“Once upon a time there was a small kingdom full of flowers, light and color; located to the Levant of the barren land of the goblins. Legend has it that on one fateful day, a powerful lady dressed in blue at the head of her hosts, tried to expel some ragged peasants from the temple, who dared to sell cabbages and turnips in that sacred place for the bourgeoisie… ”
Stop, I’m not going to continue as if this were a tale from the Grimm brothers. Although I feel like it, I feel like turning the Mercado Colón incident into a fable with a moral. What a week of nonsense and fires at all levels, forestry, ethical and cultural. I want to think that the electoral promise to eliminate the “Tira de comptar” has been a simple blunder, poorly conceived and worse subrogated, more perhaps by a misinformed advisor on duty, than by someone intelligent who aspires to be mayor of Valencia some day.
It is clearer than water that sometimes verbiage reductionism plays tricks, but the infamous thing about the matter is linking an institution with a greater tradition than the Tribunal de las Aguas itself, with a stall selling panties. That is inexcusable and continues in the drawer of affronts.
The Counting Strip is a unique trading system in the world, which guarantees the sale of fresh produce from local agriculture. A privilege that establishes a vital connection between the garden and the city. During the pandemic its importance became clear, supplying the city with fresh produce at the worst of the crisis.
When the thinking heads of UNESCO analyzed the situation in search of the ideal city model, they drew a city surrounded by orchards. What a coincidence! Valencia is like that. It is true that people fill their mouths with the orchard, but they end up buying in the supermarket. It is for simple convenience and because it is not easy to access these products either. Retailers bring potatoes from Israel, onions from France and asparagus from Peru because it pays off, period. They are businessmen, not sisters of charity. The local farmer, that is a romantic hero. There are those who believe in what they are doing, others have no other choice or way out and sell as best they can, with little margin and even at a loss.
The Count Strip is an instrument that helps them survive. It is more than just a space in Mercavalència, where more than 300 small farmers come from Monday to Friday at 4 in the morning, and for three hours they directly sell the products that they sow, cultivate and collect themselves. It is a living testimony of our history; a foral institution, singular and unique in the world, which has survived since the 13th century and which has been able to update itself and maintain its validity over time. Since it is such a difficult thing to explain, it would fall into the category of a miracle.
Established in times of Arab domination and made official in 1238 by King Jaume I. The different regulations on the Counting Strip have guaranteed the supply of fresh produce in the city and the right of farmers to attend the fruit and vegetable market, as well as regulated their particular activity. Historically, it has known different locations until its definitive establishment in 1981 in the Mercavalència premises.
Created during the Arab domination and continued after the Reconquest, it was consolidated as a farmers’ right in 1238. This first strip was located during the 12th-16th centuries in the Plaza de la Hierba. Luis Vives writes in his Dialogues:
“What a large market, what a good order and distribution of merchandise! There are no orchards the same as those that supply this city!”
(1594) For reasons of hygiene, the Tira de Contar is moved in front of the Lonja, beyond the Muslim wall that delimited the Madina de Boatella.
(1914) Change of location to the surroundings of the convent and church of San Agustín, due to the beginning of the construction works of the Central Market.
(1920-1940) It is located between the Gran Vía de Fernando el Católico and Cuenca street.
(1948) He finds accommodation in the recently built Valencia Food Market, on Buen Orden street. A complex of 23,800 m2.
(1981) Following the closure of the Mercado de Abastos, a purpose-built warehouse was built in Mercavalència to house the Counting Strip. And there it goes.
As for the incident of the “Tirita” or minor strip of the Mercayetano Colón, it must be downplayed. If this miracle bothers the wealthy of Pla del Real, in the rest of the city’s neighborhoods we will be delighted to welcome it.
We are what we eat, and that explains everything.
