Yes, there are still farmhouses in Barcelona, even though it is one of the most densely populated cities on the planet. One of my favorites is the one behind the National Museum of Art of Catalonia. It is not excessively old – it is more or less a century old – but it contains most of the ingredients of any farmhouse: a dovetailed door, a sundial on the facade, with the phrase Progredior ultra retro non referar (We move forward, we do not return to the past). There are no longer any poultry or pigs. Inside, elements of peasant life are still preserved, such as a series of hollowed-out pumpkins that served as containers for water and wine. "This farmhouse was built as a livestock pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition," Jaume Pàmies Pagès, a geographer who has worked at the Barcelona Botanical Garden for years, explains to me. Previously, he had worked as an environmental educator, mountain guide, forest ranger, and gardening teacher. The ground floor is opened to the public on special occasions, when there is an activity: workshops, talks... Normally, the gardener and the volunteers of the Association of Friends of the Botanical Garden use it to store the tools for the vegetable garden that occupies part of the so-called Sot de la Masia (a large hole from an old quarry). This garden produces seeds of traditional native varieties and some exotic ones, but all non-hybrid. "We cultivate, reproduce and conserve varieties that the modern world has been displacing, such as the black pea (typical of the north of the regions of Solsonès and Berguedà), the Tiurana chili pepper, the white eggplant and the queen mother broad beans –says Jaume–. It is our grain of sand for the conservation of biodiversity", he adds..The farmhouse has also preserved a wood-burning stove. On the coldest days they light it to heat the large room. They burn wood from garden trees that have had to be cut down (they have fallen in a storm, they have died, it has been necessary to thin their bases...). "I like it when, early on a winter day, as I walk up the stairs from the MNAC to the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, I see the chimney smoking and even smell the wood smoke," comments Jaume.