My name's María Martínez Hijano, an agricultural engineer by profession and a farmer by vocation. I've always been surrounded by fields, trees and nature, as I grew up in a farming family. As kids, I remember that my sister and I used to accompany my father out onto the farm, and then we'd play hide and seek, look for rare flowers and climb hills and trees while he was working. During the holidays, we'd go to the countryside with my grandparents and play among avocado trees. At the end of summer, when it was raisin season, we'd sit with them outside the house with a board and some small scissors to destem raisins, while spending the afternoon listening to their stories. We've always loved this world. When it was time to think about further education, I decided to study Agricultural Engineering. After graduating, I decided to do a 2-year Master's Degree in Agronomy so that I could become a better professional, discover new things and understand how agroecosystems work, as agriculture is a fascinating and complex world. In 2017, I stared running the family farms. The first thing I did was to convince my parents and my uncles to begin the transition to organic farming. Back then, we only had organic lemon farms, so I thought it was time to put all my university knowledge into practice and implement the type of agriculture that best represents my values. By doing this, I took advantage of my great luck of belonging to the fifth generation of a farming family. In 2020, we started direct sales via CrowdFarming with our mangos, which have been a huge success! Thanks to the support you give us via CrowdFarming, we've been able to grow and innovate towards a style of farming that is increasingly integrated with the environment. What's more, it's really motivating to receive your messages on social media and your visits, where you appreciate the quality of our fruit and all the hard work behind it. This model is a win-win for everyone. We have price stability and can plan the harvest, while you also enjoy price stability, premium quality products and the satisfaction of knowing who's behind production. Thank you! The Los Pepones project is a family project formed by an excellent human team. My job on the farms is to plan technical management. To produce high quality fruit, it's paramount to pay attention to all the details of the trees, such as checking whether they have any type of nutritional deficiency or excess, controlling pests efficiently and organically, planning the use of fertilisers, stipulating irrigation times, and monitoring when the fruit flowers, sets and is ready for harvest. My uncle is in charge of organising the farm team and my sister and my parents manage the administrative side. Natalia works in the warehouse and she'll take CrowdFarmers around the farm if I can't make it. The farm team is responsible for implementing all the plans: they apply the fertiliser, control the irrigation times, control weeds with a brush cutter, tractor or livestock, perform the necessary treatments, and collect the fruit. We're all important and every detail counts so that you can receive the best fruit possible.

The name of the farm "Los Pepones" is derived from the small Andalusian village where it is located, belonging to the municipality of Velez-Malaga, province of Malaga. The farm is dedicated to the cultivation of mango and avocado and is located in the heart of La Axarquía, surrounded by other subtropical fruit growing fields. The economy of the area has improved a lot thanks to the increase of subtropical crops in recent years where the number of people involved is growing every day. In this way, the cultivation of subtropical fruits is becoming a "lifestyle" rather than a "job". The farm has been a family property for 4 generations, it has its own well and a reservoir where we store the water to supply our drip irrigation system, which is done with natural pressure. The amount of water needed by the trees is variable, most of the water is provided in summer, at this time an adult mango tree needs about 40 liters per day. All the management of the farm is done according to the conditions of sustainable agriculture, we do not use chemicals or herbicides that damage crops or negatively affect the biodiversity of native species. One of the workers on the farm has a small sheep farm; his flock of sheep grazing among our trees has proven to be the most effective and environmentally friendly control of weeds. A qualified team of 7 people work regularly on the farm during the harvest, and 3 during the rest of the year, 2 women and 1 man. The permanent workers have been with us for 6 years, since we planted the mangoes, and all of them are paid according to the collective agreement. We pick the fruit at the optimum moment of ripening, manually guaranteeing the selection of quality piece by piece, the fruits are not equal in size, but equally tasty. Fruits that have already ripened too much to be sent out are taken to the local markets in the area and the fruit that does not meet the quality requirements is taken by the workers to feed their livestock. The remains from pruning are crushed and fed to the soil as organic matter to be composted under each tree.