Harvesting carobs and almonds (canya de prendre)

What is

Take is a Mallorcan verb: to make something fall by hitting or pushing (DCVB, Mall.). Take garroves, ametles: make them fall from the tree by hitting them with a stick or cane, or by shaking the trunk (DCVB). The tool is a long cane or stick; the gesture is the same.

How is

• Long cane or wooden stick, light and flexible (usual length, please verify).
• Under the tree, a cloth or mat to collect the fruit (local name of the cloth, please verify; today plastic nets).

How is fa

• Common reed (Arundo donax) cut in the stream and dried; or olive tree or wild olive tree (to verify).

Com s'usa

• The branches are hit from below; the fruit falls.
• Afterwards it is collected by hand in signs and bags, and weighed with the Roman weighing machine.
• The almond is peeled and split. Picarol (Alaró, Binissalem): small almond that passes through the entapping machine without breaking (DCVB).

Vocabulary

• tomar: knock down, make fall (Mall.).
• tomar garroves / ametles: harvest carob / almonds.
• picarol: small almond that the machine does not split (Alaró, Binissalem).
• encetadora: almond splitting machine (name included in DCVB sv picarol; description, to be verified).
• «Sa casa és massa vella i l'haurem de tomar»: example of general use (DCVB).

History

• 1727: «tomà tota la olive del Teix» (Hist. Sóller, DCVB): the verb already in documents.
• 19th-20th centuries: almond and carob trees spread across the Majorcan dryland (chronology, to be verified).
• Today: it continues to be shaken; partly with mechanical vibrators.

On veure'n

• Any dry land farm in August (almond) and September (garrova).
• Garrover de Son Mora: unique tree cataloged by the Government (CAIB, protection of species).

Why is it design

• Minimum tool, maximum gesture: a cane and the technique of hitting without breaking the branch.
• Material of the place: sugarcane grows in the streams next to the farms.
• The word is the method: taking does not exist in this sense outside of Mallorca.

For the project

• Poster or video of the “take ametles” gesture (see Manuel's video style).
• Glossary of Mallorcan agricultural verbs (tomar,ventar, batre, esporgar).

Sources

• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=tomar
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=picarol
• caib.es/sites/proteccioespecies/ca/n/garrover_de_son_mora-21557

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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