A successful journey: My name is Paco and I am the architect of "La Choricera".
After carrying my agricultural project in mind, everything began to take shape one sunny day in 2013 when I traveled to a nursery in Leon, the birthplace of spicy chorizo, to select varieties and seedlings of chorizo, bring them to my farm, plant them and carry them forward under the strict rules of organic farming on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Because of the climate, the land and the attention I give them, I harvest every autumn, healthy organic pomegranates, unique exquisite and with a strong personality, hence its unique name, La Choricera.
Ruby Island: This fruit inspired me the name of the farm because of the color of the pomegranate trees in flower and their grains that are. These red tones contrast with the white orange blossom of the orange and grapefruit groves that surround us.
A total crush: On that trip, I do not know if they chose the varieties of pomegranates for me or me for them, to be honest. The selection I made turned out to be a success, so the following year I planted the Wonderful variety, the best known all over the world, intensely red pomegranates, large, with a more acid taste, beautiful, they look like "models".
To the tropics! I have planted, in a small plot of the farm, some guavas to grow them organically for fresh consumption and to enjoy them in jam or in canned casquitos.
Why guavas? Because they are as healthy as pomegranates, good antioxidant and one of the richest foods in vitamin C (even more than citrus fruits) as each 100 grams contain 228mg of ascorbic acid.
Why La Choricera?
"La Chori" because it is a perfect pomegranate inside: large heart, precious grains, juicy, large, with a pinion priceless, sweet and very tasty and imperfect on the outside: because the color of their skin depends on the part of the tree where they have been raised and are very sensitive to the friction of the leaves or branches, no two are alike,.
"La Cera" for our guavas because it comes from the Greek, means "moonflower petal" and evokes the radiant white of the guava flower.
MY PROJECT
At Ruby Island, every pomegranate and guava harvested, has a function, so our business has four mainstays: -Ecological cultivation: Pomegranates and guavas, for fresh consumption by harvesting them at their optimum ripeness (several passes per tree)
-Valuable juice: We allocate part of the harvest to the production of our juice "La Imperfecta", in limited quantities and, therefore, revaluing it, because we only transform our own "Imperfect" and Wonderful.
-Another superfood: Small production of jam and natural preserves of peeled Mediterranean guava shells grown on Ruby Island.
-Sustainability and respect for the environment: We make compost with the rest and vegetable waste after making the juice, jam and casquitos.
Three kilos of pomegranate. Fruit and nothing else:
For each 750 ml bottle of juice we have squeezed more than three kilos of organic pomegranates, most of "La Imperfecta" and a small proportion of the Wonderful variety and nothing else, NOTHING AT ALL. With it we have managed to make more accessible the consumption of natural and pure pomegranate throughout the year not only fresh in autumn season.
Health on all four sides: Our juice, exquisite taste, will provide welfare to those who consume it thanks to its many properties because the pomegranate, a superfood, is rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals and antiocianinas besides being a purifying fruit, digestive, hypocaloric and even help prevent certain diseases.
The same is true for guava jam and guava seeds, a unique fruit full of properties.
Concerns: Our work with these fruits still has some way to go after the research we are doing, we still want to go further.
THE TEAM:
Blanquet 1 and 2, Manuela, bees, birds..., you can imagine the diversity of our team headed by the Blanquets and Manuela, the cats of Isla Ruby who have fun climbing and caressing the trees with their nails or have a happy nap in the shade.
Here we do not use pesticides of any kind and we maintain a varied biodiversity: flowers of different colors that conquer the bees of Toni, our beekeeper of reference and those in charge of enjoying from flower to flower while pollinating; herbs that serve as green manure after passing the weed cutter, land turtles, pairs of birds of different species and nests with eggs, ladybugs and other insects, truly all are part of the "team" along with Richard, (expert in the cultivation of guava), Artur and Isabel under my direction, Chema.
Together we cultivate the pomegranate and guava trees with great attention to detail and in a scrupulous way, we only use manure, vegetable remains, fermented products such as nettle and aromatic oils (rosemary) that naturally help to get rid of the impertinent aphids on the tender leaves of the trees.
