My name's Damián Castilla Alcaide and I've been managing the family-run La Reala finca for more than twenty years now. This farm has belonged to my family for decades and the farmhouse is more than one hundred years old. My parents lived here and I grew up here, even though it has changed a lot since I was a child. I currently live in the town of Motril and the farm is unoccupied. Despite that, I love to come here and take in the sea views from its stunning porch. There used to be dry crops on the finca, such as almond and palm trees, as well as goat and sheep grazing. Nowadays, we grow subtropical crops and olive trees. Most of the finca is unfarmed and covered by Mediterranean forest or pine groves. Although it seems contradictory, I included it within a hunting ground to protect it. It might seem strange, but making it a hunting ground actually stops hunters from entering, so in addition to producing organic fruit it's a small refuge for wildlife. I am fully dedicated to the farm and it's my only job. My role is to coordinate the teams so that they do everything according to the book. It is very important that the pruning, watering and fertilising take place when needed in order to secure premium quality avocados and mangoes. One of the worst moments in my life is related to this farm, which took place on Kings' Day (5 January) in 1997. There was a huge accident that day, but fortunately there weren't any fatalities. One of the irrigation dams burst due to a flaw in its design and thirty-five million litres of water surged uncontrollably into the sea, flooding everything. We were lucky that it was a holiday and all the neighbours were at home enjoying the final days of the Christmas holidays with their families. It was a huge financial and moral blow, and you can still see the remains of the tragedy on the farm. Working on this farm fills me with energy every day and I feel privileged to live in this environment. My horizon is the sea, so to unwind or take a break, I sit on a stone somewhere and gaze out at the Mediterranean for a moment. If I'm lucky, the mountain goats will be passing close by, especially at dawn and dusk. I love this feeling of freedom, of nature and of a job well done. I'd like to welcome you here so that you can explore La Reala and its surroundings and also feel the same feeling. The future of agriculture and the farm is guaranteed as agricultural products are essential and our production system is sustainable. I love producing fruit while respecting the environment and natural resources. Holding the Bio Suisse certificate is a bit more difficult than the traditional organic certificate, as it's an even more demanding procedure. But you get used to it in the end and the results are the motivation for you to keep going. My father was a founding member of the cooperative with which we usually work and whose members help us prepare the boxes. His initial goal was for us to organise ourselves better to secure a stronger position in the market. Today we can organise ourselves better thanks to the union of small-scale farmers. I believe that being part of the CrowdFarming farmer network is a great opportunity to show consumers how we work and let them enjoy our mangoes and avocados without any kind of middleman.

Our plantation is located in the heart of the Costa Tropical in Granada, nestled between the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Sierra Nevada to the north. The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range with the highest peaks on the Spanish mainland. It's home to a National Park Biosphere Reserve and Europe's southernmost ski resort. This mountain range protects us from the cold of the north in winter and guarantees a subtropical microclimate that is unique in Europe. The area is called Costa Tropical as there are no major changes between daytime and night-time temperatures, or all year round, which make our avocados a local product of exceptional quality. The La Reala finca takes its name from our family farm that is over one hundred years old. Reala (which can also be written as Rehala) comes from Arabic and means a “herd of flocks”, in which a single shepherd takes care of the livestock of several owners. It refers to the ancient grazing culture of the area. This farm was bought by my family at the end of the 1970s and stands at the top of the finca, but today it's not inhabited. My family lived there back in the day and today you can see a large chunk of the avocado plantation and the Mediterranean Sea. La Reala is located in the town of Motril, capital of the Costa Tropical. In addition to the avocado plantation, there are organic mango and olive groves. The entire finca stretches over three hundred hectares. Some forty hectares of trees are actively cultivated (avocado, mango and olive groves) and a further twenty hectares of avocados will enter into production in 2022. The rest of the finca is pine forest and Mediterranean scrubland, which is home to an array of local species such as red partridges, hares, wild boar, mountain goats, hawks, owls, etc. The pine forest is located in the north, in the upper part. To the south of the finca are two seaside towns, Calahonda and Carchuna, which mainly live off the greenhouse farming of cucumbers. Meanwhile, the entire region mainly lives off the farming of tropical trees (avocado, cherimoya and mango) or protected crops. Agricultural activity in the area is labour-intensive and there's practically no unemployment. Agriculture creates a lot of business both in the field and at fruit and vegetable processing plants. The first avocado trees in La Reala were planted more than thirty years ago and the area dedicated to this fruit has been growing ever since. An olive grove was planted about ten years ago to produce olive oil, while several areas of Kent mango were planted five years ago, with both being organically cultivated from the outset. The water used for crop irrigation comes from Sierra Nevada snowmelt. This water is stored in the Rules dam and reaches the farm through the pipes of the Motril-Carchuna Irrigation Community. The plantation's need for water depends on the time of year and the weather. In the rainy season, there are periods of up to three weeks in which the trees are not watered. In summer, which is dry and hot in the area, between fifty and one hundred litres of water are needed per tree per day, depending on the age and size of the plant. All the trees are watered with a drip irrigation system and the finca has several irrigation tanks and automated irrigation heads to make the most of every last drop of water. The entire finca is managed under organic farming guidelines, which favours native fauna. No phytosanitary products are used in the plantation. Weeds that grow around the trees are removed by mechanical means (brush cutter). There's a whole host of wild flora around the crops (thyme, rosemary, gorse, pine) that fosters the development of a healthy ecosystem of insects and animal species such as hare, partridge, wild boar, etc. The remains of pruning and damaged fruit are left to form compost on site and then used as organic fertiliser. La Reala employs around twelve people for irrigation, weed control or pruning tasks, with some of them having worked for the company for more than twenty years. Jobs are created in the cooperative that vary depending on the time of year. All workers receive salaries according to the applicable collective agreement and this is corroborated by GRASP certification. We lay on transport to the finca and provide accommodation for new workers from other areas while they look for their own home. The number of jobs increases in the harvesting campaign. The harvested fruit is packed in the cooperative with the harvests of the other cooperative members, which creates jobs for a great deal of families. All these fincas receive technical advice from the cooperative's agronomists and are certified organic. On our finca we have photovoltaic panels for pumping and irrigation water. The roof of the cooperative where we box the fruit is also covered by photovoltaic solar panels, which produce much of the energy needed to prepare the fruit. Avocados produce fruits of different sizes and shapes, all of which are used and included in your box. The workers in the field and at the cooperative check the quality of the fruit. Any fruit that can't be shipped is donated to local food banks.