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The Finca
(or Farm)
The Spanish term
for Finca is translated into small holding, and rustic,
a term used to describe an old rural dwelling, these
descriptions describe El Figueral perfectly. The Finca,
all 80,000 m2 of it was in the family of the
pervious owner for over 400 years. In its history the
Finca's ownership was lost and re-gained, the house or
masia was hit by an artillery shell while in the front
line of the largest battle of the Spanish Civil war and
the land? Like many of these old farms the land has been
at different times fully productive and at other times
less so.
El Figueral's land
climbs steeply up from the lower River Ebro, up stream
from the Tivenys weir, or one lock from the
Mediterranean sea, or 2.5km upstream from the
picturesque village of Benifallet. I often sit looking
at the miles of stone terraces and wonder just who had
the strength, skill and patience to build them. Many of
them today are overgrown and in need of repair, but
walking amongst them you can see the changes to the
farming policy of past generations, almond and
olive groves to day neglected and encroached upon by the
indigenous forna, pine trees, herbs and shrubs.
 The area is known
for its citric fruits and the last owner embraced
this philosophy by planting oranges, mandarins and
tangerines through out El Figueral. Later and because of
declining prices the addition of peaches and a few
Cherrie tree's as an experiment. Of course Spain is
generally dry and hot and as a consequence prone to
drought, luckily with the River Ebro running through El
Figueral this is not a problem. Indeed an idyllic
location to play at being a "farmer" in the small "f"
sense. Our ambition was not to try and earn a living
from the land but rather to restore El Figueral to its
full glory so that we could enjoy the beauty, space,
freedom, climate and wellbeing of this very special
Finca, and of course we hope that guests that stay at El
Figueral also get a great deal of pleasure.
The golden rule if
you no zero about growing fruit is get someone that does
and be prepared to throw money at it. You quickly
discover that everything from the irrigation system to
the trees themselves are in need of TLC. Further you
suddenly take an interest in the price of fruit and in
particular what fruits are looking to be more
profitable. Its then that you join the local
co-operative.
 We quickly decided
that many of the mandarins and tangerines that had been
lovingly grown by Jose Maria had to go due to disease
and or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It
was time for a major feeding campaign and our Juan
Gabriel started spreading fertiliser about like confetti
and uprooting poor trees. We looked at the declining
prices of citrus and decided that the
olive would make a return at El Figueral, out came
more Mandarins. We discussed the few Cherrie trees we
had and agreed how beautiful they were when in blossom,
moreover we thought it would be nice to have then line
the road when entering El Figueral. This needed the
removal of pine trees, scrub and of course some
Mandarins, not so simple, as we had to get the man from
the forestry to approve the removal of pine trees and
scrub this time. The last thought of this stage rested
with Juan, so he planted Pears.
It sounds simple
taking out a few hundred trees and replanting a few
hundred trees, wrong. Taking mature trees out needs the
use of a large mechanical digger that rips the tree out
root and all. Of course in order to ensure the trees are
well watered you need a reliable source of water, so out
comes the old irrigation system and in goes a new one,
the large mechanical digger is used to dig trenches for
the main pipe, remove the odd bolder and lovingly built
stone wall. Its a good job we have hired the large
mechanical digger as we also agree it would be a good
idea to build a new road that avoids the house and also
create a new planting tier. Finally the Large mechanical
digger leaves and El Figueral looks like one of the
battlefields from the first world war. The aftermath of
this was much burning, and you can only burn in the
winter months, this is a very sensible law considering
the dryness and heat of the summer. It was on one such
burning day when all hell let loose with rifle fire in
all directions, we discovered that the Large Mechanical
Digger had disturbed an old cache of ammunition left
over from the Civil War and Juan had unknowingly started
a fire close to it.
The work done so
far is only to the lower levels, so I still sit looking
up at the overgrown higher tiers thinking about the
miles of stone terraces and wonder just who had the
strength, skill and patience to build them, and what am
I going to about refurbishing them?
Co-Operative
Olives |
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