- Anthony Uranga is a young woman who for about four years has been working on the farm of the Virgen de Cambo, dedicated to the production of vegetables and Basque peppers. Now it has its own project: it will plant 2,000 stirrups on the plot of the farmhouse Arkaitz, near Bipertua, and when the plants begin to bear fruit, instead of picking them up and selling them, it will be they who carry out the collection on the spot. To learn more about this special way of working, we interviewed the young man.
Where has the idea of planting and selling blueberries come from?
There was already the Xixtaberri farmhouse, where customers could go and pick up blueberries. Well, I'm going to settle on the ground right next door, with the intention of increasing the number of fruits. And it's that demand grows year after year, more and more people come to reap the benefits.
How does collection and purchase work?
Customers come to collect their fruits with their own hands, in this way they can buy them at a better price and, at the same time, enjoy a nice stroll through nature with their friends or family. Once the customer has collected the required amount, he weighs it and pays it based on weight. At the moment, for example, they pay EUR 6.50 per kilo of blueberries.
Why have you decided to organize it this way?
Because customers not only get a cheaper product, but they also avoid many workloads and many hours of collection. We all win, customers and farmers.
You work in permaculture. What does that mean and why?
Permaculture is an agriculture without cultivating the land, which protects the land, and like the land, also its worms and organisms. Each year I cover the foot of each plant with straw to feed the land, which also serves to maintain the water, as it prevents excessive evaporations. In the end it is a natural method of agroecological production and the benefits of production in biology and permaculture are evident.
The fundraising campaign to boost the project is already underway. How is that going?
We have carried out the campaign through the Miimosa platform and we have achieved the first objective already set, but I hope that by 31 January the second objective, EUR 7,000, will be achieved. At the moment, I'm having a very positive response, people like the idea.
When do you plan to start collecting blueberries?
The first collections in the plot of Arkaitz will be produced in three or four years, but before we have in the finca Biperduna a hundred plants prepared for collection in June and July.