I am the son and grandson of farmers, our family has always been linked to the countryside, growing vegetables, fruit trees, olives and citrus. But at the moment we only grow organic citrus. We decided to switch to organic farming because we used to do integrated agriculture and we decided to take a step forward and differentiate ourselves with a high quality product, respecting the environment and nutritional health as much as possible. We are the third generation of a family business dedicated to the production of citrus fruits. We produce and pack our fruit in the farm warehouse. Our day-to-day life in the countryside changes depending on the time of year, as the crop has different stages. During the harvest, we are dedicated to harvesting the fruits and selecting the best ones. Depending on the ripeness of the fruit, we pick it or wait a few days, in order for it to arrive at its destination with the maximum quality. As the harvesting period is long due to the different varieties we cultivate, we also have to do the maintenance of the farms during this time: cutting herbs, checking irrigation, providing the manure, pruning, replanting a tree ... With all this work we are a group of 7 people and sometimes get help when there is more to do. Normally there are some who are dedicated to harvesting the fruit and others do various tasks. We use the time, when the trees are still wet in the mornings because of the dew to complete other daily maintenance tasks, since the citrus fruits with dew water cannot be harvested because they would spoil faster. I personally take care of controlling the whole process of filling the boxes so that the fruit reaches our customers' homes as well as possible. My parents also provide me with a great deal of support with their experience of so many years working as farmers. The job of a farmer is a continuous experience that we gain day by day. I have always dedicated myself to agriculture because it motivates me and it satisfies me to see, on a day to day basis, how every plant that we take care of evolves until it yields the expected fruit in order to be able to deliver it to our customers. We are currently looking forward to joining CrowdFarming, so that we can deliver our organic citrus directly to you.

The "Hort de Bítem" farm is located on the left bank of the river Ebro, bordering the highest point with the pines of the area that extends from the "Sierra de Cardó y Boix". Over the centuries the Ebro River has deposited sediments on the banks of the river, making these areas ideal locations for cultivation. The farm has a level difference of about 35 meters from the river to where the pines start. From the highest point we have a good view of the region with the Ebro valley in its centre. The production of the farm is entirely organic since 2008. It covers an area of 8.5 hectares and we have different varieties of citrus fruit, always grown organically, such as Fukumoto, which is the first to be harvested at the beginning of November, and also the navels which will be harvested in January and February. Apart from the varieties from the CrowdFarming project we have others that allow us to extend the season and complement it with mandarins and lemons. On the same farm we have the farmhouse where my parents live and also the warehouse where we manage, prepare and send orders to our customers.. The farms we have are located within the Terres de l'Ebre Biosphere Reserve and at the same time we are surrounded by two natural parks "Ports de Tortosa" and "Delta de L'Ebre". We are a family business that started three generations ago to cultivate vegetable fields and some citrus trees. At that time my grandparents farmed different crops in order to sell them to the local markets. My parents, together with their siblings, started another stage of expanding the olive farms and transforming another one to irrigated land in order to plant citrus fruits in conventional farming. Already in my generation together with my family after a few years of growing with pesticides and chemical fertilizers we decided to switch to organic farming in 2018. Our switch to organic farming was a consequence of the fact that we realized that there was an over-exploitation of conventional crops and the profitability of the crop was already zero. We decided to take the new path that was opening up from organic and started the conversion. We stopped using chemical pesticides to protect the environment and at the same time protect ourselves and our consumers. We obtain the irrigation water for our crops from our own wells with quality water from the Ebro aquifers. The cultivation of citrus fruits if there were no irrigation water would not be possible, since it is a very demanding crop, during the vegetative cycle has enough stages of water consumption depending on temperatures and the phenological state. In winter, if it rains, it is not necessary to water, but in summer we have to water from 3 to 6 days per week with a dose of 70 to 90 litres per tree per day. All this watering is done by continuous drip hoses (drop by drop). We want to implement a system of solar energy collection to pump the water for irrigation of our crops. At the same time on our farm we have been implementing the system of anti-herb mesh in the soil, that helps us to reduce the volume of irrigation water between 20% and 30%. Also the nets, by not letting the weeds out under the trees, reduce the competition for their nutrients. In the center of the crop rows we let the herbs grow to favor the biodiversity of insects that host the useful fauna, thus creating a control system for some pests. This area of grass is occasionally cleared to incorporate organic matter into the soil while also crushing the pruning branches on the same plot, thus closing a cycle of organic matter.