We begin by visiting the Whaling Industry Museum, one of the three museum centers of the Pico Museum, housed in the former Fábrica da Baleia Armações Baleeiras Reunidas, Lda., in São Roque do Pico, and the first public industrial museum in the Azores. In this essential museum of industrial archaeology (the study and preservation of buildings and materials related to industries), with an ethnographic focus, we will have the opportunity to explore the factory where the technical process of producing oil, flour, fertilizers, and vitamins from the processing of sperm whale blubber, meat, bones, and livers once took place.
While it is true that Pico is a land with strong whaling traditions, we must not overlook the wide variety of economic activities that have shaped and continue to shape this deeply rural island, where each household was involved in three or four different economic activities, with whaling serving as a major source of income for the family budget. The dry, hot climate—compared to the other islands of the archipelago—combined with the mineral richness of its lava soils, arranged in mosaics of black stone—the currais—enabled the growth of vineyards, with the Verdelho grape variety predominating.
To better understand this reality, we head to the second stop on our tour, the “A Buraca” Winery, also located in São Roque do Pico. We’ll explore this wine tourism project, which also includes a shop and a museum space featuring a cooper’s workshop, a blacksmith’s tent, and a studio for working with straw, wool, and wicker. It also features a traditional kitchen where the flavors of each season’s fruit are transformed into jams and preserves.
We then head to the parish of Madalena, where our first stop of the afternoon is the Pico Island Wine Museum, to learn more about the main economic activity of the communities that settled on the island.
We headed to MiratecArts Galeria Costa to discover the work that has been carried out here with the néveda, a plant prized for its aromatic and medicinal properties. MiratecArts created the character Néveda, inspired by its flower, whose adventures have taken shape in children’s and young adult books, and produces, in collaboration with other entities on the island, food and educational products. At MiratecArts, we’ll have the opportunity to participate in a workshop featuring this plant as well as dye plants.