Agustina's pig's trotters: "Catalan cuisine wants this, the sizzle, Catalan cuisine is time."

Well, look, my name is Agustina Oliveras Calsina. I was born... wait for it...! On September 10, 1942. I was born in the countryside. But we didn't live like farmers at home. My father, since farming wasn't enough to make a living, immediately bought a truck and transported the bricklayers. He'd done this all his life.

And me? Well, a family at home asked if I could be hired as a maid at 14, to take care of a child.watch herAnd my family said yes, but on one condition: "She must still go to school." And yes, yes, I went to live with that family. I stayed for four years, but at night I went "for refreshers," as they called it. With the nuns. There were always volunteers who went to help people who couldn't (the poor, so to speak).something). So, there was very little schooling! And until the age of eighteen or so,lessAnd then I spent some time with my uncles in Barcelona, who didn't have any children. Two years too. And then I came back. The young people from these parts used to go dancing on Sundays in the dance hall we had, and I met my husband because he also came back here. The boys from Sant Vicenç, from Manresa… All couples have been like that. Here, almost all the girls—we were all girls—married boys fromaroundIt was fun to go dancing. This was our life. It wasn't anything more.

And once I was married, I didn't work outside anymore. I became a farmer. I got married and my children were born... And I was always a farmer. Our life has always been a farmer. They say to me: "Agustina, what well-kept plants you have." And I think: "I know them."

Back then, my mother-in-law and my husband would go grocery shopping. They would go to Terrassa to sell. And I would stay home with the children, who were little, and we would go to the fields to harvest... I had never cooked, because at my parents' house we were with a grandmother and an aunt. They did everything. Later, in Can Montclar, here... I golearnfrom my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law liked everything very well done, the fire always low, andwatch it, because Catalan cuisine wants this, the simmering, Catalan cuisine takes time. It's a matter of seeing things, I learned. But while she was here, she did it. And doing it little by little is very important. Because if you do it quickly, you're in trouble...

When my father-in-law got sick (and that's just getting older) and my mother-in-law was already retired and couldn't do much, I took care of myself. Always chipping away and always working hard. Because you have to think... You have to think that right here in front of you, on the other side of the road, there were all apple orchards, a field of Golden apples. In our country they called it "The House of Fruit." There was everything. Plum trees, pear trees... Further on, do you see? It was split in two, and in the top corner there were peaches, those tiny yellow ones, summer ones. Just a pass... And in the bottom corner there were pears. But everything we had in 2000 was swept away by the flood. Nothing was left.

It was nighttime, my husband was gone, having gone to sell some goods. Grandma and I were there. Both of us alone. And here, so dark, I heard the thunder coming from Montserrat Mountain. And I said to myself: "Agustina, what are you doing?" What could I do? And I thought: "You know what? Go get a bag of sawdust." Because we had sawdust, other downpours. I went to the tractor garage, and I grabbed that bag, but the water kept coming in, and I was afraid I wouldn't make it. I left the bag, ran up, and said to my mother-in-law, who was sleeping: "Grandma! Come on! Let's go up to the roof! We have to leave, Grandma!" And Grandma said in a hoarse voice: "I'm not going up... I can't go up." And we hunkered down, however we could and wherever we could, because the garage was already collapsing. And the bag I had left there was right here in front of me. The water took everything, left us nothing...

Yeah, look, we've been rebuilding, working hard... Machines? We didn't find any. The tractor was outside, with a tanker, and it took it away. They found the tanker in Monistrol! This is where the water comes from Montserrat. The fruit trees were all ruined. It was the fruit house. And that's how it goes.

And now I'm here. The neighbors always tell me I'm a good cook. I don't think it's that big of a deal, but look, for the Llenega festival all the young people want me to make a dish, and for a few years now they've been giving me theprizeFrom the contest. The way I cook? There are other methods, but I do it like I do at home. The way we're making this dish today, they'd say I'm complicating my life, because to make this, preparing it, I've been... You can count! You don't want to know when I've been there. Cooking takes time, but a cook clears their mind.