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Life at La Jimena.

As the first golden rays of sunshine begin to outline the hills to the east the faithful crowing of the farms rooster tells me it’s time to get up and start a new day. I walk out into the fresh morning air to sweeping views of Las Alpuharras still blanketed in a thin layer of mist. Milan, age 12, is making his morning rounds of taking out his sheep and goat for grazing along the terraces. He bids me good morning with the bleat of a goat, and I return his polite gesture. On occasion Milan puts the sheep right outside my cabin to ensure that the first thing I see in the morning is a curious sheep peering in at me.

Waiting at the breakfast table I watch as one by one everyone trickles in yawning and rubbing the lingering sleep from their eyes. Typically there are 3 languages spoken at the table, Swiss German, Spanish, and English. For breakfast we eat home-made bread with spreads and bits of fruit and vegetables. The bread, which is a heavy Germanic style bread, is quite unlike any I have had before and recently I got learn why. Marianne has begun teaching* me how to make this amazing stuff.

My favorite spread for breakfast has become the olive paste, made from organic olives and olive oil. The first time I ate the olives grown here at La Jimena I thought to myself, “so this is what real olives taste like”. So much different than the ones we get in the US. It’s like comparing a frozen microwave dinner to a four course meal served at a five star restaurant. Night and day, really. The brining process that removes the bitterness from the fresh olives and seasons them, is made from recipes that, from what I gather, are a bit like family heirlooms in this part of the world. So needless to say everyone’s olives will be a little different. The olives here at La Jimena are glorious.

Our hunger sated and with a small snack for noon time the whole family walks up a red dusty road together to tend the vegetables. Today is Saturday, garden day. We work in pairs on different projects from weeding rows of plants, to gathering manure for enriching an empty field, to sowing new rows of seeds. Little Florina, age four, is the first to start working today. She runs over to a large fig tree, grabs a tool hidden there, then runs off to the strawberry patch and begins working the land with a miniature garden hoe.

Half the produce grown here is sold to an organic grocery store in Orgiva, and the other half is used for the family meals. On monday morning we will gather the weeks harvest and Marianne will take them into town. Some vegetables grown here include carrots, beans, cucumbers, green peppers, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, and various herbs.

On week days Mathis and I go off alone to another section of his property to work on the building site. Mathis is fixing an old ruin into a dormitory like house for a project of his friend David. David works in France with adolescents that were raised around drugs, abusive parents, or other less than ideal conditions and are heading down the wrong path in life. The building we are constructing will be a sort rehabilitation center for them, allowing them to experience a different kind of life. David, who will be arriving next week to help with the building, will live there with his family.

Most of the materials used in the construction are either natural or locally manufactured. Mathis strives to incorporate as much sustainability into the building process as financially feasible. I arrived at La Himena in time to help with the roof structure for the main room. We used tree trunks cut from an overgrown terrace. The structure we are using is called a non-heiracrial structure. Each log extends from the outer wall in to the center and rests on the next log. The ends are set on the top of the wall and the inner ends interlock to all support each other equally. It’s a bit difficult to explain in words, so I have posted a picture of it taken from the main room.

The work day begins at 9am and goes to 3pm with a break for a snack in the middle. We return to the house to find a wonderful meal ready to be placed upon the table. Everyone helps to set the table and do the finishing touches for the meal. Typically the meals here are vegetarian. This I have found is normal for most of Spain. My time in Spain and especially working on this farm has given me a different perspective on the unsustainable meat-laden American diet. Helping me to recognizing it as the unnecessary and costly decadence that it is.

I have spent the last 120 days of my life on a largely vegetarian diet due to the cost of meat in terms of both environmental and personal economic goals. Health wise I really have never felt better. I used to think that meat was an absolutely necessary element in a healthy diet. I have since found that to be a misconception. Only a year ago I was eating large amounts of cheap American meat daily without thinking twice, and though I had heard various arguments of vegetarians I lacked the scope of perspective to respect them.

Meat here at La Jimena is had once every eight to ten days. It is viewed as a luxury and is respected and enjoyed as such. Typically it either comes from one of Milan’s lambs, or Mathis’s rabbits, or the occasional hen who quits laying eggs. You really come to respect meat as a luxury when you get to see first hand the amount of resources in food and manpower that go into raising an animal.

After lunch I spend my time reading in the hammock I sleep in at night, or exploring the surrounding barrancos, de-shelling almonds, or. One of the most wonderful things about La Alpujarra is that as soon as one fruit is going out of season another one is coming in. Going for a short walk down the road is like walking through a fruit stand. In addition to having a surplus of what are rare seasonal fruits back home, I have also been introduced to some that are entirely new to me. The chirimoya, the cactus fruit, the chalk cherry, and the membrillo have all been new experiences for me.

Overall La Jimena is a great example of living sustainably, and I have found it to be a great educational experience. It is living proof that the lifestyles and products of our capitalistic consumerism culture push upon us are not only unnecessary, but fundamentally flawed. The composting toilet turns would be pollution** into fertilizer that can be used to produce food. There is no TV at La Jimena, and it is starkly apparent in their sharp, bright eyed children who posses more basic life skills than most city dwelling adults do. Perhaps the most important and significant thing I’ve noticed during my time here are the changes in health I’ve experienced due to the fresh organic diet we eat here.

I really want to stress to you how shocked I was at the huge differences in fresh organic food and the processed genetically modified foods found in US supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants. I figured on the grounds of common sense that they were more healthy, but I had no idea how much of an effect these foods have on the body and mind. From the first meal I ate here on through the following weeks I have noticed the development of an overall feeling of well being, balanced energy, and significant positive changes in my general mood. It’s not subtle, it’s pretty major much more than I would have thought possible from just food. And it is these major differences that have raised my concerns for not only the effects it’s had on me after all these years, but all people eating these processed GM foods.

Check back again in a week or so for photo updates!

Well that’s all for now. I plan to visit at least one more farm before I leave Spain for Morocco. Thanks for following me this far along my journey! I will be posting a few more posts in the near future reflecting on my time in America, how it changed me, and how my time in Europe is drastically changing my views again!

It’s great to see comments on here so feel free to leave some(it lets me know people are still reading).