Threshing floors like this one remind us of the importance of cereal cultivation in the past
The midlands of the south of Tenerife are dotted with threshing floors that remind us of the importance of cereal production for feeding the population. In the seventies of the 20th century, the arrival of tourism and massive food imports led to the progressive abandonment of agriculture in less productive areas such as this one.
The Canarian peasants used certain stars and constellations as weather markers and “signs” to predict the arrival of rain, a fundamental issue for their agricultural and livestock tasks: sowing, harvesting, transhumance or the release of livestock. Popular names were passed down from father to son, such as “The Plough” (Orion’s Belt), “The Shepherd” (The Hyades), “The Gañán” (Sirius) or “The Cabrillas” (The Pleiades).
Some peasants were able to predict the dry and rainy months by observing the sky and the winds at very specific times of the year. These practices are known as the reading of the cabañuelas. These techniques have parallels in Iberian and Mediterranean cultures, both in the methodology used and in their link with the saints and the dates of prediction.