* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
Next to the Marimon Tower (IRTA) in Caldes de Montbui, in the Vallès Oriental, we find this unique and curious oven, which I show in La Vanguardia Readers’ Photos, to toast the green pineapples and remove the pine nuts to sell them.
In those times there were also construction kilns to make tiles and construction materials, as well as the kiln to burn resin tiles for the turpentine and the lime kiln (now replaced by cement).
All of them used more or less the same technique of burning with wood and this type of igloo-type construction, as can be seen in the photographs.
The turpentines, taking advantage of the popular wisdom transmitted through generations, traveled through the towns selling medicinal plants, dried mushrooms, oils made from turpentine and other natural products with healing properties that they made from what their natural environment offered them. Turpentine is obtained from the distillation of the resin of certain trees, such as pine.
Kilns that made charcoal for cooking and also generating energy in industry were also very important until electric power arrived.
All these ovens have been abandoned due to progress and changes, however, it is funny to find this almost unique element that was dedicated to producing pine nuts.