A Visit to Medir

by Nick Whitmer

My wife and I went on vacation in Spain in July 2013. We went to Barcelona and then took a packaged bike trip, mostly in the province of Girona in the northeast corner of that country. Once we looked at the bike trip itinerary, I realized we would be passing within a mile or so of Medir S. L., a supplier of reed cane for musical instruments, including uilleann pipes. I have been buying cane from Medir for more than 20 years and I relished the opportunity to visit them.

Cane (Latin name Arundo donax; canya in Catalan, the local language) is very common in Girona; one sees it almost everywhere. This plant grows in many parts of the world but the cane which grows near the Mediterranean coast in northeast Spain and southern France is generally regarded as among the best for making reeds for musical instruments.

Cane likes wet areas and grows along watercourses and ditches, in estuaries and damp spots. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast. Our hostess told us that cane grows rapidly in the spring, slowing down in April or May. During the dry summer months most of the stalks die off. We visited in mid-July and I saw no indication of this. On the other hand, 2013 was an unusually wet year, with rain coming later than normal.

Medir is located just outside the coastal town of Palamos, in the beginnings of hills, up a dirt road, no signage. The proprietor, Carles Medir, and much of the staff were away and Ramon was left to mind the shop. He was kind enough to show us around.

Outside a man was feeding cut stalks one by one through a machine which stripped them of their leaves. In the yard, an area where stalks were left in the sun to cure. Exposure to the sun dries out the cane and changes the color of the stalks from greenish to the lovely golden color most people expect to see when looking at reed cane. Summers are quite dry in this region, so rainfall on the curing stalks is not a problem.

Ramon told me that for the most part Medir harvests cane from land they have rented. I wish I had asked him for more detail about exactly what kind of growing conditions make for the best quality cane. I told him that in our riding around I had seen what looked like varieties or subspecies of cane, or perhaps different cane-like plants altogether. "It's all cane," he said. A couple times I saw what looked a lot like Phragmites, a cane-like grass which grows all over the world, including upstate New York, where I live. But I did not tell Ramon this.

We went inside. Ramon demonstrated the ma- chine used to cut tubes to length. Also, the bench where cut cane is sorted by diameter. Reeds for different instruments require cane of different diameters.

Then to the storage area. Before cutting to length, cane is stored for one year for uilleann pipe cane,

two years for most other instruments (more about this later). It is rough-sorted by diameter & kept in the shed. Bundles for clarinet here, tenor sax there, etc.

Drone reed cane generally comes from slender shoots growing off the main stalk, although Ramon acknowledged that the best cane for this purpose grows directly from the ground. It is very hard to find, though. Either way, there are few good segments of drone cane to be found in the stalks, and much wastage. Here are bunches of potential uilleann pipe drone cane awaiting their turn:

Ramon said it was Medir's understanding that uilleann pipe reed makers prefer their cane on the soft side. Cane which has cured for two years will be harder than cane which has cured for one year. Hence the shorter cure time for uilleann pipe cane. When Medir sends me reed cane they include the year of harvest on the invoice. I told Ramon that I usually waited a year after receiving their cane before using it, give it more time to cure. He was bemused by this.

All in all, a very interesting experience. I wish I had asked more questions. Ramon's English was good, and I believe I understood what he was say- ing. Any errors of fact or interpretation are my fault entirely.

When he is not cycling through the Spanish country- side, Nick Whitmer lives and makes pipes in Ithaca, New York.

For a complete PDF of the original Summer 2013 Pipers Review this article is from, click here.