Visited The Avocado Farm That Used To Be Ours...So Sad To See Its Present Status After 10 Years !!!

THE AVOCADO FARM - ANDALUCIA

Today, we passed-by the house we used to own in a not so far away distance from the valley where we now live. A working finca we bought 20 years ago which is located in a hilltop has almost 2.5 acres of land full of 300+ healthy avocado trees overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. We used to tender this property, became avocado farmers because it came along with the price of the house.

We constructed a water tank of 100K-liter capacity from the hilltop and installed automatic irrigation system that ran to every single tree. The irrigation was automatic, but the fertilizer tank was manually operated since the fertilizer in powder form would have to be diluted first with water. When the fertilizer was ready, it was being distributed by means of physical force of the water coming from the water deposit from the hilltop and from the fertilizer tank thru medium sized pipes and micro pipes to each tree.

Almost every spanish family has their finca (farm) somewhere inland. Most have olive groves as well as other fruit trees, lemon and oranges for instance are common trees, mango and avocados as well. Avocados need lots of water but they´re year- round trees meaning you can harvest the whole year when the fruits reached the size you aimed for. You have to prune them after each harvest and you don´t let them grown so tall, otherwise, it´s difficult to reach for the fruits. Avocados need to be harvested by hand, and if they fall on the grounds and get bruised, you can forget them because they will not be accepted by the cooperatives where they will be taken on your behalf to be sold to cosmetic companies or supermarkets...

The types of avocado we were cultivating are Hass and Bacon... The Hass type has a rough skin and Bacon has a smooth skin. We decided on the harvest time when we saw that the fruits were big enough for picking. We hired the men and paid them 50 Euros/day. It took about 3 days to harvest the fruits with around 4-5 men who were farmers too and each had their own harvesting skills. The avocado containers which fitted 20 kilos of avocados were provided by the cooperatives buying them.

THE COSTS TO RUN THE FARM

After eight years of running this farm and the so much works involved, the physical and financial efforts to keep it... it was time to sell. The last harvest we had was around 8000 kgs/ 8.5 tons and all our friends around 10 of them plus the six farmers helped which turned out for them to be a harvest party of sort.

Here are the reasons why we sold the farm:

1... We used the property during the winter time for about six months, we were escaping the cold central Europe. We wanted to experience how to become avocado farmers, learned all the ropes as well as the problems involved.

2... We had to pay someone to overlook if the automatic irrigation system was functioning .. The system´s on and off irrigation was operated by 2 mignon batteries that could last for 10 months. The system is controlled by the pressure of the water coming down from the tank.. If there´s a leakage, it would show higher water consumption. And besides, the irrigation system was programmed as to the quantity of the water each tree is getting.

3... The grass and all kinds of weeds growing in the farm were enorm... so that we had to hire someone to take care of the property and have it cleaned in our absence . It took about 3 days with 2 men to clean the terraces. The farm needed to be free from weeds all the time because the wild grass were getting the water meant for the trees. The farmers used Glyfos or Roundup to get rid of the wild grass after cutting. Ironically, I used to work as Station Accountant for the company that produces Glyfos/Roundup. We didn´t have a choice since commercially, that´s the way how they kill all the weeds in the whole farms in Spain. Our avocados were never sprayed with pesticides though.

4... The agent that brought our harvest with his hired truck to the Cooperative had been cheating on us when the fruits were being classified in sizes in our absence. The large size became medium and the medium sized as small ones... many fruits were declared bruised... We knew how much were delivered because they were being counted and listed and by the boxes. We trusted the agent but his dishonesty came to losses of about 3K USD for us.

5... Avocados need plenty of water and water is so costly in Spain... that is also the reason why spanish farmers nowadays opted to plant mangoes instead of avocados.

The farm´s operation brought me physical problems which means running up and down the terraces to see which trees were healthy and which were not. We had to control each micro pipes of the 300+ trees and saw to it that each got the water needed. And the most time consuming is the distribution of grain fertilizers that contain nitrate as well as iron which had to be done manually..

THE RENOVATED FARMHOUSE

The small house was actually so simple when we got it, but it had potencial. We renovated, added extensions as well as a garage and terrace. I was so sad to see the state of the farm, my former garden and the surroundings of the house. All the 300+ avocado trees are now gone, they have dried out and the trees are dead.

We sold the house to a british family and I think they were letting the house to tourists to pay their loan monthly to the bank. Oh my!!! Look at the weeds and the tall grasses. The property is in a devastated condition.

The four eucalyptus trees came from small pots of 1 meter size when I got them from the garden center. All have grown so tall and huge I coudn´t believe my eyes!!! To see how huge, I made some pics with me in each of the tree (please see the images below). I also planted the two acacia dealbata otherwise known as the yellow Mimosa and they are blooming now.

The Norfolk Island Pine Tree I planted from a small pot has now grown into a tall tree of about 8 meters high.

This driveway used to have plenty of cactii and flowering plants on the left side where the blue door is located with the huge pine tree.

This was me in action some 15 years back doing the steps for the cactus garden. The 2 Eucalyptus trees were also planted beside the cactus.

I learned how to do tiling from our mason and I did this terrace alone using the electric tile cutter and the special cement they call cemento cola which literally means glue cement

We are really down-hearted to have seen such neglect. We are under the conclusion that the bank may have owned the property already and are now being rented out.

NEW HOME

We have constructed a totally new house in the next valley a few hills away from this place and am in the process of making the cactus garden, below is the preview of that project.

Please stayed tuned ´cause I have lots more to share. All photos are mine unless otherwise stated.

Thank you for reading me.

@mers

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