A small brown paper sachet that fits in your shirt pocket and contains around 0.3 grams of product. It is the weapon with which the Association Varietats Locals de Mallorca (AVL) combats the disappearance of native fruits, vegetables and vegetables from the largest of the Balearic Islands.
A small group of farmers – which soon became around twenty – realized in 2002 that many of the local varieties that they had seen their parents and grandparents cultivate had disappeared from agricultural farms or had a merely residual role. So they decided to start rescuing them and creating an exchange network, as well as a bank that would guarantee their future. “Now we are 350, not all professional farmers,” says Aina Socies, coordinator of the association.
Thirteen types of tomatoes, three of onion and broad bean, eight of cauliflower, six of pumpkin, eight of melons, seven of beans or eight of peppers, to name just a few examples, have been rescued from the shipwreck. The seed catalog that the AVL manages in 2024 includes up to 80 different types of fruits.
“The system – explains Socies – is purely of exchange. When harvesting, the farmer gives a part of the seeds or even the fruit. And in the following campaign, he will receive the seed that he needs, contributed by the entire network.”
The system has been named Seed Multipliers. Groups of volunteers meet every week at the ALV headquarters to extract the grains, clean and dry them, often with very basic cutting machinery that has also been recovered from old farms or even creating new mechanisms “by DIY.” . Far from the sophisticated devices that similar associations use in Great Britain or France for the same purpose.
Once the seeds are dry and ready to market, members of Estel de Levante, a non-profit foundation in Manacor for mental health, take care of the packaging. They fill and close the powerful envelopes with tiny grains that are put up for sale.
In just over twenty years, farm products highly appreciated by Mallorcans have returned to the greengrocers. Ibizan red onions, boratxona cabbage, Majorcan and black beans, purple carrot, white eggplant, hedgehog and hairy melons or tap de cortí pepper, similar in appearance and size to the piquillo. Thanks to the seed bank that the AVL has in the town of Montuïri, in the center of Mallorca. In a large refrigerator they are kept classified and in ideal conditions.
“Not only is the product recovered – recalls Socies – but there is also a cultural implication. Traditional dishes return to homes. And the peasant provides knowledge that had stopped being transmitted.” For example, the pumpkin of the Luffa cylindrica species, which is collected when the fruit is very dry, is peeled and turned into a natural scouring pad, hence its native name, carabassa de fregall. Or the ineffable vine tomato, essential for making the classic Mallorcan pa amb oli (bread rubbed with tomato, oil and salt).
Seed Multipliers carry out the exchange selflessly. But if these are significant quantities, then the AVL brings together who owns the grain and who needs it to plant, and makes it easier for them to reach an economic agreement. This happens with cereals that require a large amount of planting, such as xeixa, a native wheat that is increasingly valued.
The AVL is not only made up of farmers. There are also among its partners and its board of directors biologists, graduates in environmental sciences, cultural promoters or tourism technicians. People concerned about the preservation of organic agriculture and genetic wealth. Most of the 23 multiplier farms currently involved have the endorsement seal of the Consell Balear de Producció Agrària Ecològica (CBPAE).
Aina Socies remembers that in the first years less than a thousand sachets of seeds were sold per year. Now they are at an average that exceeds 9,000. She recognizes that the accounts are still not clear, for the project to be profitable they would have to sell three times as much. They need to look for other sources of funding, such as educational and scientific research projects. “Members who are not producers and, therefore, are not immersed in the exchange network, pay a fee of 40 euros per year and have a discount on the purchase of seeds and twice a year they receive gifts from the organic and variety staff. local”.
Although the majority of vegetables or fruits that have been saved from extinction appeared thanks to nurserymen or farmers who maintained small productions for family consumption, the AVL has also had to resort to the Spanish government’s Seed Bank to rescue already disappeared species such as the Majorcan lentil. or some type of melon.
AVL is part of the Spanish Seed Network, an entity created in 1999, which has the same objectives. Although, logically, when it comes to local varieties, the interest is focused on having a good commercial network on the islands. There are already 30 shops in Mallorca and one in Menorca where the characteristic wooden displays containing the miraculous sachets are located. They can also be purchased on the web. The envelopes with the seeds come with clear instructions on the ideal time to plant and the watering and other care requirements.
Seed Multipliers are not exempt from the bureaucratic headaches that the agricultural sector has put on the table in recent months, since the European and Spanish directives impose the same requirements for labeling, size or germination rate as the industrial ones. They believe that they should have less severe treatment for the work they do, “which far exceeds that of strict agricultural production, we are also perpetuating cultural and social traditions that otherwise would have already disappeared,” emphasizes the coordinator of the AVL.
