Wicker fields in Cañamares, Spain

© David Santiago Garcia/Alam

Weaving through wicker fields. Wicker fields in Cañamares, Spain

The green fields of summer in this part of central Spain have been transformed by winter to harvest-ready red, but it’s not a harvest you can eat. Soon these reeds will be cut, bundled and cured to become wicker. The blood-hued brush growing naturally by riverbanks near the village of Cañamares is gathered each year by locals. The people of Cañamares have been weaving with their locally harvested wicker for centuries, creating baskets, furniture, sculptures and more from the coveted stalks.