- Mahaño Lanathoua started planting trees on her father’s land in 2017 with the idea of cultivating the forest orchard. “At first it wasn’t about creating an economy from there, but about taking steps towards our self-sufficiency,” the farmer said. However, when he started planting, he realized that he had to bring the trees from far away, from the north of the French state or from other places. So it occurred to him that it would be interesting to fill that gap and launch his ecological seminar. The result is the Erroak plantation, a project that has been going on for a year and a half.
In Lanathouak Erroak produces fruit trees, small fruits, auxiliary plants and medicinal plants: “We have small fruits all year round, premature, half-time, finally… We have classics, but also peculiarities, cachis, etc.” The objective is to offer fruits and plants for the whole year and to those who have it, proposes to plant complete systems, more than single plants or trees: “The idea is to plant systems with trees, small plants, medicinal plants… by placing them next to each other, and not to put isolated trees. This system will always be more resilient.”
The vaccine manufacturer takes the vaccines out of the trees it has at home and, for the time being, the carrying vaccines or the feet buy them. Shrubs are kept by the producer for a year or a year and a half after their graft, before sale. “For the time being, I do so, but I have already started producing my carrier vaccines from the seed and bone: apples, peaches, valleys… I’d like to start doing that little by little, to control production from the very beginning,” he says. Lanathoua also uses native varieties, such as local apples, but if they are not autochthonous, it has well adapted types. “I had already planted myself on the ground before and I know which ones are resistant, which work well without treatment… I multiply.”
Direct sales
The sale takes place in autumn, winter and early spring, “when sweat is at the roots”. Besides being present every Monday in the market of San Juan de Pie de Puerto, it also sells trees and plants in the finca itself through citations. On this year and a half journey, the project has had a good response, and Lanathoua believes that from the confinement to here there has been a collective reflection, and that there are people who are gradually on their way to becoming more autonomous.
The farmer has invited him to approach the plantation to get to know the project and see its way of working. “The care of plants is simple to me, but the hardest thing now is to turn around the earth. Obtaining organic matter, fermentation and microorganisms. Finally, the trees deeply absorb the land, and I have to compensate for it so as not to impoverish it. That’s the hardest and most interesting thing for me right now,” he concluded.