- Long live! Among the projects proposed by the environmental movement, a number of Arrosa’s voters, including Argitxu Beyrie, had the idea of starting a collective fruit orchard in village lands in 2015. “We contacted Professor Gabriel Durruti and then moved him to Arrosa to help collect the techniques that people here used in farms and agriculture,” explains Mirentxu Biscaichypi, a project member. Over the course of these six years, about 60 fruit trees have been planted in four plots of the town.
The initial work consisted of collecting the tree species existing in the village and their knowledge. “We brought Durruti to collect techniques and vaccines and convey the wisdom that was around fruit trees,” he says. On this plantation, they took a home tour of Arrosa to see which trees were on the farms, which have been there for centuries and decades. “There we saw that there were many nogales, wild chestnuts that had naturally been removed in the jungle…” Professor Durruti, who accompanied them in this activity, is a member of the Sagartza association and has experience: on farms they work collecting varieties of native apples and are creating the apple conservatory.
It is precisely, among many other trees, that old apples of about 60 years old were found in the area of Arrosa that were in danger of extinction. Project members have given trees a new life by collecting and re-establishing vaccines. “It was about learning insertion techniques and planting trees, but it was also about fostering social relations and working on this heritage,” adds Biscaichypi.
Wool tests to maintain moisture
On 8 May a special action was organized in the collective garden to protect the planted trees: the auzolan to surround the feet of the trees with wool. “At first we buy coconut nuts disc balls to retain moisture, which are placed on the surface of the trees.” The project members, however, began to think about whether they could achieve the same with some nearby material. “We went home from the labourers to look for wool, and around the trees we arranged a lot of lots to protect them and maintain moisture.” Similar tests have been carried out with straw, but Biscaichypi says it is a wool test. At the moment, it seems that the experiment is yielding good results.
The trees are distributed over four plots of the village, within the reach of anyone. “People can catch an apple if they want! It is a collective space, and we would like to carry out here a work on the school, on the small fruits and on the school, so that they too would be part of it”. This is what Rosarino has underlined, which is open to the whole world and which makes it possible to socialise while learning and promoting relations between citizenship.