2021/12/12

Wicker fields in Cañamares, Spain

© David Santiago Garcia/Alamy

The summer swaths of green in this field have transformed by wintertime to a harvest-ready red—but it's not a harvest you can eat. Just what's being grown here? Soon these reeds will be cut, bundled, and cured to become wicker. The blood-hued brush growing naturally by riverbanks near the central Spanish village of Cañamares is gathered each year by locals. The people of Cañamares maintain a centuries-old tradition of weaving with their locally harvested wicker. They create baskets, furniture, sculptures, and more from the coveted stalks.