We are part of a family of many generations of farmers. Before us, our grandparents and great grandparents had dryland fields, where they cultivated carob, almond, olives, etc. Little by little these fields were transformed from dryland in to irrigated land, and they started to plant orange trees.
Over the years, the way of cultivating oranges has developed as well.
In the beginning the fields were irrigated by inundation, meaning the water was led to the fields via irrigation ditches, and the field was slowly put under water. This was done every two to three weeks all during the summer.
These days, we use drip irrigation; much more efficient and ecological. The water is distributed throughout the field by a tube system, and at each orange tree there are various drips that release the water slowly, drop by drop. Electronic programmers optimise the watering periods.
In the beginning, when the trees were pruned in the winter time, the leaves and twigs were collected and burned on a bonfire in the field. Nowadays, these twigs are ground and scattered back in the field. this way they serve as a natural fertiliser and we avoid polluting the environment with the smoke.
As you can see, everything has evolved, our machines are lighter, our tractors are stronger, everything has changed except the way of commercialising the fruit.
From the beginning until even now the vast majority of farmers has only one way of commercialising their crops: selling them to a few big companies that harvest the fruit when it’s not ripe yet and conserve them in cold storage in order to speculate with them, distributing them only when it’s economically convenient. The fruit is then sold into big chains and supermarket, where the public can finally buy them.
Having that many intermediaries make the farmer the weakest link in the chain.
So why not change this aspect of the farm as well?
Nowadays, web shops are very common, and thanks to the internet, us farmers can reach out to the end customers, without having the need for all these intermediaries. Why not give it a try?
Especially, since the end customer does not have to be a stranger. With so many friends on the social networks, and with all the advantages of our modern day technology, the farmer can get to know the persons that buy their oranges, and the client can not just get to know the farmer, but even follow the complete process of growing the fruit that later on, when it’s ripe, will be sent out to them.
It’s just another development, a new challenge that we face with a lot of enthusiasm. A new road that we hope will lead us to many new friends, showing them who we are and what we do.