Francisca Marcalo: Infusing the Alentejo Region’s Seasonal Bounty
International Farm-to-Fork, Issue I
Francisca Marcalo: Infusing the Alentejo Region’s Seasonal Bounty, based on an interview in July 2023
The Alentejo region of Portugal is a land of fig, quince, grape, plum, mint, blackberry, and cherry. With a moderate climate, ample sun, and decent amount of rain during the fall, winter, and spring, this area is capable of growing a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. When studying a cuisine, one of the most exciting aspects rests in how people preserve the harvest. While there are endless possibilities for how fresh produce gets processed and its flavors and bounty enjoyed throughout the year, each region has its special way of working with its local products to not simply just preserve but express its culture and environment through preservation.
Francisca Marcalo has been quietly preserving the seasonal flavors of Messejana, a small village in the Alentejo, for decades. For most of her life, Francisca worked with her husband in their furniture shop on the edge of the village. She upholstered couches and chairs and other items in the store, and repaired the villagers’ furniture when needed, until her husband’s passing several years ago.
As the spring and summer’s bounty came and went throughout the years, Francisca started to capture its flavors through infusing the local fruits and herbs into the region’s traditionally made digestif, the Aquardente Bagaceira, or what villagers refer to as Bagaco.
Bagaco, which is similar to Italian Grappa, is made with leftover grape skins and stems. These by-products of the region’s productive winemakers are distilled in alambiques, which are the traditional copper distillers of this area. While the legal Bagaco is supposed to contain 37-52% alcohol, like American moonshiners some Portuguese make their own which contain much higher-levels of alcohol (Catavino). I cannot speak to which version Francisca uses, but the amount of alcohol in her infusions does not interfere with the fruit and helps carry forward their flavors.
By combining the Bagaco with fruit, sugar, and at times a cinnamon stick or two, and letting the mixture sit for about 40-60 days, Francisca is able to harness the essence of each unique fruit and preserve it for years. Working with locally grown strawberries, cherries, figs (and their leaves), pennyroyal, loquats, plums, and pomegranates, Francisca is able to highlight this growing region’s bounty and express the seasons to those she loves.
While her granddaughter watches TV cartoons in the living room, the elderly Francisca lifts from her kitchen counter a large batch of cherry Bagaco in a plastic gallon jug and shakes it with an earthquake’s force.
Francisca makes her infusions throughout the year, meanwhile collecting as many small to medium-small glass bottles as she can.
In her outdoor patio, which is a common feature in the homes of this region, we see a lemon tree hanging with fruit, grape vines twisting their way towards a pomegranate tree’s open red blossoms. Her two small dogs run and jump at our shins, eager to play with us.
As we taste Francisca’s sublime cherry Bagaco, she brings out an old vinegar bottle filled with a strawberry infusion she crafted in the spring and pours it into our small glasses. In addition to vinegar bottles, her concoctions are housed in half-liter wine bottles, olive oil, and juice bottles.
The loquat infusion, with its thick, syrupy mouthfeel, tastes like a bright almond liqueur. The cherry infusion, warmed by a cinnamon stick, possesses a cherry flavor at its peak of sweetness and acidity. Francisca’s pennyroyal Bagaco, Poejo Bagaco, which infuses an herb widely used in the Alentejo, reminds me of a cleaner, purer, simpler version of Fernet, the Italian after-dinner digestif.
For Christmas every year, Francisca’s relatives and friends get their special infusions as gifts. She jokingly tells us of how her son was asked to give a bottle of strawberry liquor to a friend but ended up drinking it all before he got to the friend’s house.
As Francisca continues to age, this village-specific tradition might wither. Many of the younger Messejana residents have left the village to find employment in larger cities and other parts of the Alentejo where they can work for higher wages in active mining operations and other lucrative areas. With the younger population that remains in the village busy with long commutes and a growing reliance on large grocery chains for quick, ready-made food and drinks, the ritual preservation of the seasons that Francisca practices might die with her.
As we walk back to the village square, we pass fig trees hanging with almost ripe fruit, their green bells rattle against each other, and the leaves’ honey-scent fills the air with an enduring aroma. We hope that Francisca and other villagers will preserve their ripeness for seasons to come, capturing each flush of fruit’s distinctive savor.
For the recipe below, find the freshest strawberries that you can, preferably just picked berries.
Morango (Strawberry) Bagaco
1 kilogram washed and quartered fresh strawberries
1 kilogram sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 liter Bagaco (grappa or vodka is a fine substitute)
Mix the above ingredients in a stainless-steel bowl until the sugar dissolves.
Place the mixture in a glass or non-reactive container.
Store the filled container in a dark and cool area, like a closet or low kitchen cabinet.
Occasionally mix the brew to diffuse the flavors, ideally once a day.
After one and a half to two months, taste the infusion. If the flavor is to your liking, strain out the strawberries and cinnamon stick, and enjoy. The infusion can last for several years if stored in a cool, dark place.
Reference
“Portugal’s Popular Wine Spirit.” Travel Guide to Portugal, 6 Jan. 2023, catavino.net/aguardente-bagaceira-portugals-seriously-strong-wine-spirit/.