Couple Seeks Partnership For Their Sustainable Food Project In Guardamar Del Segura

A Bulgarian-American couple’s ngo to cultivate cleanable nutrient and organization connected Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

In nan soft, sunlit plains extracurricular Guardamar del Segura, a caller benignant of seed is being planted – not 1 destined for profit, but for purpose, and driven by passion.

Nadya Gabriel and her hubby Gary, a Bulgarian-American mates who disagreement their clip betwixt 4 countries, person group their sights connected transforming a 3,200-square-metre crippled of rustic onshore into a thriving, self-sufficient garden. Their purpose is arsenic individual arsenic it is practical: to turn their ain food, reconnect pinch nan soil, and stock nan harvest pinch like-minded locals.

From Crisis Investment to Coastal Life

Their communicative begins, unexpectedly, during nan Eurozone situation of 2009. Nadya, a Bulgarian master successful strategical readying and section economical development, was past based successful Brussels. Her hubby Gary, an American existent property supplier nearing retirement, was watching nan lodging marketplace illness unfold crossed Europe. “We ne'er planned to unrecorded successful Spain,” Nadya said. “Our Cabo Roig flat was conscionable an investment. But life has a funny measurement of astonishing you.”

At nan time, Spain’s spot marketplace was successful freefall – prices had plunged, and investors were fleeing. The mates bought a mini vacation level successful Orihuela Costa, intending only to sojourn for a fewer weeks each year. But complete time, nan country’s calm rhythm, sunshine and consciousness of organization drew them in.

When her hubby retired successful 2016, they decided to walk much clip successful Europe, splitting their twelvemonth betwixt their homes successful France, Bulgaria, nan United States and now, Spain. “We wanted to bask different cultures, cuisines, and ways of life,” she says. “Eventually, we sold nan flat and moved to Guardamar del Segura. We wanted thing much authentically Spanish, location quiet and traditional.”

The Spark for a Family Project

In France, nan mates had already built an integrated lifestyle, cultivating consequence and vegetables connected a five-thousand-square-metre pasture surrounding their state house. “We turn everything location – from tomatoes and apples to figs and grapes,” Nadya explains. “The nutrient concatenation successful France is comparatively clean. There’s nary GMO maize aliases feed, truthful moreover nan meat, eggs and beverage are natural. Sadly, that’s not nan lawsuit successful Spain.”

It was this opposition that inspired their caller project. “Spain is nan biggest shaper of genetically modified maize successful nan EU,” she notes. “That affects everything – nan feed, nan animals, nan nutrient we eat. Even tomatoes sensation different now; they’re harder, little juicy. The alteration comes from familial editing, not accepted breeding.”

The mates decided to act. They purchased a mini portion of rustic onshore adjacent Guardamar, intending to cultivate it by hand, utilizing only earthy methods. “This is not a business,” Nadya stresses. “It’s a family project, 1 that keeps america progressive and lets america eat nutrient we trust.”

Ancient Water, Modern Vision

The couple’s enthusiasm grew moreover much erstwhile they learned astir nan region’s historical irrigation web – nan thousand-year-old Valencia Irrigation System, first built by nan Moors. “It’s world-class,” Nadya says pinch admiration. “A free, gravity-fed h2o strategy that has sustained farming communities for complete a millennium.”

Their scheme is elaborate and ambitious. They will disagreement nan onshore into sections: a consequence plot pinch astir 30–35 trees – oranges, lemons, figs, avocados, olives, and moreover cherries and peaches – alongside a mini vineyard, rootlike plots, and abstraction for chickens and different birds. “We’ll besides turn maize and grains to provender nan animals ourselves,” Nadya adds. “We want each nexus successful nan concatenation to beryllium clean.”

Looking for Growing Partners

The project, though mini successful scale, needs helping hands. The mates spends only portion of nan twelvemonth successful Spain, and are now seeking section partners to stock some nan activity and nan harvest. “We’re looking for enthusiasts – not professionals, conscionable group who emotion nan thought of increasing their ain food,” Nadya says. “They should unrecorded nearby, speak immoderate Spanish, and beryllium funny to learn. The section organization is awesome – hardworking group who support this accepted agriculture alive.”

This shared approach, Nadya believes, is what gives nan task its deeper meaning. “It’s not conscionable astir tomatoes and apples,” she says. “It’s astir community, sustainability, and sensation – nan sensation we retrieve from childhood.”

Those willing successful joining nan inaugural tin scope Nadya straight via email astatine NadyaGary@yahoo.com.

A Growing Vision

In a world wherever nutrient often comes wrapped successful integrative and grown nether fluorescent light, Nadya and Gary’s imagination is refreshingly human. The task adjacent Guardamar del Segura is not conscionable a return to nan soil, but a quiet enactment of guidance – a reminder that existent food, grown pinch attraction and shared among friends, tin still thrive nether nan Spanish sun.