Do\u00f1a Marina<\/a>, nestled near the Sierra Nevada in Granada. It\u2019s autumn and still fairly mild, but as soon as the sun goes down you really feel the extremes: scorching hot in the summer, and biting cold in the winter. <\/p>\nPedro tells me the farm used to be a village of 80 people; there was even a school and a tiny chapel, which is actually where Pedro ended up getting married. This deep connection to the land is everywhere you look: on the almond bags Pedro designed himself, you can see the silhouettes of the old village buildings\u2014a lovely nod to days gone by. <\/p>\n
A few years back, Pedro launched a pioneering agroforestry project. Working with his father, he came up with a “whole-farm” approach: the trees provide shade for the sheep, who absolutely love the fruit, and their muck, in turn, feeds the soil. Since Granada is one of the driest spots in Spain, having healthy soil that can hold onto every drop of rain is absolutely vital to running the farm. Pedro uses a simple but clever trick: he uses almond shells as mulch to lock in moisture and stop it from evaporating. But he also explained that too much mulch can actually do more harm than good, so he has to tread carefully there. To keep his inquisitive sheep away from the saplings, he uses old wooden pallets as makeshift guards\u2014very practical!\ud83d\udc11<\/p>\n
Putting down roots for the future<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s the obvious question, but I just had to ask: what\u2019s the plan for the future? His dream is to breathe life back into the old village, with workshops for farmers, yoga classes, and holiday camps for kids. In Spain, nearly 42% of municipalities are currently facing the threat of depopulation; dreams like Pedro\u2019s offer hope that the story of Do\u00f1a Marina isn’t over just yet. <\/p>\n
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Almonds, sheep, and big dreams: a visit to Pedro in Andalusia We went to see Pedro at his family farm, Do\u00f1a Marina, nestled near the Sierra Nevada in Granada. It\u2019s autumn and still fairly mild, but as soon as the sun goes down you really feel the extremes: scorching hot in the summer, and biting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":56428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-field-notes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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