"Dehesa is a world where we cultivate space and time to grow and become who we are." Florence Châtelet Sanchez, Founder of Maison DEHESA.
Try to pronounce this word dehesa - de-he-sa - a word with ancient sounds, with syllables that sound like the origin of the world. A word that reflects its ecosystem, one of the most primitive in Europe, located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The native beauty of these landscapes and the richness of these lands are such that its first occupants compared it to the Garden of Eden.
Here, in this preserved paradise of more than four million hectares - classified as a Reserva 2000 by the European Union - man and nature coexist in harmony, through a multi-secular agroforestry agriculture. This ecosystem is composed of meadows and forests of medium mountains, Mediterranean and mountain flora. The animals live in freedom and the farmers follow the rhythm of the seasons.
Here, the oak tree reigns supreme, showing its omnipresence over the entire region with magnificence. Its famous acorns, the "bellota", feed the oldest pigs in the world, the "Patanegra", and give that intense and fragrant flavor to the incomparable Iberian Bellota ham.
It all begins there, in the shade of the leaves of the oldest oak of humanity in the dehesa of Zarza de Montanchez. A young Franco-Spanish woman, Florence Chatelet Sanchez, daughter of a Spanish farming family, experiences a reconnection with the land of her childhood in order to find her identity. On her way, she meets a family of black pig producers, who, in her eyes, embody one of the last bastions of Spanish artisanal excellence. There she rediscovers the forgotten taste of the real Patanegra as well as the richness of the primitive land of her childhood.
