sort of related/unrelated note…
When I was young I was obsessed with the idea of being a nature program film maker. This is probably a very very common ambition – especially amongst Spanish people I imagine, who love to siesta to overdubbed nature programmes on hot summer afternoons. Perhaps one day I’ll get the chance to go and film those bears in Asturias. Now there’s a dream worth pursuing… an idea even more exciting than another slice of Marmite and olive oil on toast.
Update: Email from the charity Fapas… “Hola Marina: vamos a preparar una ficha específica del Bosque Notes in Spanish que podréis ver en la web del proyecto … Mi compañero Luis, la persona responsable de las plantaciones me comentó ayer que tiene ya localizada una finca para plantar vuestros 120 árboles … Un saludo y gracias por vuestra generosa colaboración”
Nice nice nice photo… now that’s said, I’ll read the text…
Ben, I wish I knew what Galician bread was. I only ever see it on sale when I am in Madrid. Never here in Galicia. But, then, maybe all bread here is ‘Galician bread’. So, what distinguishes it? Is the black [rye?] bread I occasionally see here?
@Stuart, thanks! It was taken with a Pentax 67 medium format camera, a heavy beast of a thing that took unbelievable quality images (and only 12 of them on a roll!)
@Colin – That’s what they call it in our bakery down the road – it is actually a round loaf that is just like a real English cottage loaf. I suspect it has nothing to do with Galicia at all! Bloody good though
…about the Marmite thing… I love the first half slice, but then I have to have the other… by the third you are going off the flavour slightly and after the fourth you start to get a Marmitey queesiness, then the diacotomy – you crave more but your stomach tells you it might reject any further offerings, but you have just one last piece then lie groaning and feeling nauseous and swearing you’ll bin the jar.
But you dont and a day or two later you do it all again.
Marmite – you love it and you hate it at the same time!!!
When my folks went to Valencia last fall, they stayed at a piso next to a panaderia which made pan gallego. It was first time they had it and fell in love with that bread, as it became part of their daily staples. Marmite, didn’t enter the picture.
Jeje – takes me back to a flat share with an Australian in Oslo. He had a jar of Vegamite and I had my Marmite. It went well with crispbreads. It’s a lot cheaper here near the Costas. Well done on supporting the environment.
Inspirational post!
“The money for these trees came from the sale of our latest product at notesinspanish.com, the ‘Crisis Collection’”
This makes me even happier that I bought the “Crisis Collection”.
Where the heck are you buying your Marmite from? Unless the price has doubled since December it’s less that €4 at A Taste of America.
@Richard, the place you recommended! http://tinyurl.com/cu7vvd
What a lovely photo…so green and appealing. Good luck with your tree project…wonderful that it helps to support the environment!
I like this post. Simple pleasures of tasty food and doing a good deed.
I just want to say that I’m American and I love Marmite. A British friend of mine introduced it to me and I didn’t like it at first. I had to try it about 5-6 times before I started to like it. I am living proof that a taste for Marmite can be acquired!
Ben, I feel closer to you now that I know you like Marmite, too. We’re like BFFs now.
There are so many things that resonate with me about this post. Marmite is the only thing that I ever want for breakfast. As a Canadian son of British parents (I was born in England and taken to Canada at 2), I have always tried to lure others into the dark pleasure of Marmite and never with any success until my own son, Oscar, came along. Genetic, you ask? I tend to think so…
We have found a bakery near us that does a pan gallego that never disappoints. When requesting this from other establishments we’ve been lead down the garden path with various other breads – pan de pueblo, pan aldeano etc. Only pan gallego will do.
I bought half a kilo of Marmite in Barcelona for about 6 Euros only two months ago – and it’s still going strong. I’d be happy to share the location with anyone desperate for yeast extract in Catalonia’s capital.
I’m glad the crisis is working out for the bears of Asturias. I may just have to purchase that series myself…
Martmite and Olive oil on toast . Hmmm…I can never OD on Marmite. I think it´s hard wired into my nervous system !I love both but never thought of puting them together so this has litterally given me food for thought. I must try it when I get back to the UK but as I´m backpacking, and currently in Santiago de Chile, it might be a long search for the Marmite!
I’ve never tried Marmite before and I probably should as it’s incredibly difficult to find my preferred Vegemite here in California (some dispute with Kraft or something like that). I’ve also never tried it with olive oil on toast, so that would be a nice thing to do when I have the chance.
I think it’s great that you donate a percentage to good causes. I do the same through sponsoring a child in Nicaragua (a great way to practice my Spanish as that’s the language use when writing letters to each other) and sometimes sending footballs to children in Africa.
Great landscape, fantastic news for the bears and the finca owners who supposedly get to pick some of it too? We know expect photos of the actual trees, and a bear eating the fruit of course!
To add something to the marmite discussion: my old welsh friend who lives on the costa says it’s great as a mosquito deterrent. Apparently the mosquitos don’t like you anymore after you’ve eaten plenty of marmite!
(unfortunately i was already covered in mosquito bites when he told me but I will try it this summer!)
You’ll never get rich if you keep donating your profits to worthy causes
A lovely gesture and thanks for keeping us informed.
It can’t be genetic as my youngest adores it, when no one else can even stomach the smell of the stuff. I’m beginning to wonder if she’s even mine (though I did give birth to her). It certainly costs a lot more than in the UK but Eroski always have it, and even in the quantities she would cheerfully put it away at least it lasts ages.
Well done on the trees thing, it’s a wonderful and truly meaningful achievement
Love the photo. We explored parts of the picos a few years ago. Didn’t find the marmite, but as I am a from birth eater of marmite I will try it with the olive oil.
Well done with the contribution to save the bears.
Saludos de Norwich England.
Hace dos años, quedamos al Parador en Cervera. Fui un paseo en los bosques. Había algunos problemas – los postes de señal (a) no existían o (b) estaban estropeado, y los mapas españoles no son al mismo nivel de detalle o precisión como los del ‘Ordnance Survey’ en Inglaterra.
Sin embargo, tuve un buen paseo. El campo era hermoso, hizo buen tiempo y la gente estaba muy amable y paciente con mi falta de español. No vi ningunos osos, pero en respuesta a la pregunta sobre el obvio:- “¿Cagan los osos en los bosques?”, puedo confirmar que la repuesta es «Sí». ¡La evidencia estaba en todas partes!
Nic
Siempre agradezco las correcciones
I looks like people have commented more on the marmite topic than the fruit trees and the bears
I think your choice of charity is so interesting, and exciting! I want to say thank you for this initiative! It feels really really good to think that I also helped a tiny bit by buying your (great!) product. In return, your product is helping my Spanish a lot!
What a wonderful world this would be if we all helped one another and the environment on a regular basis!
Luciana
Everything about this site is about generosity- the podcasts, the marked homework, the marmite and especially helping the bears. Muchisimas gracias!
?Ben, es posible puede escribirle un poco mas de espanol en el podcast ?
Ademas, es muy agradable oir que hay personas que son interesados en el medioambiente. !Bien hecho!
Siempre agradezco las correcciones
Bravo por su initiativa con respecto a los osos y lo de los arboles de frutas. Actualmente soy al nivel Inspired Beginner en su programa excelente, porque no quiero faltar uno de las instalaciones. Creo que voy a comprar la Crisis Collection mas tarde, para ayudarme y tambien la ambiente!
LOL at the comment about dubbed nature documentaries. That is SO true! Ah. Talk about memories flooding back. Thanks Ben
Brilliant, that’s so nice to read!
What will the bears eat until the new trees bear fruit? Surely not marmite! Or will they survive on porridge, given that Goldilocks doesnt eat it all’.
Seriously, I think it’s a great idea to help los osos.
Saludos Carol
The title is somewhat hilarious. It sounds like you’re having ‘Asturian Bears and Marmite and Olive Oil on Toast’!
I have been told bear meat tastes just as awful as Marmite! :p
Well done, chicos! This is the cool and positive thing about the world today: You don’t necessarily be an studied environmentalist – which I for example would have loved to be, but fate had other plans – to decicate yourself to conservation and protection of our planet. Projects like that (and people who are willing to participate) give everyone the possiblility to help and see for real what was achieved with the money.
And even greater if guys like you who can reach quite a bunch of people give an example. Maybe you can take a little shot of your 120 new friends with your excellent camera?? (and later of the bears strolling through them
@Matthias, we hope to get there some day for sure!
Carol,
It is well known that bears eat marmalade.