Thirty-two crops, several landscapes and the same Mediterranean light.
Along the coast, greenhouses draw a white mosaic across the Campo de Dalías, the Bajo Andarax and the Campo de Níjar. The most recent official figure puts their physical footprint at around 33,000 hectares in the province; the 62,743 cultivated hectares reported for the 2024/25 season also count plots that host two successive crop cycles — the two figures describe different realities.
Spectacular as it is, that landscape does not sum up Almería's farmland. Citrus and the historic uva del barco follow the Andarax valley; olive, almond and fig trees and open-field crops climb the slopes and reach inland; new tropical fruits are being trialled under cover along the coastal strip. Read the catalogue as a map, from the sea to the sierras, as much as a harvest calendar.
From vine tomatoes to ribbed fruit, the tomato shapes Almería's huerta. Under the diffuse light of the greenhouses, sand-mulched soil, drip irrigation and sometimes salinity produce very different profiles — from cherry to Raf de Níjar.
Still marginal in the province, the lime shows up on a few farms in southern Spain. The Tahiti lime — oval, smooth and nearly seedless — is its best-documented reference.
Black, elongated and almost glossy, or striped purple on white, the Almería aubergine is picked nearly all year round. Beneath the skin, its pale flesh keeps a dense, fresh texture.
From early onions to storage types, this bulb structures sofritos, salads and stews. In Almería it is grown but remains secondary: its diversity is best told through seasons and the knife.
The tree of the Andarax slopes and the Sierra de Gádor, dressing the Alpujarra in white in late January. In Alhama, the Los Frailes archives document its arrival on the old terraced plots.
Planted in spring, harvested from summer into autumn, it keeps all winter in the pantry. From table pumpkins to the cidra behind cabello de ángel, each type plays its part — down to the stews of Alhama.
The fig tree is the Mediterranean dryland tree par excellence, planted by cortijos and stone walls. It gives brevas in early summer and figs at its end — a diffuse tradition of the Almerian Alpujarra.
The fruit of the prickly pear, the cactus that came from the Americas and naturalised along Almería's paths and drylands. Eaten from July to October, well chilled and with due respect for its spines.
A strictly tropical fruit being trialled under Almería's plastic: tests at El Ejido and Retamar study varieties, structure height, yield and quality in a climate that is not its own.
Greenhouse mango remains an experimental path in Almería: local research studies varieties, rootstocks, salinity and earliness, far from the great subtropical orchards of Málaga and Granada.
The huerta you don't eat: carnations and roses also grow under the plastic. Almería leads Andalusia's ornamental plants by area, but cut flowers here are a real yet modest business.