Winter in Brazil

Chilly start to the day in Pato Branco

Ask most people around the world what they think of the Brazilian climate and they will tell you that it’s warm, hot, tropical or any other similar adjective.  Mention winter and they’ll say it can’t be that bad.  Well…

Brazil is a large country from Northern parts above the equator and the South extending below the tropic of Capricorn.  So yes, Brazil is definitely a tropical country and there are parts of the country where a slight dip in temperature is barely noticed, parts where there is no real change and parts where the seasons are defined as rainy and dry. 

One of the many winter memes from Paraná

This is my first experience of a Brazilian winter, or a Paraná winter to be specific, and so far, it doesn’t feel very tropical!  While I had been told about how cold it can get and seen countless memes showing blue, frozen people wrapped in blankets with icicles hanging from their face, nothing quite prepares you for the experience.

After the heat of summer, I was expecting a gradual cool-down to a couple of months of winter, followed by a warm-up back towards summer.  What actually happened was the start of a gradual cool-down, then a heat wave in April and then a sudden plummet into winter at the end of the month.  If came as a bit of a shock, one night, struggling to sleep in oppressive heat and humidity, next night, extra blankets and huddling close for warmth.  The weather stayed mild for some time – a bit chilly at night, warmish during the day – not too bad…

The mercury dips and these photos appear.  Not
so bad?  It is when it's colder inside the house!

Then came June.  During the night, the mercury dips perilously close to 0°C, raising above 10°C during the day.  This doesn’t sound too bad, and I used to laugh at the complaints I heard, but then you come back to the fact that Brazil is a tropical country.  For most of the year, the weather is either warm, hot or very hot, and the houses have been built to accommodate this and allow the heat to escape.  This means that when the temperature drops outside, indoor temperatures are following close behind.  Central heating on a timer set to start half an hour before breakfast time is a distant (blissful) memory, getting undressed for a shower is torturous and the thought of leaving the hot water and returning to the chilly air fills you with dread.  While we have heaters, they are mostly fan heaters sending directional blasts of warm air, with the unfortunate side effect that areas not covered appear to suffer a breeze of even colder air, sending people into hiding beneath layers of blankets, wearing thick jumpers, jackets and hats. 

This all makes me yearn for Britain and the promise of a nice warm house – until I think about summer and how the efficiently insulated houses turn on their inhabitants, transforming into hot, sticky saunas and then I think of how much more tolerable hot summer days can be here, relaxing at the beach, going to the river, barbecues, caipirinhas and beer…

But June isn’t over, July is coming and I can’t find my gloves…

Pinheiro and Pinhão

Araucária, AKA Pinheiro-do-Paraná

One of the most distinctive sights in Paraná is the araucária, also known as pinheiro-do-Paraná (Paraná pine) or pinheiro-brasileiro (Brazilian pine).  While it can be found throughout the south of Brazil, it is considered the state tree of Paraná and can be seen everywhere.  While there are several varieties of araucaria, they all have the same basic shape; tall, with long branches at the top with leaves forming in round bunches and a flat top – almost as though it reached a maximum height and then started growing outwards. 

A stand of pinheiros near Pato Branco

They can be found almost anywhere around here, either growing together in stands of pinheiros, sometimes rising above the canopy of a forest, sometimes growing individually and sometimes in the middle of a city.  It is not uncommon to see a pinheiro or group of the trees in the middle of a big city, such as Curitiba. 

The seeds of the araucaria, called pinhão (the plural is pinhões) in Portuguese and edible and extremely popular in the South of Brazil and among populations of native Brazilians.  Due to extensive logging and the popularity of the pinhão, the araucaria has become endangered and the sale of pinhões is only permitted during a specific period between April and August.  Selling pinhões outside of this period is considered an environmental crime.

Pinha: where pinhões come from

People in Paraná go insane for these seeds!  During the build-up to the start of the season (which was 1^st April this year) local newspapers publish the date that the season starts and all over social media people post memes and countdowns until the start of the season. When the magic day arrives, pinhão sellers appear by the side of every highway, huge crates of the things appear in the supermarkets and people rush to buy a bag of pinhões then rush to get them home and in a pan.

So what’s all the fuss about?  With such excitement and expectation before the season begins, with practically everyone asking whether I’d tried pinhão, it sounds like it’s Brazil’s answer to truffles.  The reality?  Um, it’s ok…  I have to admit I wasn’t overly impressed the first time I tried pinhão. 

Before you even get to taste it, you need to get past the shell, the best approach being to carefully bite one end, squeezing the inner part out through a split in the front.  But it doesn’t always go according to plan: sometimes the split isn’t big enough and you have to peel away the shell (not the easiest thing in the world), sometimes you bite into the seed and need to pick bits apart, sometimes you get a rotten one and when you bite, you get a mouthful of foul-tasting juice.  Oh and don’t burn your fingers on the hot shell, but don’t wait for it to cool, as it’ll be even harder to extract the inner seed.  So before I’d even got into the pinhão I was irritated with it!  Well, hopefully it’s worth the effort…

Inside the pinhão

As I said, it’s ok, but not amazing.  The seed is a few cm long with a firm texture and an earthy flavour, not quite like anything I’d tried before, improved by dabbing it in a bit of salt.  All I can assume is that it’s an acquired taste (as you do find yourself working your way through the bowl at the same pace as anyone else, only slowed down by your inefficiency at opening the damned things!)  Maybe in a year or so, I’ll be joining in the hysteria when pinhão season starts again!

There are other ways of eating pinhão, aside from boiling and squeezing them into your mouth (you can roast them as well but it’s even more difficult to open them).  There are numerous recipes for meat dishes with pinhão, pizza toppings, pinhão cake, pinhão pudding…  To date, apart from the aforementioned boiling technique, I’ve only had one dish of meat with pinhão and it did make for an interesting addition, so let’s see some of these other recipes.