A tractor to help the farmer!

We need to mechanize our activity by purchasing a tractor and agricultural implements to produce more food with the same quality as our organic strawberries and convert the vineyard to organic.

I and Anibal intend to buy a tractor and some agricultural implements to make our business more efficient. The tractor will allow us to perform some jobs faster and reduce the hiring of external service, which is expensive and not always available. Last year was the first year we took care of the vineyard (2.75ha) and the main difficulties were: to arrange labor to carry out the phytosanitary treatments with back sprayers (nobody wants to do this work) or when we hire people with tractors for spraying we had to subject to their availability and if we convert the vineyard to organic this cannot happen because the treatments are preventive, if we do not do them in the day necessary it is most likely that we lose the grape production. In addition, we will have to buy a sprayer just for us, to ensure that there is no contamination since we only use products with copper and sulfur and in the viticulture of the region many synthetic products are used, highly toxic.

 The tractor will allow us to manage better the time and the agricultural activities, both in the vineyard and others like cleaning the forest, cleaning and transport the manure of the animals, fertilization, and maintenance of the soil of the garden, orchard and pastures. 

Since we come to this farm, we have converted almost all production to organic, this year we want to convert the last parcel, the vineyard. Our goal is to produce high quality, healthy food while promoting sustainable practices and a positive impact on the agricultural ecosystem.

 This year we started with tourism in nature and we realized how important it is that people are in contact with the land, with the plants, and with the animals and to enjoy healthy and tasty food (one of the most common comments was the taste that the food had). For this, it is essential that the farm and what we produce in it are based on sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.

 We have realized in the last 3 years with the production and commercialization of our organic strawberries that the time we dedicate to what we do is of the most importance, our strawberries are sweet, aromatic, and more nutritious and generate pleasure and happiness. We want to produce more food with the same characteristics so that everyone can enjoy them, but time is not infinite!

 We hope that you join us in this cause and be able to enjoy what we have to offer you!

zona de pastagem das ovelhas e descanso dos hospedes

About the author

We are Anibal and Joana, we met while traveling and after crossing the Atlantic for a few times we decided to create roots in Souselo, Portugal. Our farm has been in the family for more than 100 years. Today, we are developing a sustainable project of organic farming and activities/lodge in nature. 

Joana was born in Porto and spent the weekends in the village, where she now lives, she graduated in Environmental Engineering and professional photography but mostly devoted herself to environmental education and volunteered in projects of nature conservation and tourism. Particularly in “SOS Turtles” in Cape Verde and “Chacras Foundation” in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Aníbal was born in Jujuy, Argentina, but young he moved to Buenos Aires to study, graduated in business administration where he worked until 5:00 p.m. From that time he taught rollerblading classes at the school that he as founded "Power Roller".

In 2013 they moved to Souselo - Cinfães, to develop a sustainable project that would allow them to be closer to nature and raise a family. They share what they do by opening the doors through tourism selling what they produce in local markets.

We also count on the help of family, friends and volunteers of the WWOOF program.

Budget and due dates

The money raised will help to purchase the tractor and the implements (200L sprayer with turbine, trailer, plow), we foresee a total cost of around 12,000 euros, and we ask for half to be able to buy everything at once. We got a bigger discount on the purchase.

The money raised will also be used for rewards expenses and the PPL crowdfunding platform commission.

Images