Introduction
Here in the mountains, dry farming was practiced: cereals and vineyards. Olive and almond trees were minor crops. Viticulture intensified from the 18th century onwards. These steep, sunny slopes were ideal. Vineyard huts and slate stone terraces, hidden among the maquis and pine forest, speak of this terracing of the land to facilitate cultivation.
With the arrival of phylloxera, vineyards were reduced and many were abandoned. This pest entered the Penedès around 1893 and devastated 885,000 ha of vineyards in eight years.
Cherry trees, more recently, were part of the crops in Miramar, followed later by carob trees used to feed livestock.
In the Sant Climent area, the patterns of cherry and carob trees still dot the slopes today. Here, around the mid-20th century, farming was abandoned and the Aleppo pine forest you see today was planted.
Forest management must guide this transformation, promoting species diversity, different age classes and the recovery of the original holm oak woodland.