In addition to vegetables, the Gipuzkoan farmer also produced flowers in his early years of life, but in 2018 the hail destroyed the glass greenhouse of flowers and infrastructure. Since then, Mapi has focused the project on vegetable production: “In addition to the vegetables here, I try to introduce more special varieties such as the street, radicchio, mizuno and other Chinese vegetables,” he explained. Many of them are produced by the producer from the seed: “I buy those that are more difficult, but I try to make a lot of plants to myself, on the seedbed. I spend less and have greater control over the production process.” In Tolosaldea, some of the previous producers pioneered the ecological model, and Mapi has continued to work in the same direction, bringing mime and illusion to its activity.

Tolosa Market, main point of sale

The member of the Live Vegetables project makes a direct sale, for which he has two main routes: Market of Tolosa and home delivery. “The aim is to sell the vegetables without going through the refrigerator, fresh and in the shortest possible time, so as not to lose the organoleptic and nutritional values of the product,” he explains. It goes down every Saturday to the fair of Tolosa, but throughout the week it collects the requests in the group it has in place. “I send a list to the people of this group, indicating what vegetables I have, and they make the request, indicating the address.” Receive orders on Mondays and deliver on Tuesdays.

Mapi also participates in peasant movements and networks. He is a member of the association Biolur, Gilbe – florists and vegetarians – and Bagea – Auzolana of Young Associate Farmers – among others. “We have more and more obstacles and demands to exercise agriculture, regulations are demanding and the sector suffers from forced digitalisation. In the end, the Ticket BAI system and other paper issues take us as long as the work of the orchard, and we are losing many producers for not being able to meet the requirements,” he said.