Garden products taste

Asociación de hortelanos ‘Huerta las moreras’

Summary

This is a convivial activity for market gardeners and neighbors of the neighborhood in which seasonal products grown in the garden, in this case tomatoes and potatoes, are tasted. Each gardener prepares the produce in the way he or she wants. A day is selected during the season to hold a kind of festival in which the gardeners give their produce to anyone who wants to come to the garden to taste it. The idea is to promote self-consumption, to live together, to make the garden known and to exchange experiences, techniques…

1. Organisation hosting the activity

Name

Asociación de hortelanos ‘Huerta las moreras’

Legal status

Association

Year of establishment

2016

Location

Parque Miraflores - Av. las Asociaciones de Vecinos, 21, 41008 Sevilla

The ‘Asociación de Hortelanos Huerta las Moreras’ was founded in 2016, although the residents of the Seville neighbourhoods of San Diego and Las Almenas, originally from rural areas of Andalusia, have been organising since the 1980s to defend, revitalise and use the current Miraflores Park. After several attempts, in 1993, the city council approved the first project converting this space into what are the oldest urban gardens in Andalusia.
Currently, within this park, the Association has 3 hectares of cultivable land, divided into plots of 150 or 75 m2. The distribution of the plots is put out to public tender on an annual basis and residents from all over the city of Seville can participate.
Since its inception, the association has worked towards the following objectives:
To carry out activities and projects to generate and promote ecological culture.
To encourage intergenerational relationships between the gardeners and the citizens, especially the younger ones, in order to transmit knowledge of the environmental culture of the area.
To offer an environmental education that can complement that received in schools, using the garden as a resource for participation and learning.
To generate synergies with other entities that have a similar activity.
To promote outdoor gardening among groups with special needs (elderly people, people with disabilities…) by promoting the accessibility of the facilities of the Miraflores Park Urban Gardens.
To disseminate the activity of the association in order to make society aware of the virtues of agricultural activity in ecological gardens as a support for environmental education of citizens.

Activities: Education, Training

2. Activity detailed description

This activity is organised by the gardeners themselves in the garden facilities. It takes place twice a year, and the dates depend on the season of the produce to be used. In the case of the Association of Market Gardeners ‘Huerta las Moreras’, the first time takes place in the tomato season, around May/June, and the second time in the potato season in August.

The gardeners are in charge of growing the produce, harvesting it and cooking it for the tasting in the way they prefer so that on the day of the activity they can taste the produce from the garden.

This activity is attended by market gardeners, neighbours of the city, seed networks, associations of market gardeners from other neighbourhoods and anyone interested in learning about the activity of the garden. Cooperation with other entities takes place through their participation in the event; it is the people themselves who, taking advantage of the day of coexistence, generate synergies, share seeds, techniques… Representatives of the city council are also usually invited to participate. There is no exact number of participants, but it is usually a very well attended activity, and it has to be prepared taking into account that participation is wide.

The idea is to carry out a community and cohesion activity using the orchard’s own resources, to publicise the association’s activity, to exchange experiences and techniques, to establish links and synergies with the associations that attend the day…

Implementation steps

1. Choosing the product

Depending on the production of the market gardeners, the product for the tasting is selected.
2. Choose the date

The date of the activity will depend on the product selected. As it is a convivial and leisure activity that can take up the whole day, it should ideally take place at the weekend.
3. Disseminate the activity

It is important to disseminate the activity as much as possible. The target can be neighbourhood associations, other gardens in the city, civic centres, allotment networks, institutes, schools…
4. Preparing the product

This step goes from the cultivation of the product, harvesting and preparation in the kitchen. The gardeners are in charge of this.
5. Preparing the garden

This step will depend on the facilities of the garden. Ideally, several tables should be set up as ‘stands’ where the market gardeners will offer the dishes they have prepared.
6. Present the activity

On the day of the tasting, you can start with a presentation about the garden and the activity. If staff from the institutions are present, they can also give a short welcome talk. The rest of the activity requires no preparation other than the willingness of organisers and participants to spend a pleasant and enriching day together.

3. Gallery

4. Conclusions

The really important thing about this activity is to encourage self-consumption and to value the production and work of the market gardeners in a context of coexistence and enjoyment in which to learn through seeing and doing and contact with others. This activity is an excellent opportunity to bring together the older ones with the younger ones, the new market gardeners with the veterans, the younger neighbours with those who first arrived in the neighbourhood and different associations with the same interests. It is an activity by and for the garden, the gardeners, the neighbourhood and society, everyone is welcome!

Advice / Recommendation

"To facilitate participation, it would be ideal to organise the activity during the weekend. In addition, it is important to disseminate the activity through different channels in order to reach more people, as everyone has something to contribute".