"Because It Is Right"

Barcelona, a beautiful city filled with lovely people and fantastic food. Recently I, along with my wife Holley and my Extension colleague Carla Snyder, attended a conference on public markets in Barcelona, Spain. During that trip, with the help of Slow Food Barcelona, Carla was able to organize a trip to the Lleida province of Catalonia to visit an organic farmer who grows olives and almonds and produces his own olive oil and vinegars under the brand Oleum Flumen (river of oil) which he sells locally and distributes to markets in cities around the world including the eastern U.S.

We left our Barcelona apartment at 6AM to take a two and a half hour train ride to meet with Marti Teres I Rios. Marti comes from a long line of grape and wine producers but for the last 20 years or so he has been growing olives and producing this exquisite olive oil.

Clara, Marti’s daughter, attends university in Barcelona and was gracious enough to give up her day to come along with us and act as our interpreter translating from Catalan to English and back.

Marti greeted us at the train station. He asked Carla in English, “You speak a little Spanish?” Carla said “Yes, a little bit”. Marti replied, “I speak a little English so we will practice together.” “But, I don’t speak Spanish, I speak Catalan.” With Clara’s help, the communication was excellent and when Marti talked about specific farming methods, even though he was speaking Catalan, we understood him perfectly. For instance, Marti described how he uses a cultivator attachment on the tractor to cultivate the rows of trees to control weeds instead of using herbicides. He smiled and said in English “You understand me!” I replied, “We understand farming.”

Marti farms 180 hectares (roughly 444 acres) between three locations and farms with a holistic vision that he talks about in very matter-of-fact manner. It isn’t preachy or idealistic. At one point, Marti looked at us and said, “I don’t do this to make a statement. I do this because it is right”. Marti’s philosophy can be summed up by a quote from their website: “Our lands are worked, with the conscience that this is the first step to bear a fruit of the best quality. For this reason, we escape from aggressive and polluting treatments. We combine traditional systems with new methods and new technologies.” They go so far as to track their carbon footprint traveling between the three locations and plant trees to offset the effects.

Lleida is an arid area. It is part of the agricultural heart of Catalonia producing fruit and wine along with olives and almonds so water is very important. Marti collects as much water as possible through various systems in the processing, roof tops, and other areas and stores the water in cisterns underground. All the energy on the farm is produced by solar panels and a windmill with a biodiesel generator as a backup.

Inside the processing building, all the lighting is natural, coming through slots in the ceiling and although it was overcast the day we visited, it looked as though we were under florescent lighting. Drains in the floor collect all the waste water into a cistern. The processing equipment was custom built for Marti and allows the operators to monitor quality throughout the process. They process 700 kilos per hour, 10,000 kilos per day. Marti says they can do three times that much but fears the quality would suffer. To Marti, quality is more important than quantity. The olives are processed within two hours of harvest.  

Following our tour, we were treated to a wonderful lunch located in the small farm house that serves as their office. Marti said that there is a special time before lunch called aperitiu where you have some fresh bread with olive oil and salt, maybe some cheese, a glass of wine or beer, and conversation. Then, you eat lunch.

The olive oil for the bread was pressed the day before just for our visit which we thoroughly enjoyed along with olives and a sheep cheese called Almadroch which has Arab origins. While savoring these local delicacies, Clara told us about the variety of products they produce.

The olive oils are offered in glass, can, and vacuum box. Marti says the quality is best preserved in a vacuum box.  They offer three kinds of oil, Premium, Ninou, and de Finca. They also offer white wine vinegar and cider vinegar. They also make a dark vinegar that is aged for twenty five years. It is named after Marti’s Grandmother, Paula. After lunch, Marti poured a small amount of this dark vinegar into a wine glass and passed it around the table for us to swirl in the glass and smell. With each swirl in the glass, the aroma changed from earthy to woody to chocolate.

Clara explained that the local towns have their own signature salad and the one for their town consisted of lettuce, olives, anchovies, cod, and a kind of sauce and of course, olive oil. Mountain Paella was the main course which Marti explained that traditionally, Paella was a Thursday dish when you used up all your leftovers before going to market on Friday. He said, “You may not find real Paella in Barcelona. There is no yellow rice in real Paella.” The meal was served with local wine. Afterwards, we wandered through the olive trees and their small shop and fed their three donkeys named Elvis, Madonna, and Michael Jackson.  I was told that they are part of the weed control for the olive trees but honestly, I think Marti simply likes having the donkeys.