Views: 569

The Land Stewardship Scheme continues to add farms that wish to make a change in the productivity model. This summer Ses Roques Llises, a kitchen garden rural property in the Ferreries municipality has entered to form part of the programme.

Marc Barceló, a young 26 year old farmer, is managing this farm with the commercial name of Verdures Ramellet. At the end of secondary school, he started to learn gardening as a trade working in different rural garden properties graduating in gardening and floristry. When he finished, he decided that he wanted to work for himself but it was difficult to find his own farm. After two years of searching, he found a suitable plot with drainage on the road to Cala Galdana, and since then has worked on increasing his produce and gaining the loyalty of his customers who buy direct from his farm.

He supplies shops in Ferreries and, above all, he has a large number of direct sales customers. In the summer tomatoes, peppers, melons and aubergines…In the winter, lettuces, cauliflowers, and all types of leafy greens, as well as artichokes, beetroot and other seasonal vegetables. Local and sustainably produced it is seasonal and sold via very short chains of marketing.

It seems that locally produced fruit and vegetables are scarce in Menorca. Only 10% of the vegetables that we consume come from the Island and only 6% of the fruit is grown locally. The rest is imported from abroad. That is why it is so important to diversify the island’s produce and increase the cultivation capacity of this type of food.

There is an abundance of pollinators at Ses Roques Llises, benefitting from the flowers that grow between the cultivated plants. In fact, the presence of wild flowers in cultivated areas is one of the measures included in the Land Stewardship Scheme agreements.  This small action makes a large positive impact in the context of the alarming decline of insect populations in the world.

Marc uses solar energy for irrigation – always using rainwater when he can and towards the evening to minimize evaporation – and opts for a dry land kitchen garden with varieties adapted for a Mediterranean climate. Despite using ecological agricultural practices, he has not yet been certificated and this is another of his objectives.

Welcome to the Land Stewardship Scheme. We hope that more and more farms will join this trend allowing us to say that the countryside of Menorca is ever more sustainable.