Specialized press report 7Caníbales: «Los jamones de ensueño».»

7Caníbales is the digital gastronomic magazine of the Vocento group. They dedicate us an extensive report with a great interview to our founder Chelo Gámez.

News published in 7Caníbales on May 17, 2022.

After a life dedicated to the University, Chelo Gámez, a retired professor of economic theory, went into practice and founded the Iberian pork products company La Dehesa de los Monteros. Sixteen years later, it has recovered the native pig of the Sierras de Ronda and Cádiz from extinction, has boosted the economy of the area and its line of hams and sausages made from organic Rubio Dorado Iberian pork is one of the most exclusive.

When Chelo Gámez announced to her children that she was going to dedicate herself to raising Iberian pigs in Serranía de Ronda, all three of them opened their eyes like saucers. If they had been able to tell the future, they would have applauded her, because today they would have been able to see the future. Rubio Dorado Iberian pork hams and sausages from the Dehesa of the Monteros are among the most exclusive and sought-after in the world.. But in 2006, at the age of 61, her experience as a businesswoman and livestock farmer was zero. She had just lost her husband, after resigning the chair of Economic Theory at the University of Malaga (UMA) to accompany him in his convalescence from a heart disease. “The process unfortunately went faster than we thought and I found myself alone and retired before my time. I needed motivation,” she explains. Years earlier she had purchased a rustic farm in the Genal Valley, a mountain forest south of Serranía de Ronda. “After a class on diversification of equity investments, I was approached by a student and asked if I wasn't interested in moving from theory to practice and he told me about the tradition of Iberian pig breeding in the area. I went out of curiosity and I fell in love with the Genal Valley. I decided to invest some money I had from my father's inheritance”.

Revolution in the Genal Valley

Chelo Gámez's approach in the Genal Valley, a succession of 15 mountain villages with a total of 7,000 inhabitants in an area of 485 square kilometers, was a kind of revolution. “The first few years,” he explains, “I did what everyone else did: raise pigs for others. Most of them supplied large Iberian ham companies from other places, which then produced their own hams and sold them as their own. Serranía de Ronda has an abundance of holm oaks, but it is not a flat pasture, but rather a pasture of pastureland.. Ahere the pigs have to do a lot of exercise, and that improves the quality, because the fat infiltrates very well. I saw how the added value was going outside, in an area that needed an economic engine, and I thought it was a shame. Things had to change. At 2008, Chelo Gámez, with the support of her children, formed La Dehesa de los Monteros, and added the production of 100% acorn-fed Iberian hams and sausages to the breeding of pigs on its farm in Pujerra.

“If I wanted to compete in such a demanding market, I needed two things: quality and differentiation. And I started experimenting to create my own imprint. Since I started raising pigs, I had already been experimenting with different grains, to see which feed gave the best quality. I fed three pigs only corn, three others only wheat and three others only peas, and then we checked, with laboratory analysis, how it was reflected in the meat. Although these pigs are always in the field, feed is a fundamental part of their diet until the arrival of the acorns in November,” he says.

He finally found his stamp on a characteristic product of the area: the chestnut. “The chestnut ripens just before the acorn, and in the area it has always been used to feed cattle. We make a pre-mounting of chestnuts that gives the meat a special sweetness and delicacy, although of course the fundamental thing is the acorn. When the acorns start to come in, the pigs don't want to eat anything else, but while they are coming in, chestnuts are a fantastic food”. The professor reached an agreement with the local cooperative to buy all the chestnuts. that did not reach commercial caliber. “In this way we give value to a product that was previously discarded. We generate economy in the area and achieve a different product”.

“We use a pre-mounting of chestnuts that gives the meat a special sweetness and delicacy”.

He started his production with 50 pigs. She sold the hams and sausages to friends and acquaintances that she invited to tastings in the living room of her apartment, in the Malaga neighborhood of La Malagueta. The products were well received, orders multiplied and Chelo Gámez had to buy more pigs and incorporate other farmers into the project. “The Ibérico Quality Standard requires one hectare of land per pig to ensure that they can eat enough acorns during the "montanera" (fattening period). I like to give each animal 1.5 hectares. I had to get more farms, and almost everyone in the Serranía was breeding for other companies; I needed to improve their offer. I proposed fairer prices and medium-term agreements that would guarantee a secure profit for several years. In exchange, the farmers had to agree to give the pigs the feed that I set. The animals are tested throughout the year to see the percentage of oleic acid in the fat and to check that the feed is correct,” he explains.

In her travels through the sierra, Chelo Gámez met La Algaba, This is a farm that combines ecotourism with the recovery of livestock species of the Serranía and organic production. Together with them, it was proposed to recover the Rubio Dorado pig, an Iberian breed native to the Ronda and Cadiz mountain ranges, which was already registered as an endangered species.

If you want to know in depth her story as a revolutionary and enterprising woman and learn more about the golden blonde, you can read the complete article here.

Report 7Cannibals, May 17, 2022, Esperanza Pelaez