LA TIERRICA BIO is the European reference point for the production of organic and biodynamic stone fruit. They are third-generation farmers with more than twenty-five years of experience in organic agriculture.The orchard, more than 60 hectares in size, is dedicated to the production of organic nectarines, organic flat peaches, organic peaches and organic pears, and it has made them a reference point for growers of these products.They make continual research and development efforts focused on a ceaseless search for innovation in style and variety, the perpetual increase of the fertility of the soil and the integration of agricultural technology. After driving along 15 kilometres of country road to reach the entrance to LA TIERRICA BIO, you feel as if you’re in the Garden of Eden.
Lleida is one of Spain’s most intensive agricultural areas. Even without any knowledge of agriculture or biology, everyone who drives through this region understands that this kind of intensive agriculture is unsustainable. The huge amounts of artificial fertilizer, pesticides and water needed to keep this agricultural machine going raise the question of when the area’s soil and all its other natural resources will be exhausted. If you then drive along 15 kilometres of country road to reach the entrance to LA TIERRICA BIO, you feel as if you’re in the Garden of Eden. The fruit trees in the extensive orchards, covering more than 60 hectares, are radiant. The olive grove looks like a Japanese garden with bonsai trees.
‘We arrived at a turning point where we realised we needed to change something.’
Antonio García VargasIn his orchard, Antonio describes how he started as a conventional grower twenty-five years ago and how he found himself in a cycle of more artificial fertlizer, higher yields, more fertilizer and yet higher yields but after seven years saw that the soil was being depleted and his trees were dying. That was the turning point.
‘We began to spread livestock manure. We stopped using herbicides. And we began to see a huge improvement in our crops' response.’
Biodynamic farming, a form of organic farming based on the anthroposophical principles of philosopher Rudolf Steiner.
It takes a holistic view of nature. When we ask Antonio whether we can photograph the contents of his chests full of preparations, he hesitates because many people regard it as hocus-pocus agriculture. But for Antonio it is a path that he follows, a path that has brought him to where he is now.
