Farmers Market in Barcelona

The last saturday 13 th of June, was opened a new farmers in market in Barcelona.

This event is organized by Slow Food Barcelona and its goal is that citizens can acquire good, healthy, local and just food.

Farmers Market

The sellers are farmers (fruits, vegetables, cereals , legumes,  ...); bee-keepers and small food producers (bread, cheese, jams, sausages, meat, flour...).

This market is open every month, each second saturday and it is located in Jardins de les Tres Xemeneies (Barcelona).

More information: http://www.slowfoodbcn.cat/mercat-de-la-terra-slow-food-barcelona/.

This bottom-up initiative is a good model to promote and protect our small food producers and also it is an opportunity to make known our foodstuffs.

Thank you, my best wishes with this initiative ... but this initiative could be extended to other cities and the market should be weekly as our buy of fresh food.

Urban Agriculture Typologies in Barcelona Metropolitan Region (Catalonia, Spain)

The European project "Cost Action TD 1106 Urban Agriculture Europe" put us a homework: to reflect different projects of Urban Agriculture in an Atlas. These projects encompass since family gardens (the gardeners cultivate their own food in their balconies, terraces, gardens, patios, backyards) until farm holdings that they have included in their business model the proximity with the cities or the citizens.

Food Farm - Can Brossa - Tiana

Oscar, Giulia and me have uploaded various urban agriculture projects in Barcelona Metropolitan Region. It is not an exhaustive list of projects but it is representative of this diverse phenomenon called "Urban Agriculture" in Barcelona.

http://www.urbanagricultureeurope.la.rwth-aachen.de/online-atlas.html

Community Garden - Pla Buits - Barcelona - Espai Germanetes 

Allotment Garden - Sant Adrià del Besòs

Despite this great diversity and the number of people involved in urban farming projects (gardeners, farmers, citizens and consumers), Urban Agriculture is not included in the political agenda yet.

Squat Garden - Barcelona

Educational Garden - Ca l'Arnús - Badalona

Social and Food Farm - la Klosca - Mataró

Agricultura Urbana a Barcelona

Vaig aprofitar la visita aquest cap de setmana d'una companya italiana (Giulia) i una amiga seva (Geogerta) per visitar diferents espais amb agricultura urbana a la ciutat de Barcelona.

Primer varem visitar dos espais inclosos dins el Pla Buits promogut per l'Ajuntament de Barcelona.  Pel qui no sabem que és el Pla Buits, es tracta d'una proposta municipal que ofereix com a us temporal uns espais dins la ciutat a entitats que els dotin de contingut mitjançant propostes.

Més informació: Pla Buits

Dels 12 espais que es van oferir en el passat concurs 9 d'ells tenen l'agricultura com un dels seus eixos. No estem parlant d'una agricultura productiva si no d'una agricultura social on els seus principals motius són l'oci, la comunicació, la relació entre els usuaris (moltes vegades transgeneracional) i les activitats educatives que es duen al voltant de l'hort (per escoles bressol, escoles i esplais). 

Els que varem visitar: Espai Germanetes i ConnectHort, si ens posem en una postura acadèmica els podiem classificar com community gardens (horts comunitaris) i educational gardens (jardins educatius), ja que el treball és en comú, i s'aprofiten com a eina educativa per les escoles i esplais.

 l'Espai Germanetes ofereix mensualment un mercat de pagès.

També varem visitar els horts urbans de la Vila Olímpica (Dr. Trueta amb carrer d'Alaba), el que acadèmicament definiríem com allotment gardens (horts de parcel·les), on els usuaris conreen individualment la seva parcel·la.

I finalment no varem poder parlar amb els usuaris dels horts ocupes situats al triangle entre Rambla del Poblenou, carrerTaulat i carrer Perelló.

Educational, Leisure and Edible Garden 3 weeks after

After three weeks of the garden plantation, the plants have taken root successfully, we only regret the lost of St. John's wort and borage.

Seed crops have successfully germinated seed (beans, pumpkins, carrots, radishes, parsnips).

The asparagus are springing up correctly.

Educational, Leisure and Edible Garden in Badalona

Educational, leisure and edible garden has been inaugurated in Badalona (Catalonia, Spain).

This garden is located within a public park (Ca l'Arnús). The main objective is to reconnect the citizens with the agriculture, show how are the plants that we normally consume (wheat, barley, carrots, turnips, radishes, parsnips, hops ...) but we do not know how are these plants, show plants that had been related to the industrial past of Badalona (esparto, vineyards, linen ...) and medicinal herbs (rosemary, lavender, chamomile, mints, lemon verbena, St. John's wort, licorice ...). 

It is one of the first gardens built in a public space in Catalonia, with crops used to educational purposes.

I hope that this initiative would be complement with a educational projects with Badalona schools and educational activities for families and adults (why not?).

I want to thank Aloc Natura (all of its staff), Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (Barcelona Metropolitan Council) and Ajuntament de Badalona (Badalona city council) for this great initiative.

Urban Agriculture in Ljubljana (Slovenia)

The 21th – 24th of October, I attended to a training School in Ljubljana. The training School was organized by The Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia. This training school is included in the COST Action Urban Agriculture Europe and COST Action Urban Allotment Gardens.

During these days, we addressed issues related to:

• Organic production

• Environmental aspects of urban food production (water and soils).

• Social aspects of urban food production

• Economical aspects of urban food production

• Designing Planning Processes for Urban Food Production

• Governance.

We visited different examples of urban and peri – urban agriculture located in Ljubljana:

Krakovo gardens:

Historical orchards located in the historical center of Ljubljana, they provided food to the food market. They are protected by historical reasons.

Gradaščica Guerrilla Gardens:

These gardens are located in undeveloped urban plots

Peri-Urban Agriculture in Savlje area:

We visited two farms. One them they produce vegetables a large variety of vegetables

and the other they have organic dairy cows and produce cheeses and also they grow cereals and produce different types of flours (wheat, triticale, rye ...).

Private Allotment Gardens in Savlje area:

NADAL, NAVIDAD, CHRISTMAS, NOËL, NATALE

BON NADAL I FELIÇ ANY NOU 2015

FELIZ NAVIDAD Y FELIZ AÑO NUEVO 2015

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

JOYEUSES FÊTES

BOUN NATALE.