Enjoy and relax!

Do you know the "mongets"?

A "monget" is, besides the name of a town of 80 inhabitants in the French Atlantic Pyrenees, one of the most beloved agricultural varieties in the Empordà. At least in our home it is the one who heads the top ten of legumes and without detracting from the other legumes we can certify that, at least, it has been grown intermittently for more than 70 years and three generations.

Appreciated for its fine texture and easy digestion, they are usually eaten boiled or accompanied by potatoes or all kinds of meat with a drizzle of olive oil or alioli. Green pods can also be eaten as if they were tender beans. Even the most contemporary gastronomy, which has also exploited its ideal applications in hummus preparations.

Its characteristics mean that harvested by hand and with virtually non-existent mechanization, its production is mainly on a small scale. The fact that the crumbs have to be harvested as the seed dries and not all at once, like other legumes, makes it a commercially unattractive fruit. It is sown around the 15th of May (Sant Isidre) and harvested at the end of August, by the green bean, or by September, if it is to be consumed dry.

The "monget" is, like the prawn of Palamós, the onion of Figueres or the rice of Pals, one of the 8 products included in the guarantee mark "Productes de l'Empordà" a certificate created in September 2003. The recognition went to do so with the aim of recognizing the Empordà's own products and helping to promote their marketing with the support of the producers and the county councils of the Alt and Baix Empordà.

A good tip to try the bean is without a doubt to pack your bags and come and spend a few days in the Empordà, where you can see firsthand how local producers, like us, grow it and buy it in specialist shops, fairs, and weekly markets. With a little luck, it’s also a joy to savor them cooked by a local restaurant well paired with a glass of good wine.

As most of the local products that surround us, their destinations are full of history and, despite having a consumption rooted in the Empordà, their origins go back to Africa where it was the Romans who brought them home. ours for the first time.

The "mongets" are also known in other Catalan areas as "mongets de l'ull ros" (blond eye beans), "banyolina" beans, "caragirats" or "escurçatites". And above all, it should never be confused with the "mongets d'ull negre" (black-eyed bean), which is easier to find, cheaper and less appreciated in the kitchen. For all this, and surely more than we leave, whenever we eat "mongets" at home, which luckily is quite often, let’s say we make “a big party food”.

Ideal all the year

RECIPE !!!!
We have a lot of cherries and we decided to make a recipe
Very easy:

1) First wash them well and drain them

2) Cut them in half and place them on the baking sheet with paper so that they do not stick

3) Season with salt and sprinkle with herbs and a drizzle of oil

4) We put it in the oven at 110 º for an hour and a half

5) Once cooled we put them in sterilized jars

And note for pastas, salads, snacks….

A look back

Besides the grape drink, the rocky coves, the tramontana wind, the brunyols and the surrealism, the Catalan region Empordà is the first enclave of the Iberian Peninsula where the geeks and Romans settled.

The civilizations came to "Emporion", the current municipality of Sant Martí d'Empúries that still retains its name, and nomenclature that they put a word meaning "market" or "place where trade is practiced" in Greek. The Greeks themselves would later name the Iberian Peninsula, extracted from the Iberian, the second largest river on the peninsula, which currently takes the name of the Ebro.

At this strategic point in the Mediterranean, at the southern end of the current Gulf of Roses, today are preserved, among many others, architectural remains of cultures that we drank in an area that can be visited in the ruins of Empúries, a place where his visit is deserved beyond its indisputable physical and historiographical beauty.

Have hou hever seen a honeymooned?

We celebrate that we just honeymooned, have you ever seen how it’s done?


We celebrate the #beesday with our small effort, besides rural tourism, we contribute to it as honey producers and beekeepers that we are.


For all the benefit these small and often ignored insects bring to the plants and animals of the earth.


We save and preserve the territory following his example.


Oh, staying at Can Massot you can help to it by tasting it for breakfast and, yes, also, you can take a sweet piece from our house to your home.

Today we are talking about a curious specimen.

Today we are talking about a curious specimen.

Between Alta Garrotxa and Albera, the largest reptile shell we see is located less than two kilometers from Can Massot.

The largest turtle in the Empordà Pyrenees is perched on a small mountain. Known as the Mirador de la Tortuga, the place offers a large natural rock with the reasonable simile of this herbivore.

As controlling the repetitive beat of the rivers, the Arnera and the Muga, in the Swamp of Darnius, rises this unique vertebrate that many legends point out that it really existed before petrified as a symbol of longevity and love in our place.

Leaving aside the popular narrative, one observes the wonderful panorama of Cap de Creus to the mountains of the confluence. In addition, it can be climbed with care like a mythological animal using the support of a stone of identical shape of smaller dimensions next to it.

More symbolism adds the fact that the Mediterranean turtle species, of which we speak, in the Iberian Peninsula exists only natively in the Sierra de l'Albera, where there is also a preservation center. The fact is that the specimens, native to southern Europe, have been gradually declining to enter the list of endangered biological species made by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1948.

For all this, and more, we invite you, once the restrictive measures that we must comply with, to make or repeat the trip to see the biggest Turtle in our small country.

We give you the recipe

Apple cookies with lemon pie sauce

We give you a very easy recipe to make, you have the whole procedure on our social networks.

Cookie ingredients
- 1 diced apple
- ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 apple compote
- 150 gr of oatmeal
- 2 tablespoons of Can Massot honey
- 50 g of oatmeal
- a bit of salt
- half an envelope of yeast

Ingredients Lemon Pie sauce

200ml of lemon juice
2 eggs
2 tablespoons honey from Can Massot
40 g of cornstarch
1 grated lemon

Food next door

In the Can Massot supermarket you need a hoe but you don't have to queue.

Today we planted some lettuce and onions to make good salads.

Let's make calçots!

What we like most about calçots is being able to gather in groups to taste them, currently with the health situation this becomes more complicated, but they can also be shared with a small group and with family, the taste does not change.

Let nothing stop the good taste, the good products and the calçotades.

What do you think about it?

This special year we didn’t want the pessebre to be missing. Making the pessebre always brings back good memories. Look the one we have.

When these dates arrive, it's time to go to the olive grove

When the cold arrives we go to collect the olives, which we then take to the mill, to make the oil with which we prepare the breakfast (pa amb tomata) and the rest of the products made with oil.

Like every year at this time, we have done the panellets

In Catalonia, panellets are the typical food of Tots Sants, along with chestnuts. Have you tried ours?

Did you know that panellets have been recognized since 2006 as a traditional specialty product (ETG) guaranteed by the European Union?

Look what a beautiful mushroom we found!

How we longed for autumn to come.

A lot of mushrooms are starting to come out, among them, today we found this beautiful "ou de reig".

The latest and most important presentation!

Hi everybody,

Many of you already know me, but I introduce myself: I am Roser, of Can Massot, and today we have the last presentation of all the ones that we have done in recent weeks

I've been at the helm for twenty-one years now, I'm the visible person, but you see that the whole family contributes to it.

Thanks to them and to you I think we have created a family and, above all, very good friendships. I wish that for many years we could keep growing it.

Thank you all so much for making this possible!

See you soon!

Roser

Do you know Josep Maria?

Continuing with the presentations of Can Massot, I introduce myself:

I'm Josep Mª.

First let me tell you that I am very happy with the three explanations that precede me. And secondly, these four words are also a small tribute to the people who once wanted to achieve and preserve this heritage.

Abot the activity, I am proud to have opted for it, this idea of originality that we once wanted to achieve avoiding a majority trend. Now I can tell you that a bunch of years has passed but we still hold that initial idea and a lot of the people who have known us still enjoy us.

I end with a phrase that I don't know who it is but that in its day amused me, and it goes like this: __ “The place is more important than us.” _

Josep Maria

More presentations

I introduce myself,

I am Pau, the eldest son of the house and like my brothers I grew up in Can Massot, that is, cutting watermelon peel for the hens, using bikes as vehicles to transport mushrooms and making excursions to the garden to get the dinner, on weekdays. While the weekends, busier than the others, were shaped like a box of surprises presenting rooms to curious people, playing ping-pong and basketball with experts after preparing breakfast and giving directions so that no one would get lost trying to find the Mirador de la Tortuga (Viewpoint of the Turtle).

In short, to see how a room and a breakfast of fork and knife take the form of plants, animals, history, art, recipes, board games, traditions, excursions, can only be explained with the same enthusiasm that pushed my parents to start it when I was only 7 years old.

My taste for letters led me to perform poetry recitals at the house (let's see when the health situation lets us do it again, the place is already poetic in itself), I also promote Facebook and the blog in different languages that ​​we have on the website and where we explain a little what we can.

Oh, I forget it, if you’re under 10, let me know and I’ll take you to an unforgettable tour around the house with Nyola, our loved pony.

Pau

We take this opportunity to present one more of the house

As we said we would do, today I had to introduce myself.

Well, here I am, I'm Xavier, the middle son of the house. I am passionate about nature, and this has led me to become a forestry engineer. I am also in charge of filling the baskets of mushrooms that you usually see in photos and accompanying customers to hunt them in the forests around Can Massot.

It's a pleasure to greet you and I hope to see you soon in Can Massot!

Salut!

Xavier

Learn about who is behind Can Massot

Well then I had to be the first person to introduce myself!

My name is Marta and I am the youngest daughter of the owners of Can Massot!

I love taking pictures of the farmhouse, the farm animals and the different activities we do there!

Well, then I'm the one who carries the Instagram and uploads the posts you all see. I think that today it is very important and necessary to get to know all those people who have not yet had the opportunity to discover us.

See you around here, very good summer!

Ahhh and stay tuned! Next Sunday you will meet a new face

Marta

Two ducks swimming in our swamp

This afternoon we saw two ducks in the Darnius-Boadella Swamp!
It can't be more beautiful, it looks like it came from a painting.

Now it's time to think about good recipes

As you can see today we filled all the baskets with "rossinyols", trumpets of death and "ceps".

We found these eggs but we don’t know what they are

We found this nest while we were gardening. 
Let's see if you know what bird it is?

And best wishes

From Can Massot we wish you a happy Sant Jordi (Saint George). We hope you can enjoy this day in the best possible way where love and literature can also be present.

Each station has its surprises

What is your favorite vegetable? If they recommend a balanced and healthy diet, eating freshly and seasonal products is a good option. During these dates, we have the fava beans and the peas from our garden. We can show you the garden, how we take care of it, what plants we have, how we collect them, and if you are lucky, you can also taste them!

Have you ever tried?

Next to our farmhouse there are plenty of possible hikes in the forest that allow you to get asparagus from the forest. Have you ever tried them, how you cook them? We cook them with tortilla, boiled, baked, in the fire or with cream.

Wake you up to taste our homemade jams!

We try that the flavor of the first meal accompanies you during the day. If this meal is made with local products or products of our farm for us the pleasure is multiple. Cakes, crepes, pancakes, it doesn't matter all of them are good for our homemade jams (cherry, lemon, fig, bitter orange, apricot, tomato, among others, all made in Can Massot for you).

When autumn comes we like to light the fire.

In Can Massot you can taste panellets and chestnuts when autumn arrives by the fire. If you have not tried them, here is one more reason to come and visit us. The panellets are a traditional sweet of Catalonia prepared with almonds and it is typical to consume it on November 1, like the chestnuts. And not only that, but in the nearest forests you can also go looking for this fruit by the presence of chestnut trees in towns such as Maçanet de Cabrenys, Tapis or Vajol.

It is a typical fruit from our forests.

One of the reasons why we like to walk through our forests are the mushrooms. In this way, when it is seasonal and the weather conditions are favourable, a few meters from Can Massot you can find species such as ceps, ous de reig, cama secs, rossinyols, "apagallums", rovellons or "carlets". If you like mushrooms but you have some doubts do not risk, it is better not to take them, anyway if we can help you, we will do it happily. Since ours is a good area to search for mushrooms, it is usual that you can try them in nearby restaurants and local dishes. Do it!

Eat and learn how to make even more delicious this dry fruit

Garapinyadas are a typical delight of these lands. Almonds are collected from our garden and we love to make them sweet for you. You can try them in our breakfasts and you can ask us about the recipe. If you're around here when we're cooking them, we'll show you all the steps straight.

This wonderful summer vegetable, we take it fresh in the morning for you to taste it

Next to the house, we have a garden where tomatoes are the most striking plants in the heating season. For our breakfast you can try them fresh or with bread with tomato called "pa amb tomata". Here we know them as "tomata" and it is the same fruit that is known as tomato or "tomàquet" in other parts of Catalonia. If you have dinner in Can Massot you can also go to the garden and take some for free to make your salad.

Good morning!

Every morning, we prepare a cake to start the day in the best way. We try to have a wide variety of options because every day you have a different surprise when you go down to get the first meal before starting your day of holidays. The freshly baked cakes are one of our flags in the morning. We want you to enjoy them as much as we enjoy preparing them for you.

Come and try them, if you have any preference, gluten free, salt, sweet, chocolate, tell us and we will adapt to them. See you soon!

Can Massot's honey

The honey is a natural substance produced by bees with the nectar of flowers. Its flavour and colour change according to the type of flowers they have and the seasons, so, by the morphology of our forests, which we collect is mainly of heather, oak and rosemary. The sweetness of honey is very similar to that of granulated sugar and is often used as a substitute of it. Several medicinal traditions, in addition, use it as a food to treat diseases. Throughout the history of mankind, honey has played a transcendental role in the more than 8,000 years that humans consume it. When the spring is over and a few weeks before the start of the summer, we check our vessels removing a part of the honey and leaving the remaining part for the bees. Once collected it is usual that you can try it on our breakfasts or take away the taste of our forests inside a boat at the end of your holidays.

We love these customers

We are super happy to have such special guests who also have come with a wonderful family. Can Massot is perfect for routes with horses, bicycles or donkeys. The difference with donkeys is that excursions can be done in a much quiet way and children love them. The donkeys also have fun visiting us!

We start the day well

Some people say that the breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day. In Can Massot, every morning, we have it clear.

Depending on the season you will find some products or others, but you can always try local. Besides the homemade confitures of our fruits and wild fruits, you expect fresh cakes or pastries. Thus, you will also find the honey from our fields, the artisan bread, the seasonal fruits and vegetables, brunyols of l'Empordà, the olive oil from our olives or the almonds "garapinyadas" from the almond trees ofthe garden.

Why important things can not be simple?

Can Massot gives you this rose

We want to celebrate one of the most beautiful days of the year with you. Because every year, for these dates, some symbols of esteem appear next to the house to invite us to give love. Going back to the 15th century, the roses appear in all the homes in Catalonia for the beautiful festival of Sant Jordi that for almost a century has also incorporated the literary element with the gift of words printed on pages in the form of a book. 
That is why Can Massot, it cannot be otherwise, wishes you a happy Sant Jordi and invites you to celebrate it with your loved ones.

Happy Diada!

Mediterranean breakfast

Every morning we prepare breakfast in the best way so you can start the day with eagerness. Amongst all the variety of products we offer the cakes stand out, one of them is the carrot cake.

Additionally, you will find homemade products such as our honey, the jams, the oil, the seasonal fruits, the tomatoes, the garlic and the artisanal bread. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

You can watch more photos here.

We leave here the recipe, ingredients:

- 250 g of sunflower oil
- 5 eggs
- 550 g of carrot
- 80 g of whole-grain flour
- 180 g of brown sugar 
- 1 envelope of yeast 
- a pinch of salt
- a spoonful of cinnamon powder
- 150 g of walnuts

The beauty of the spring

The lily is one of the jewels of our garden. Both the fields and the exteriors of the house are impregnated with the smell and the colors of the spring. See more photos.

In our village of Darnius every year for these dates we celebrate the contest of wildflowers, a historical event in the area and a beautiful moment to honour the gifts that the forest gives to us during this period of the year.

Have you ever cooked bread?

We cooked bread with spiced flour, water, salt and olive oil. It's delicious!
In addition, we added dried fruits.

Making coal in Darnius (Girona)

The village of Darnius makes coal once a year to show attendees how it was made in the past and recover this tradition. The incredible event is lead by a traditional food event and cultural activities. 

During the day, a neighbour of the village makes the explanations to the attendees. The initiative is organized by different entities of the villages such as the Turisme Rural Can Massot, the Associació Pessebre Vivent Darnius and the City Council.

Dear bloggers,

We started this blog with the aim of sharing the experiences we have and have had in Can Massot, Darnius.

Continue reading...

Dear bloggers,

We started this blog with the aim of sharing the experiences we have and have had in Can Massot, Darnius.

This summer, on 2 August 2017, we celebrated our anniversary. 18 years ago we started our long-awaited project to open our Bed&Breakfast. After 18 months of hard working, we already wanted to open it. It was an important project but we were very excited about it, we had some good people that made, day by day, our project possible. The entire family helped us as much as they could: my parents, my parents-in-law, my brother, my brother-in-law, and even our two kids who were so young and asked us: we also want to do it, what can we do it?

I helped as much as I could the construction workers and I also restored all the furniture, I was very gratified because it was the furniture of our families, both of them, my husband's family, and my family. First, I enroled to a restoration course to learn more about how to do so and then, I had just to apply it. We had to use soda - it was incredible to see, I had the garden plenty of beds, wardrobes, tables, bedheads, etc., I'm sorry I do not have pictures from that day. It was very nice to try what bedhead I liked most in each room and so with all the furniture, but how beautiful it is when you see that you already have the whole house ready for the tourist inspector to came and give us the official certification "RESIDENCIA CASA DE PAGÈS of the MASIA PG-00169". I still remember that moment as if it was today.

It was a very happy day, the arrival of our first guests, they were a lovely family, Yago and Maite, their son and two twin children... The years have passed, we have known many more families and we have made very good friends, so much, that there are already considered as part of our family.

I will soon explain more about the village and what we do and have done in Can Massot.

See you soon!

Roser