Granada to Cordoba
Another beautiful day of sunshine and mild temperatures greeted us this morning as we boarded our coach in Granada on our way to the beautiful and historic city of Cordoba. But first, we had a stop at a dairy by the name of Los Pastoreros. Milking 500 head, a few of the practices, feedstuffs and equipment reminded some of us of similarities to operations we are familiar with at home. One of the feed sources, Chufa, was of particular interest. It is harvested for its tuber, which is then pressed and used to create a sweet milk popular in this region. We know Chufa in our state by the common name of Yellow Nutsedge.
After this interesting visit we headed to the Agricola Noli equipment factory in Fernan Nunez. Here they manufacture, assemble and sell farm equipment to local farmers as well as international customers. The average farm size in Europe is much smaller than in America and it showed by the small equipment that is in demand. Cultivators, rollers, corn planters, deep tillage tools and olive harvesters were a few of the pieces that caught the eye of the group. The olive harvester, which clamps around the base of the tree and shakes it to capture the ripe olives, appeared to be the most expensive piece of equipment with a price tag of 95,000 Euros.
We were then on to Cordoba for a short walking tour where we learned about some of the rich history of this fascinating city. Still standing were various city walls dating back 1,000-2,000 years. We walked to the doors of The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, or The Great Mosque Cathedral as it is often called. One thing noticed by the group in Cordoba was that it seemed to have more of an Arab influence then our previous stops. The history around the alternating rule of this beautiful place of worship between Christians and Muslims was fascinating.
