Organic extra virgin olive oil from Campillo de Julia, Spain | CrowdFarming: farm fresh fruits and vegetables to your doorstep

Gonzalo Úrculo

When I was 24 years old, a train crossed my path and I got on it without much thought. My grandparents' farm needed someone who was dedicated body and soul because every year it went from bad to worse. I left my job in logistics, which had always been my passion, for some country boots and an old Barreiros tractor. I admit that I had never imagined myself as a farmer but after a few months, I was totally hooked. I believe that farming has that capacity that no other job has: it allows you to learn the basics very quickly so that you are useful but it will never allow you to master it. Together with my brother Gabriel, we started to cultivate the fields at the same time as we set up a website to sell our crops directly. In the first season, we had very few orders and most of our harvest had to be sold to intermediaries below our cost price. Year by year and thanks to word of mouth, our presidents (that's what we call our customers) were increasing. Over the years, we have started to grow new crops, among which olive trees stand out. The great culprit of my passion for the cultivation of olive trees is Miguel Abad. Besides a great friend Miguel is a recognized expert in the world of oil. After many lunches, visits to farms and olive oil mills we finally found the opportunity that we both were looking for. In Campillo de Júlia we want to make our agronomic dream of creating a model farm in the cultivation and production of olive oil come true. We have many ideas to implement but we have to be patient and go little by little. We can't do everything at once. Some bigger projects are building our own oil mill and turning it into a self-sufficient farm in terms of energy and fertilizers.

Campillo de Júlia

On January 24, 2020, after a couple of years looking for land to continue planting trees, we took the reins of an olive grove with more than 400 years of history. It is the Masia del Campillo located in the town of Jérica (Castellón) 45 minutes from our orange garden. We have renamed the estate “Campillo de Julia” in honor of our grandmother Julia, born in Logroño and a magnificent cook who taught us to value life and good food. And good food always comes with a good extra virgin olive oil. Little by little, we are discovering interesting facts about the history of this old farm. Since the 16th century, Campillo de Julia has been home to a monastery, a dairy farm, and an orchard, before becoming the splendid olive grove it is today. We will continue to investigate and tell you everything we discover. One of the things that have touched us the most is that at present, the very Camino de Santiago passes by the Campillo, on the route that starts from Sagunto. Perhaps with time, we will be able to rehabilitate the stone house and turn it into an inn for pilgrims or Crowdfarmers who want to come and visit us. Buen camino! Currently in Campillo de Júlia olive trees and some persimmons are grown. There are abandoned almond trees, 4 dogs and about 400 sheep that will provide us with manure and help us control the weeds. We have designed this agronomic plan to be developed over the next 5 years. During __2020__ our tasks are going to focus on “putting in order” what is already planted: the trees need a good pruning, the irrigation hoses need to be checked to avoid leaks, we have to clean the irrigation pond, spread sheep manure and repair the machinery that already exists. We will try to be careful with new investments but the farm is desperately asking for a new tractor and a manure spreader which we will buy when we can. In __2021__ we want to plant the fallow areas with new olive trees of a local variety “Serrana Espadan”. During this year we want to repair a second irrigation pond that has been out of use for many years. We have studied that with this reservoir we could irrigate by gravity and avoid electric pumping. Between the year __2022__ we intend to transform one of the existing agricultural buildings into an oil mill to produce our oil and start making new products such as table olives. For the next few years we would like to install solar panels on the roof of the oil mill so that 100% of the energy consumed by Campillo de Júlia is renewable.

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