The municipalities of the northwestern mountains of Madrid

The municipalities of the northwestern mountains of Madrid have a lot of knowledge and experience within them.

These experiences configure an identity within the set of identities of Madrid, Spain, Europe and the world, shaping a planet whose beauty is diversity. The inhabitants of the mountains have an interesting nuance since we are mostly foreigners, foreigners, inhabitants always passing through, since our reality is chained to the rhythms of the great capital, turning these towns into dormitory cities. The pandemic and isolation of 2020 provided us with a lot of information that can encourage us to change the unbridled pace to which we have been subjected.

“We don’t want to go back to normal because normality is the problem.”

This phrase circulated during those months of uncertainty in which we lived locked up and isolated. From Alimentando la sierra we want to at least develop a new path. Project the experience into the future.

The experience of three years prior to the pandemic in Torrelodones, three years following planning dreams on Saturday afternoons, to reach a new beginning with Feeding the Sierra: since September we have begun to know our immediate environment more deeply in order to choose the first space / laboratory for collective learning around a Regenerative Agriculture workshop.

First it was Valdemorillo where some bureaucratic inconveniences delay us in time. This place needs a little more preparation in the special terrain that awaits us. We visited a sister initiative in San Lorenzo de Escorial. David, an agronomist, in love with nature, created this magical corner more than eleven years ago among the rustic lands of this valley in the mountains. He welcomes us in the “Garden of Gaia”, a magical space where the scientific knowledge that a change in human habits is urgent for the health of the planet coexists with the experience of that knowledge with anyone who wants to come and eat in this corner. David supports all those who want to cultivate their land with their hands and the knowledge gained from years dedicated to study. Training workshops from a wide range of agricultural schools are also shared: permaculture, regenerative, syntropic, etc.

And finally we discovered La Floresta in Quijorna. A large orchard created by José Francisco more than twenty-five years ago. The image upon arrival is as impressive as its way of functioning: a supermarket in the farmland. People arrive there at all hours, pick up their basket from the copra and go out to harvest whatever is in the garden. When finished, a charming helper weighs the purchase and collects its price, a very fair price for both the buyer and the farmer. No intermediaries. The work team could not resist trying the experience of this original formula and attesting to the exceptional quality of the products harvested.

How much love is still to be discovered.