Terraces have been mainly dedicated to the cultivation of crops, chestnuts, vegetable gardens and fruit-trees. They are normally small and ownership is fragmented. The modernisation of farming has been severely limited by the topographical conditions, leading to the progressive abandonment of cultivated surface.
Chestnut growing is one of the most common farming activities of the Iberian Northwest ever since the Romans introduced this practice. Documents such as the Catastro of the Marqués de la Ensenada (a mid-18th century inventory) reveal the importance of thisj crop for he IVGA area. The chestnut groves (soutos) were normally on the hillsides and near the creeks, and in them trees were not arranged in order. It is usually difficult to understand past land tenancy, which is today very fragmented. Property over trees could involve just one, and sometimes they were unrelated with the property of the ground the tree grew on. The groves were often in communal land, and each tree belonged to someone, who marked the trunk accordingly. In the Catastro the people of Candín asked the king permission to clean the common woodland and plant chestnuts.
The use of chestnuts has been hampered not only by these complicated ownership conditions, but also because of plagues like tinta (‘root rot’, caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi) or chancro (‘chestnut blight’, caused by the Cryphonectria parasitica). Cultivatoin is today marginal, but the groves have become part of a re-naturalised landscape. Some trees are of massive size and age, such as El Cantín in Villasumil (Candín).
Chestnuts were benefitted thoroughly: fruit, wood, leaves. The leaves were used as bedding for livestock. Chestnuts were consumed domestically, or fed to pigs before their slaughter. Wood was useful for construction, carved into kitchenware or tobacco pipes.
The remains of corripas, corrizas or ouriceiroas bear witness to the process that the chestnut fruits underwent. These are circular constructions approximately 1 meter high, and between 1.5 and 4 m in diameter. There the chestnut burs were stored, covered in brush so as to encourage fermentation and conservation. Corripas can be found in isolation, or in groups near the soutos. Afterwards the chestnuts were smoked in the caínzo, in the house, or in cellars or hórreos.
These structures are no longer used. The second half of the 20th century saw the abandonment of chestnut collection, and hence the maintenance of these small and fragile constructions, thereby ensuing a rapid disappearance. Notwithstanding, the tradition of the magosto does subsist. This festivity, which marked the end of the chestnut collection, includes roasted chestnuts and new homemade wine.
Despite this special significance of chestnuts in this area, most agricultural production has naturally provided cereal. It was cultivated in the lowlands, lower hillsides, and also in the brañas known as alzadas. Rye, a typical winter crop, was combined with wheat and corn, which was grown primarily in the lower valley. There is testimony of the substitution in Candín of flax for corn. Also, millet could be grown in the summer.
The agrarian landscape is completed with domestic gardens which provided vegetables, legumes and fruits, both for humans and for, in the winter, the animals.