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FREE SACRED SIERRA: A YEAR ON A SPANISH MOUNTAIN PDF Jason Webster | 368 pages | 10 May 2010 | Vintage Publishing | 9780099512943 | English | London, United Kingdom Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain by Jason Webster - book review Share on:. Jason Webster and his partner, Salud searched and bought forty acres of valley and mountainside halfway up the Penyagolosa Ridge in Southern Spain, complete with two derelict sets of farm buildings. These masor smallholdings, formed the backbone of Spanish agriculture until young people abandoned rural life for towns in the mid-twentieth century. The agro-economics of the EEC enforced obsolescence of the mas system. As old timers retired or died, their farms were abandoned, leaving most of the land returning to wild. Self-sufficiency was Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain huge change from city life in Valencia for an English writer and his Flamenco dancing girl friend. This is a record of restoring cultivation and renovating buildings fit for human habitation. In the trying, the couple developed resourcefulness and perseverance alongside connectedness with the landscape and respect for Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain neighbours. Each month of their first year is prefixed by information from the Kitab al-Falaha, a twelfth century agricultural handbook which became Jason Webster's trusted resource for instruction in the art of subsistence farming. Fortunately he was clearly a nice but ignorant chap and very willing to learn from more experienced farmers. The remaining masovers proved a welcoming bunch who offered practical help, advice and support to the newcomers. The trials and travails of everyday are interwoven with eccentric local characters who bundle them off unexpectedly to celebrate traditional local customs. The couple not only survive, but their self-sufficiency flourishes in their first year on the land. In recording what they learned, Jason Webster provides a compendium of rural life. Look no further for directions about how to select, clean and cook snails … recognize and cook wild asparagus … pick and market olives for oil … plant or prune trees … prepare truffles in the kitchen. The most important lesson for Jason Webster was learned about the slow rhythm of the seasons, the satisfaction to be gained from working with the earth and acceptance of the vagaries of a harsh climate. I loved the folk tales preluding each chapter. Interestingly, the traditional mix of handsome princes, lovely princesses, all-powerful kings, evil queens, wicked witches and innocent maidens are surprisingly akin to our own fairy stories. Warring Moors and Christians from the Crusades and Saints from all ages augment the cast. In reviewing, I think of myself as a general reader, which means I'll have a go at anything that catches my Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain. In real life, I buy a local book, fiction or non-fiction, when I'm visiting a new place, which somehow cements my relationship with the landscape. I don't know inland Spain at all, and I think that's probably why I didn't really make a connection with this book. Conversely, of course, I'm sure it will be of great interest to travellers in the region. My overall impression remains of a lyrical watercolour wash. I wanted to nail down this particular location but found it quite difficult to pinpoint. Even with the map, it somehow evaded my capture. So also with the hero of the story, the author himself. Jason Webster tends to remain the impartial reporter, whereas I prefer books which Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain the personality of the writer to seep through, warts and all. I have a mental picture of his lovely, gentle, practical partner, Salud — but only a blurry image of Jason Webster himself. Please share on: FacebookTwitter and Instagram. Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site. Page actions Review Discussion More Tools. Personal tools Log in. Categories Fiction Non-fiction Children's books Authors. We Buy Books. Category: Travel. Reviewer: Trish Simpson- Davis. Summary: An informative, literary account of a year learning self-sufficiency on a traditional Spanish smallholding halfway up a mountain. Earnest, respectful, sometimes lyrical writing about the land and its inhabitants. Jason Webster (author) - Wikipedia Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Sacred Sierra by Jason Webster. In a book, rich with characters and plants, this is a romantic and alluring leap into Spanish rural life with the author and his partner, a flamenco dancer, who buy a farm in a remote, steep valley and set about clearing land, planting and harvesting olives. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. More Details Original Title. Other Editions 4. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Sacred Sierraplease sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Jun 20, Emma Doughty rated it it was amazing. Jason Webster has lived in Spain for many years, and made a life there. He lives with a Spanish flamenco dancer, speaks the language and eats the food - he's not just an ex-pat there for a sunnier version of his own life. Having lived in Valencia itself, and tired of the heat and the noise, Jason and Salud decide the time is right to buy an old farm a 'mas' in the local language and see if they can live the good life in the mountains. But most of the mas have been abandoned as people left for Jason Webster has lived in Spain for many years, and made a life there. But most of the mas have been abandoned as people left for the city in search of an easier life, and there are many perils of living on the Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain - not least the wild boar and the hunters who roam across even private property in order to keep them under control. Sacred Sierra follows Jason and Salud through their first year on the mountain. Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain meet their neighbours, a colourful bunch of characters who live on the mountain. One Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain the fastest thing on crutches; another lives like a hermit further up the mountain and tells stories during the week - but on the weekend his wife comes to visit. All of these are beautifully and intriguingly rendered, and make for a good read. But it was Jason's details about the plant life in and around the mas that really captured my imagination. There are olive and almond trees, all neglected, that he attempts to bring back into cultivation, rejoicing in even the tiniest harvest of their own nuts and olive oil. He plants a vegetable patch at the back of the house and embarks on an ambitious truffle tree project, both of which suffer from the attentions of the wild boar. There's bee keeping adventures, mushroom Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain and ways to cook snails. And between each chapter there are renditions of Spanish stories - folk lore from the past. Enthralling, fascinating and informative, this is one 'travalogue' which shows you a lovely slice of life from a corner of Spain which is normally kept hidden, away from the glare of the well-known 'Costas'. Dec 28, Ian rated it really liked it. Enthralling account of his experience of living in a Mas in the mountains near Valencia! Gives a descriptive account of rural cultures in Spain! There was plenty of interesting pieces of this book, but there wasn't much to hold it together. The book is exhaustingly self-righteous and overwrought: a steak isn't just juicy, it oozes with thick red blood and bashes the tingling nerves of the brain and causes a minor orgasm and makes the consumer consider death more fully blah blah blah. That ridiculous conceit made me roll my eyes many times. Having seen firsthand the horror of overdevelopment on the Spanish coastline, I understand Webster's disgust, but he is totally uncritical of his own participation in the development narrative. With all of Webster's conceit both literary and personal there's just enough of a hint of charm to keep me reading until the end. This is Jason Webster's story of his first year in the mountainside "mas" which he and his wife Salud move to, and begin to renovate both the cottage and the land. As he works with the elements he narrates a wonderful story of the characters he meets and the friendships made, as well as his expansion of almond, olive and truffle farming. Each chapter, told in monthly parts, is started with a traditional folk tale from the area, which adds something extra to what Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain already a great and well written This is Jason Webster's story of his first year in the mountainside "mas" which he and his wife Salud move to, and begin to renovate both the cottage and the land. Each chapter, told in monthly parts, is started with a traditional folk tale from the area, which adds something extra to what is already a great and well written story.

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