Pumpkin

"Calabaza" actually gathers several species and a great diversity of shapes: the orange-fleshed table squashes of Cucurbita pepo, moschata and maxima are not the same thing as the cidra — Cucurbita ficifolia — with its pale, stringy flesh. In the province it is a present but modest production, more a matter of the household pantry than of statistics: the huerta's best planner, planted once the cold has gone, it fattens through the summer, is picked into autumn and then, whole and in the shade, keeps for months.

In the south-east it also has a sweet destiny: the cidra or cabello de ángel is candied into golden threads to fill puff pastries and sweet turnovers. The table kinds — butternut, violin, round orange-fleshed — end up in soups, roasts and slow-cooked stews.

The local anchor is culinary, not statistical: in the Bajo Andarax the squash appears in popular dishes, and Alhama's municipal repertoire lists squash stews among its long-standing recipes. A documented use at the table — without turning this discreet crop into a farming emblem.