My name is Salvador López Juan and I am the founder of the company SAT Llauradors de Somnis. As the name indicates, we like to work on dreams by recovering abandoned land in the Valencia region. The motivation for farming comes from several generations ago and it was my grandfather Salvador who instilled in me since I was a child a passion for agriculture. Fifteen years ago I was only working in the automotive sector but when my father died I inherited some kiwi fields in conventional agriculture. My dream was to transform the fields into organic farming, to differentiate myself from the others and to commit to sustainable agriculture. After several studies and consultations on pomegranate cultivation, I decided to change our kiwi production for organic extra-early pomegranates. The day-to-day work of our Llauradors de Somnis team is to look after and care for our fields, each one of us dedicating ourselves to controlling harmful weeds, watering, driving the tractor, carrying out organic treatments, pruning, as well as checking and maintaining the facilities and machinery. Day by day these tasks are supervised by my son Salva who I hope can inherit from me the dream of agriculture. As far as the business part is concerned, we keep in close contact with our current customers informing them of the progress of our crops and looking for new challenges to be able to grow and bring our fruit to the homes of many families. This is how the willingness to participate in CrowdFarming was born. We decided to be part of this project because up until now our pomegranates have been sent to large supermarkets and we have lost the traceability to the final consumer. This project will allow us to have a more direct contact with the CrowdFarmers and to know their feedback first hand. We are excited to know that our fruit will reach the table of several families around the world.

The farm is called Mas de L'Algudor and is one of the first documented rural territorial divisions along with L'aliaga and La Bega, all named in the 13th century, located in the south-west of the municipality of Silla (Valencia). Etymologically, it derives from "al-gudir" which in Arabic means "small lake" in clear reference to the streams that cross it, fed by natural water springs. We have only pomegranates planted on the farm, but it is surrounded by hundred-year-old olive trees. In this farm we carry out daily irrigation and maintenance tasks giving work to a total of 17 workers. This farm was the first one we planted with pomegranates. As I said before, our priority is to recover abandoned land and this was the first one with these characteristics. As it is an organic crop, the water we use must pass some controls and be free of any chemicals. It comes from the Acequia Real del Júcar. Our watering days are Monday, Wednesday and Friday, about seven hours a day. Our watering system is drip fed; to ensure efficiency we frequently stretch the hoses and flush them to check that they are working properly. Our farm is organic. We like to use anti-weed mesh to avoid the excessive appearance of harmful plants in the ridges, but we are in favour of maintaining the vegetal cover in the rest of the furrow to favour the shelter of auxiliary fauna, managing to increase the vegetal biodiversity of the farm as much as possible. Our working method is based on a precision agriculture that incorporates new technologies for decision making in agricultural production. Smart farming allows us to adjust the doses of irrigation and fertilizers to the exact needs of each crop, which results in the long-term sustainability of the agri-food system. We carry out this project among a total of 17 workers, divided between 15 men and 2 women. They have been part of the team for more than 2 years and are paid according to their tasks and according to a collective agreement. The company provides the workers with fresh products from the field for their own consumption. We have tried to make the most of our harvest, dedicating the part of the pomegranate waste to the production of organic pomegranate juice. Made only from pressed pomegranate without added sugar, preservatives or colorants. Our team dedicated to packing has been trained to select the best quality fruit and make a selection according to the requirements of each customer. We store the pomegranate peel and the white internal lining obtained after the juice is made in the composting area we have on the farm. These remains will be used as fertilizer for the crops of the next few years as well as the remains from pruning which are crushed and used as nutrients for the tree.