The journalist who has hung up his habit to become an artisan baker in a village of 500 inhabitants in Priorat

PorreraBorja Franco (Barcelona, ​​1988) completed his journalism degree in 2010, and since then, he'd been making documentaries on social issues, which was his specialty. He didn't do it all the time—everyone knows the profession is unregulated—and combined it with work for foundations dedicated to the integration of migrant minors. And he did all this while harboring the dream of one day going to live in Priorat, because he'd dreamed of doing so ever since he met Franco. He'd have a home, a job, and a family. Today, he explains with a smile, he's already achieved it.

He tells me this story one Sunday afternoon, inside the L'Esclopet bakery, located on Miquel Martí and Pol de Porrera Street, after he's finished selling all the bread he's made. From 12 to 1 p.m., if anyone else comes in, he'll only be able to offer them frozen bread, which is just as good if you know how to toast it properly in the toaster. He won't be back until the next day. "In a weekend I make 100 kilos of bread, which means 60 kilos of flour," explains Borja Franco. As a baker, he only has his two hands: his partner, Noemí Delgado, manning the counter, and, as a die-hard fan, his little girl, Selva Franco, who just turned eight months old, and who resonates with the best phrase you can say to a baby: she was born with a loaf of bread under her arm. "Everyone tells us that, but it's certainly true because we've taken on everything at once: bread oven and baby," explains Borja, radiating energy and joy at the same time. His appreciation for the work is also evident, because being a baker began as a casual idea and has now become a passion.

We continue talking, and we go back to the day he decided to get his hands dirty. It was two years ago when someone told him that the baker in Porrera was retiring. Then he thought it could be a way to make a living in Priorat, because he'd start off with a job. "I had worked harvesting grapes at wineries like in Vall Llach and also with the Nin-Ortiz family, but the wine world didn't catch my attention because I don't have the knack," he explains. However, bread was a different story. When he saw it could be an opportunity, he started making it at home with books in hand. He also signed up for courses and, above all, completed a key training program: the time he spent working at Marc Martí's L'Obrador de Prades bakery, where Borja admits he learned well how to make country loaves, quarter loaves, and baker's cakes. "He was my great mentor, because L'Obrador is small, high-quality, and Marc and I did everything together," says Borja, who adds that it was the baker Xavier Sistaré, from the Sistaré Bakery in Reus, who recommended he try out L'Obrador in Prades.

With this background, the courses and the work in Prades, it prompted him to look for premises in Porrera. He rented the ground floor of a house on Miquel Martí i Pol Street, renovated it, and bought the machinery. All this, "with the help of my parents and the subsidies I've received for having settled in a rural town of 450 inhabitants, which is what Porrera has," he explains. And along with the premises, there's also the house, since he bought a farmhouse among vineyards in the same town.

Porrera, a sweet tooth

When he opened, he decided he was going to make all kinds of bread, but basically, bread. However, the surprise has been that Porrera has a real sweet tooth. "They love sweets, so I've had to swallow my theory that I'd never make croissants because now I make two kinds: the long butter croissant and the chocolate bar and the spread," he confesses. While he sells the chocolate ones for €2, the plain butter ones for €1.70. "I didn't want to make croissants because I associated them with France, and also because it's a sweet treat that requires a lot of work, a lot of preparation, and I'm alone in the bakery. And I wanted to make our own bread," Borja adds to explain why he didn't want to do it, a thought now forgotten. Furthermore, one morning in Porrera, the neighbors who have been coming almost every day in the month he's been open assure me that the croissants are very good. So it's clear he'll have to do this for many years to come.

Let's continue. The bakers have told him that more bread was consumed in the past than it is now, but he assures us, based on his experience in Porrera, that people like it. "Every day we make a different type, and people order from us for each day. For example, buckwheat has sixteen regular orders a week," says the baker. And the same thing happens on weekends, when he makes bread with organic flours and many stone-baked ones. Then he makes the black olive loaves and the sliced bread. "The flours I use on weekends are different from those I use during the week, but both come from the Colomina mill in Banyoles," explains Borja.

Finally, two important notes. The name L'Esclopet is a thoughtful decision. He found the word in a favorite book that explains how to make Jacint Torrents' bread called Bakery bread (El Ermitaño collection). "The word comes out clog, which refers to the glove farmers wore on one hand to protect it from the sickle they used to use on the other to cut the wheat," he explains. Today, the wooden clog is framed inside the oven. And the second note is that those with a sweet tooth and in love with dough make the Christmas note, which he likes, and he thinks that too much leavening goes hand in hand with his passion. The village night in Porrera, by Vall Llach

The Vall Llach winery, run by winemaker Albert Costa and Isa Serra, celebrated the third edition of its village night on Saturday night, July 5th, commemorating the viticultural milestones achieved by the DOQ Priorat winery, which opened in 1997. This year, the winery partnered with Girona's Montse Molina. And as in the three previous editions, the love of wine and the Priorat landscape, with its hillsides and terraces, with seemingly endless mountains stretching out into the distance, was the common thread. Music was also present, with songs by young musicians (Pere Martínez and Tomás Lorenzo) who reinterpreted the beloved "Ascension of the Priorat" Life, by Lluís Llach. The celebration took place in four stages: the first, at the El Mirador de Porrera landscape, at the heights of the town from where Mount La Sentiu was clearly visible, and where the first Barbadillo wine tasting took place (Mirabrás, 2022).

Next, there was an aperitif at the Vall Llach winery itself, in Plaça de Catalunya, where the following wines were tasted: Sumatorio 2020 and Horta Colomer 2024. The third moment was dinner, seated in the winery's main winemaking room, where the Poniente wines were opened (a Barba2 Viognier, which winemaker Albert Costa admitted was unique because it was his father, a teetotaler, who decided to make it from this grape variety), the Masía de la Rosa 2023 (made from black Carignan; one of the winery's little dolls), and the Atamán V de Barbadillo, like the old vermouth kept. Finally, the town festival had a final stage, l'Horta Colomer, where the songs continued (with vocals by Juan Manuel Galeas; José Santiago on guitar and Fran León on percussion), and also with Ancestral de Vall Llach (white and red garnacha) and Toto Barbadillo (fine palomino).