Sponsor a tomato. Organic gardens in Comillas (Cantabria)

A few days ago I visited a magical place: Comillas (Cantabria, Spain). And I say magical because, for those who are not used to being surrounded by so much natural beauty together, the green Cantabrian landscapes, the herds of cows and sheep, the beaches of Comillas and the peacefulness of its corners, can be the perfect antidote to calm stress. and the restlessness that hectic life in cities can cause us.

There I met Cristian, a young entrepreneur who, at only 30 years old, has started his own direct sales business of organic vegetables. A couple of years ago he began his journey and, in search of promoting a healthier and more natural diet, he decided to organically cultivate some of his family’s lands, and others nearby, with a spirit that unites tradition and innovation.

«We love our work and that is why we put all our love and effort into getting the freshest and most natural vegetables you can eat today, at the best price and without giving up the flavors of yesteryear.

From the moment the seed is born until we harvest the fruit, we supervise all its phases to bring the best product to your table with total confidence and comfort.”

Sponsor a tomato is the name under which they market the products that arrive, in a few hours, from their greenhouses to your table. If you live near Comillas or spend a few days there, you can even go and pick freshly harvested lettuce, beans or tomatoes yourself, which will mean great savings compared to buying organic products in the supermarket. In addition, you will enjoy the pleasant company of Cristian for a while, who will tell you a lot of interesting things, and you can even boast of having taken the fresh vegetables from the ground yourself that you will later savor with your family.

Sponsor a tomato sells its products at home in the western part of Cantabria; and also serves several restaurants and establishments in the area that are committed to organic farming and food.

Organic gardens in Comillas: What is grown?

Without a doubt, the vegetable par excellence in Cristian’s garden is tomatoes. They are large tomatoes (some of more than half a kilo!!), appetizing, with a very good flavor, and… above all, natural!

You can get an idea with these two general photos of the place where Sponsor a tomato grows:

Sponsor a tomato has eight 40×8 meter greenhouses. Every year, six of them are cultivated with tomato and two with legumes (broad beans or beans), whose harvest remains will also serve as green manure. They are rotated to take advantage of the improvements that legumes produce in the soil by fixing Nitrogen.

In greenhouses, lettuce is also planted at this time (in the weeks prior to planting the tomato), so as not to waste the good properties of the soil, which is already clean, plowed and fertilized, but the rest of the year is grown outside.

In the approximately 700 square meters that they grow outdoors, they have, as I said, lettuce, but also Italian peppers, courgettes, aubergines and carico montanes, a local variety of red beans from Cantabria, highly appreciated in the area and of great quality..

Here you can see a photo of Cristian carrying out a fertilization treatment on the bean plants (in the next article we will talk a little more about how they care for and fertilize the crops in Sponsor a tomato) and another, taken a few months later, with part of the last year’s harvest:

IRRIGATION

As you will already suppose, irrigation is a fundamental aspect for crops.

In this case, the greenhouses and open-air plots are irrigated with water from a 25,000-litre pond on the farm itself.

In the greenhouses, for the tomatoes, there is a drip irrigation system installed, the best way to provide the necessary water without wasting practically anything.

The lettuce is irrigated by sprinkler and the peppers too. According to what Cristian told me, with the climate in this area, the peppers need little watering, so sprinkling does not involve too much water consumption either. In addition, as we will tell in the next article, the sprinkling helps to make the Trips (small bugs that can become a plague) uncomfortable and does not affect the peppers.

MORE ABOUT SPONSOR A TOMATO

If you want to know more about how the products of these organic gardens are grown in Comillas, you can read the following post: Organic crop management in «Apadrinauntomate», in which we talk about cultivation techniques (fertilization, pest control…) with those who get these vegetables so appetizing!

You can also visit their Facebook page: Apadrinauntomate.