Holidays for farmers: "We can try some delicious fruit."

LleidaThere's an epic narrative surrounding the peasant world. Our imagination is filled with photographs, films, books, and songs that praise and idealize agricultural activity. He told it beautifully. the singer-songwriter Jordi Oró, which some label as the Poniente version of Raimon, when he sang about tractors in the seventies, "I am a peasant, I am a peasant and so I live satisfied."

Along these lines, a growing range of experiences has been built that aim to excite tourists with a bucolic image of the peasantry. The pioneer of this concept is the municipality of Aitona (in Segrià), which already in 2011 promoted the flowering of fruit trees to attract tourists, an initiative that is now a classic of the early spring months.

But things went further. In 2019, Fruiturismo, Aitona's tourism brand, launched another idea: Sponsor trees so that urbanites could have their hands on Lleida's star product: fruit.The first renowned tourist to inaugurate this initiative was the Lleida businessman Tatxo Benet, and over the years, the initiative has grown in popularity, with more than 200 sponsors registered over the past six years.

Sponsoring a fruit seller in Aitona entails possessing a document certifying this and the experience of personally harvesting the fruit each summer. However, given the increased tourist interest this initiative has sparked, Fruiturismo has gone further in recent years. It's no longer necessary to sponsor a tree to go to Aitona and pick a box of fruit. Anyone who wants to be a farmer for a few hours can go.

The project has been incorporating a wide variety of local produce. They started with the classic fruits of Aitona (peaches, nectarines, and flat peaches), then added figs, and in 2024, walnuts and cherries were harvested, and this year, for the first time, apricots and olives. For the latter, we'll have to wait until the end of October, exactly when the green oil (the first of the season) will be available. "Tourists will have to take on the challenge of harvesting them like our godparents did, perched on a wooden bench with a harp in hand," explains Bea.

"We're doing this to promote our work, so people know how the fruit they buy every week in supermarkets is grown and harvested," explains Cisco Calzada, a farmer from Aitona and one of the owners of the farms where this tourism project is located. Farmers participating in this initiative receive compensation from the City Council, which buys their harvested fruit above the market price. Tourists, meanwhile, pay a low price based on their harvest (€50 for eight kilos of peaches or €30 for four kilos of figs), and are also able to enjoy breakfast or a vermouth.

"This is the third time we've come to Aitona because we love this local tourism," says Carlos Bujan, a Barcelona resident who visited the town with his Filipino partner, Reshyll Custodio. "This experience reminds me a lot of my childhood in my country," says Custodio. "Being city dwellers, we have a great opportunity to visit the countryside," explain Pere and Mariví Santana, two siblings from Badalona. "With this initiative, we can try some amazing fruit," say Mireia Arisa and Sergi Cuesta, a couple from Camprodon who discovered the tourist scene thanks to their first visit to Aitona during the flowering season last spring.

Parties with a good smell

Farmers' experiences during the summer go beyond fruit trees. We also have examples with aromatic plants, and specifically, lavender. In Santa Eulàlia de Ronçana, in the middle of the Tenes Valley (in the Vallès Oriental), during the three weeks that lavender can be harvested each year (in June), there's a festival almost every day. The idea came from Pilar Comes in 2007. At that time, she was still a professor of geography didactics in the UAB's education department. She was only 50 years old, but she wanted to prepare for her retirement with a project that would allow her to have a profitable business model with just a few hectares of aromatic herb cultivation. She called it the Parque de las Olores (Park of Scents) and, two years later, she promoted a network to create more throughout Catalonia. There are now about fifteen such parks, such as those in Linyola (Pla d'Urgell), Sant Marçal (Alt Penedès), Celrà (Gironès), Taradell (Osona), and Mont-roig del Camp (Baix Camp). All of these parks independently offer very similar approaches to fostering knowledge and awareness of aromatic plants among the Catalan population.

In 2015, before he had retired, Comes purchased a twelve-hectare plot of land, now known as the Serrat estate, to convert it into a space with many different species of aromatic and medicinal plants, as well as a forest surrounding the fields and a large vegetable garden.

This is where tourists can enjoy quite original experiences. Comes claims that half a thousand people have already participated in the lavender festivals. Well equipped with a hat, scissors, and a basket, tourists can harvest the lavender, take it to the small house in the park where a distiller is installed, and, apart from seeing how it works, learn about the different types of lavender, their properties, and uses. And, to complete the experience, they end with an outdoor dinner.

This park also has an orchard (they call it a garden), where, during the month of August, the Labrador Vespers are also organized (this year it wasn't possible due to a lack of workers), an event that invites tourists to harvest seasonal produce and then eat it cooked on-site. Another activity offered by the Parque de los Olores del Serrat is the Lemon Verbena Festival (in September), where visitors can also cut this plant, put it in a dryer, distill it, and make liqueur. They are even taught how to reproduce it at home.

When Pilar Comes turned 60, she retired permanently, and is now one of the most active volunteers. "We want to generate knowledge so that the aromatic and medicinal plant sector can grow organically and seriously, but at the same time, little by little, without major aid or subsidies. If we want Catalonia to be a region like Provence or Tuscany, we must all get to work," he claims.

'Teambuilding' for Labrador

Throughout the year, it is well known The Welcome to Pagès project, an initiative launched in 2016 which aims to raise awareness of the work of Catalan farmers to all citizens. Dozens of producers open the doors of their farms and estates and show the work they do every day, cultivating or with their herds. Since 2021, there has been a sustained offer of paid visits to farms that include experiential workshops. This initiative by the Generalitat (Catalan Government) has become a popular initiative to promote the marketing of products and support agri-food farms.

But there's more. The Barcelona-based firm Green Events organizes experiences of team building for companiesThese are sustainable initiatives that aim to create a positive impact among their colleagues and "promote skills such as teamwork, communication, leadership, and motivation." Among their programs, the one titled Ses Pagès por un Día stands out. It offers several gardens in Vilanova i la Geltrú and Viladecans so that participants can learn about sustainable food, agriculture, seasonal crops, and designations of origin. After four hours of experience, participants end up eating together a good portion of the produce they have harvested.

All tourism initiatives are aimed at enjoying and idealizing a job that, after all, is harder than it seems. But who knows? Maybe someone, thanks to these experiences, will end up making one of the lyrics of Els Catarres their own: "I photograph the countryside, I go to the countryside, to live in the countryside."