Introduction.

Hello, welcome to the world of Cartiegu Hearts of Palm! Ecopalmitos S.L. invites you to explore it.

Exquisite nature.

Palmetto is a palm tree which could be up to 20 meters high.

Cartiegu backs up the quality.

Wild and magic.

Why wild palmettos?

Why our cultivated palmettos?

Its importance in a Mediterranean diet.

Its stalk, from where the core or palmettos are taken, is cylindrical and its diameter can vary between 10 to 25 centimetres.
The core of the palm tree, which is used to elaborate palmettos, comes from different palm trees among which we can find:
Eutelerpe Edulis, Eutelerpe Oleracea, Bactris Gassipaes, Copernica Alba, Acronomia Total, Synagrus Romanzoffiana, Astrocarium and Chamaerops Humilis.
Most of them grow wild in the virgin forests and woods of South America and the Mediterranean warm regions. Palmettos have been known and consumed for centuries in various countries being part of their gastronomy.

The most common way of eating them has been either treating the heart or core with a mixture of salt and water or like pickles with wine vinegar.


Nowadays, due to the expansion of environmental friendly conscience, the most sensitive producers of palmettos have developed a number of reforestation programmes where most of these species grow and, at the same time, they have developed organic crops of those varieties that are more productive.

Following that trend, Cartiegu had developed plantation programmes in Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia, where environmental conditions are excellent and where palmettos have traditionally been elaborated.

Both, preserving the ecosystem and looking after the natural habitat, Cartiegu selects for you the best varieties of wild and cultivated palmetto.
This is a way of auto-sustain the natural environment the developing populations and to encourage a productive crop.

Cartiegu backs up the quality.

Since 1990 Cartiegu produces and sells simultaneously both, wild and cultivated palmetto, and is the only company in the world that elaborates both varieties with notorious success.

Cartiegu's palmettos are made with cores that are selected previously to the cut.

Both wild and cultivated palmettos are grown under a strict technical and forestall control.

Once they have been transported to the processing plant, palmettos are submitted to a re-selection and a careful treatment.

During the productive process sanitary and quality norms are strictly followed all of which guarantees an exquisite taste and nourishing content.

Cartiegu palmettos are of a fine texture with a crispy taste, pickled and seasoned with a European flavour, a real royal treat.


Wild and magic.

Normally, Euterpe Oleracea is the botanical species used for wild palmetto, and Bactris Gassipaes the best for organised plantations.

 

The wild palmetto is characterised by its pearl white colour, while the cultivated one is of a ivory white hue, a really jewel of the earth.

International chefs consider wild palmetto is better than the cultivated one.

 

Why wild palmettos?

In order for wild palmettos to grow, it is necessary that the woods of tropical forests are shaded.

 

This is achieved by means of keeping the leafy tress that for years and years have been growing and sheltering palm trees.

In this way, as another forest-culture-friendly activity, it is always better to collect the wild palmettos' stalks, avoiding in this way an indiscriminate felling of trees.

 

Besides, wild palmetto has stump roots, which allows to cut a stalk without destroying the plant, and in this way it can grow on to develop future palmettos.
This does not happen with the cultivated palmetto due to the fact that in order to grow it many companies or farmers in some countries , have cut down thousands of acres of forest to grow cultivated palmettos which do not require shade. To pile it on, these species need many chemical fertilisers and fungicides all of which damages the environment while favours the plant.

 

Why our cultivated palmettos?

Cartiegu has-been able to stand aside from other companies and has developed palmettos plantations in open areas that had been previously used for other crops, avoiding in this way the destruction of woods and forests.

 

In the same way, we only use organic fertilisers, such as humus, in all plantations and we never use neither chemical fungicides nor fertilisers in any of our plantations.

Another thing we avoid doing is genetical alteration of seeds avoid growing palm trees with thorny stalks, something many other companies do.

In this way, we do not create artificial ecosystems and forests, a practice so much in use for other plantations existing today.

 

 

Its importance in a Mediterranean diet .

Together with fish and meat, the Chamaerops Humilis, variety has traditionally been considered an important ingredient of the diet in some regions of the East and South-eastern Spain.

Cartiegu has been aiming to promote and extend the culture of palmetto, its varieties, flavours and dishes encouraging in this way the return to a long ago forgotten consumption of such a healthy and natural product as the legendary palmetto.




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