Text and photo: Alberto Sarabia Hierro

In Puerto del Rosario, located in la Gavia de los Hormiga, and in the very heart of ?el barrio del charco? we find the urban orchards managed by the town hall of Puerto del Rosario. There is a total of 54 orchards divided into two parts where gardeners cultivate their plots with a variety of vegetables and aromatic plants.

Their task has to meet a series of conditions, it must be organic growing and its trade mustn?t be allowed. And this is because they are orchards with a social purpose and with an ambitious but feasible target: food sovereignty. AVANFUER Asociation revolves around all of these concepts and they have invigorated the orchards for years, not just in the community made up by the gardeners but also those by hundreds of students at schools that have visited us, as well as other groups and associations.
The association works in different projects within orchards, like a small permaculture pilot project that will become three years old and it?s the result of the labour and pampering of the soil. Attached to the orchards we find the recent Urban Agroecology and Environment Centre, where we have prepared a small exhibition of seeds from the very orchards.
Part of this revitalizing programme is portrayed in the late course we have carried out: Urban Orchards and Permaculture 2019, from February 21st to March 18th. The course was taught by the expert in agroecology and Permaculture design, Greorg Friedrich Horn, who visited us from Hamburg, where he works in Permaculture projects delivered all over the city. During this project, apart from deepening into Permaculture as a philosophy and life style, they dealt with important matters such as some techniques to increase soil fertility, the design of orchards or the preparation of aggro-ecological seedbeds.

Moreover, together with him, Celine M?ller-Berg, a specialist in the most artistic side of permaculture, visited us to teach a workshop of art and nature, which was a real success. We practised techniques such as botanical printring or the dyeing of eggs with organic dyes made of plants from the orchards. Interested people from different parts of the island visited us, and they enjoyed the workshop and took home the pieces of work they had made.
From AVANFUER Association we carry out different activities, speeches or workshops all through the year. To get up-to-date in our activities, follow us on Facebook: AVANFUER or Instragram: @avanfuer