Sara Bascompte and Albert Clanchet are the driving forces behind Panoli, an agricultural project that combines respect for farming and passion for the land. She is a wine and olive oil tourism specialist, and he is a tractor driver, but their true calling is producing organic olive oil and wine. Together, they manage seven hectares of olive groves and one hectare of vineyard spread across several municipalities in the Montserrat Rural Park and the Conca d'Òdena Agricultural Park. Specifically, they have fields in La Pobla de Claramunt, Abrera, Esparreguera, Els Hostalets de Pierola and their home town, Olesa.

They are farmers out of love for a way of life and for the satisfaction that self-sufficiency brings them: producing their own wine and oil fills them with pride and connects them to nature's cycles. Their youth and not having inherited land has led them to a fundamental task for forest management: recovering abandoned olive and vineyard fields. Through effort and care, they are revitalising farms that, beyond production, can act as natural firebreaks in case of fire.

Albert, 33, values the freedom of working outdoors, at his own pace, and being able to operate farm machinery. Memories of his grandfather, a farmer he greatly admired, led him to study Agroecological Production at Manresa Agricultural School to continue that legacy. Sara, 36, has a different but equally profound motivation: she finds meaning in her work when she sees she is contributing to caring for nature. She particularly enjoys pruning olive trees: in fact, we find her up a tree with a chainsaw in her hands, focused and serene. When we greet her, she explains the importance of this task for protecting the forest. Their oil and wine, which they produce using organic criteria, are the result of conscious land management, although they are not certified.

Sara tells us about the origin of the project's name. Albert proposed calling themselves 'Paloli', because they work with the Palomar olive variety, and she replied laughing: 'You really are a fool!' That's how Panoli was born, a name that plays on the contraction of 'bread with oil', but also ironises about the beginnings of inexperienced young people who dared to take on farming. When you get to know them, however, you realise they are anything but simple: they exude energy, determination and a campaigning spirit. Sara, who studied Sociology and Industrial Engineering, ultimately chose farming, and now one of her greatest concerns is making Panoli economically sustainable. They have everything else; they just need to consolidate. To facilitate this, they call for clear support from public authorities.

From curiosity to a life project

Sara, how did you come to farming?

I arrived by chance. When I met Albert, one day he took me to a field with about eighty olive trees that his family owns, and that's where my curiosity was piqued. Later on, when we were dating, we went to collect almonds on another family plot. We had such a good time that he said: 'Now it's olive time!' In 2015, we started caring for our first olive trees, and like that, playing and enjoying ourselves, we found our way of living. Agriculture is our lifestyle.

"We started caring for our first olive trees, and like that, playing and enjoying ourselves, we found our way of living" Sara Bascompte

When did you see that this had stopped being a game and was becoming your work?

We saw that we were starting to produce quite a lot of oil and that it went beyond distributing it amongst the family. But we were very limited in the number of olive trees. So I started collaborating with a farmer from the Montserrat Rural Park, Josep Soteres, to learn more and get to know the area. With him, we understood that you didn't need to own land, that it could be rented or ceded.

When accessing land, did you consider the Montserrat Rural Park land bank?

It was quite difficult for us to access more land. But thanks to the El Montserratí workers' cooperative, we met more producers, who connected us with the Montserrat Rural Park land bank. In parallel, we met Ernest Negre, a farmer from Esparreguera who became our mentor. Working with him, we learnt to prune and produce more oil. The relationship with Ernest was beautiful. At eighty, he could no longer work at heights or climb certain olive trees. But when we went, he felt braver.

We gradually gained access to land as people got to know us and trusted us. Bear in mind we're young and have a 'not very farmer-like' dress sense... First, we got abandoned fields, very difficult to work, and then, easier, more productive flat fields came along. We've been obtaining land through word of mouth, and thanks to Ernest's contacts. They saw a young couple up in the trees, with energy and enthusiasm, and that couldn't be let slip! More recently, a couple of seasons ago, the land bank also helped us obtain a field in Abrera.

In 2021, you added wine production to the project. What leads you to open the path of viticulture?

We started working the vineyard to complete the agroecological mosaic: we think it's a farmer's natural process. When we open the house window, we like to see the vineyard, the olive tree, the wheat fields and the forest. If they asked us to draw the Mediterranean now, we'd draw wheat fields, olive trees and vines, wouldn't we? Bread, oil and wine are the basics of our diet and, moreover, complementary crops in terms of work periods.

Those of us who work with olives have the necessary breaks to work the vineyard, and vice versa. Both types of cultivation require similar machinery. There's also another aspect: economically, we didn't want to put all our eggs in one basket, as would happen if we only devoted ourselves to olive monoculture. Ultimately, we wanted to diversify not just the product, but also the landscape.

"We started working the vineyard to complete the agroecological mosaic: we think it's a farmer's natural process" Sara Bascompte

Do your consumers value this local oil and wine, made with traditional varieties?

People value the oil we produce, probably because of where we started our activity. We began as olive growers in Olesa de Montserrat, a municipality that carries this food in its name. Here, oil is not only of the highest quality, but also a symbol of identity. If we talk about varieties, we have Vera, with a character accustomed to living in wooded areas; Palomar, which is only grown in Olesa, where all the olive farms are on steep slopes; or Bacaruda, used to flatter places. All this tells us things that go beyond money.

With wine, it's a bit more complicated, because people have forgotten that this was also wine country. It's easier to sell wine in the centre of Penedès than in Esparreguera or Olesa. However, we need to convey to people that local consumption is important: in fact, it's the only way to keep farmers active. When they buy oil and wine from the Montserrat Rural Park, they're protecting the land. If everyone consumed products from their neighbours, there wouldn't be a single piece of land left uncared for.

"Here, oil is not only of the highest quality, but also a symbol of identity" Sara Bascompte

Protecting the forest through agriculture

Your olive trees and vines are situated between forests and populated areas, in a territory where forests occupy 73% of the surface, crops 17% and urbanised land 10%. What role do you think your farms play in this agroforestry mosaic, key to fire prevention?

Our task is very important for two reasons. On the one hand, because we provide people with top-quality food, and on the other, because we manage the land. Currently, Catalonia is a powder keg: we're losing agricultural land and, in parallel, we're gaining forests and scrubland that are abandoned. The country could burn from end to end, and partly it would be because farmers are very neglected. It's very hard for us to get the work done, and it's not sufficiently recognised that our task is fundamental for caring for the land.

A farmer friend told me he would uproot his plot and plant superintensive crops. We responded that not everything should be focused on economic profitability! But his project is indeed profitable, and ours isn't.

"Our task is very important for two reasons. On the one hand, because we provide people with top-quality food, and on the other, because we manage the land" Sara Bascompte

What drives you beyond the productivist approach?

For us, it's important to leave a legacy of recovery. When I was little, with my brother, we'd walk through this field where we are now and, looking at the olive trees, we already thought they were superior to us... And look, now we're here working them! Being able to care for trees that were already alive before us and will still be here when we're gone has a value that goes beyond production. We'd like to leave this mark for the future.

When you see olive trees that were previously abandoned sprouting strongly, what do you feel?

The olive tree is very deceptive, and you can't let yourself be dazzled. You see it sprouting, and it's wonderful, but then the leaves at the back fall off! But yes, when we see good growth, it gives us great satisfaction, because it means it's picking up. After the harvest, it's a very weak moment because you've just taken the fruit. You notice it's stressed, it looks wrinkled and thin. In winter, the tree reduces its activity. From February-March onward,s it recovers again.

If these olive trees, which are memories, could speak, what would they tell us?

They would tell us everything. For example, after the Civil War in Olesa de Montserrat, many were uprooted to heat homes. When the textile industry arrived, they were felled to obtain fuel for factories. And they would tell us about a milestone marked in farming memory: the 1956 frost, which killed them all. The olive trees we see now are regrowth that farmers, with great effort, brought forward. At the same time, I think that, if olive trees could speak, they would thank us for not giving up and caring for them. It saddens me, and I get emotional thinking that an olive tree is cut down when it doesn't produce enough. It has life! Olive trees aren't just this physical territory, the beautiful part of the agroforestry mosaic: they also speak of our identity.

You live and work in an area with several nearby population centres. Do you remember any fire where crop fields acted as green firebreaks?

The last major fire here was in 1995, when all of Montserrat burnt. At that moment, the fire stopped in many places where there were crops... If there had been more agroforestry mosaics, the impact probably wouldn't have been so devastating.

Between vocation and economic viability

Your plots are mainly situated in the Montserrat Rural Park. What contact do you have with the park's initiatives?

Initially, we contacted the land bank, which was useful for meeting other farmers in the area and accessing an olive grove in Abrera, but we've obtained most of our farms through word of mouth. Moreover, we don't do this professionally, but rather work in other jobs and dedicate our free time to what we truly love, which is farming.

I work as a wine and oil tourism specialist at weekends at Can Calopa de Dalt, from the l'Olivera cooperative, and that leaves me the rest of the week to prune vines and olives, and harvest. And Albert works as a tractor driver from Monday to Friday and at weekends plays with big machines and farms, ha ha ha! As we sometimes say, we work away from home to maintain the whim of being farmers... We'd love to be able to focus only on our project, but becoming a professional farmer is very expensive, and we've already seen many projects close because they couldn't sustain this professionalisation.

This situation means you can't access many grants. What would you ask from public authorities to improve the sector's viability?

They need to be realistic. Some observatories say it takes ten years to make a farm viable. And yet, they ask us to be profitable in five years to access subsidies like the young farmers' first installation grant from the Generalitat of Catalonia.

If they want to maintain local, quality products, the authorities need to be on the ground and listen to us to know what our real needs are. They shouldn't promise us bureaucracy reductions that then don't materialise. The vast majority of farmers are over seventy, and we can't demand digitalisation they can't handle. And if older people give up, access to land becomes more difficult. At Panoli, we've worked on olive fields that had been abandoned for a long time, and we've been able to recover them because they're long-lived trees. But, in the case of vines, the abandonment process isn't reversible: if you don't care for them, you lose them.

"The authorities need to be on the ground and listen to us to know what our real needs are" Sara Bascompte

There's much talk about projects that start, but not so much about those that close. Why do you think they close?

Projects die because carrying them forward is very demanding. Physically, and also because at certain times you need to be very committed. If you fail in these critical moments, you lose the whole year's work. This makes it difficult to maintain the rhythm of the field. And then, bureaucratically, it's unsustainable: you need a manager, but often you can't afford one. The problem for both olive and wine growers is that we produce once a year. We don't generate enough income to cover self-employment and paperwork costs. That's why we see so many family projects die.

Despite the existence of many small and medium projects like yours, in Catalonia, there's an increasing concentration of land in a few hands: 10% of owners hold 56% of agricultural land. What do you think of this trend?

Regulations lead you to reinforce the model of land concentration in large companies and intensive management, with mechanisation... It leads you back to the model of large landowners, of large concentrated properties. Who can own so many hectares? People who have many have to dedicate themselves to managing staff. I want to do everything myself! I'm happy to have help during harvest, but I don't want to hire people to prune my olive trees. Moreover, bureaucracy sets minimum hectares or production, thinking about flat, mechanised extensions, and defines who can be considered a professional farmer. Territories as different as El Montserratí or the Plains of Lleida are put on the same scales.

The reward of caring for the land

Despite the obstacles, what do you like most about this profession?

I like going to bed knowing I've done something good for the world: that tree I've cared for because it needed a good pruning, or that quality oil we've produced for people. What hooks me about the countryside is that you have to know about everything: history, mechanics, botany, biology, meteorology, physics... Albert, for example, understands physics very well, and always knows which way a tree branch will fall when you prune it! All this knowledge is very practical. Farming has taught me to have great patience: you can't rush, but at the same time, you have to be present and alert to act at the right moment. The countryside is patience and presence.

“I like going to bed knowing I've done something good for the world” Sara Bascompte

And speaking of all this knowledge you need to have... You who work in olive oil tourism, is there any curiosity about oil you'd like to share?

I organise tastings and sometimes people ask me how many times we harvest a year. And I wonder if they really don't know... Olive oil tastings, however, don't triumph as much as wine ones. Oil is a basic necessity that we don't value because it's everyday. If they ask us what our favourite food is, we'll surely talk about an elaborate dish, not oil, when it's present in many of our meals. But it's true that now healthy eating is valued more, and oil is finding its place in this awareness. With the whole first oil movement, the so-called 'flow oil', the Montserrat Rural Park is doing a lot of work to promote the olive oil heritage we have in the area.

And wine? What does it bring you beyond production?

We associate wine with moments of revelry and community. A great friend always says we have "el seny i la rauxa" (in English, sense and passion): the first with oil and the second with wine. In the natural wine movement, without additives, at Panoli, we've found a community of people with whom to share reflections on farming and strategies to follow, as well as having a good time.

What would you say to young people so they want to join farming?

I'd tell them that this work has to be understood as a lifestyle, because you'll never get rich with this profession... If it's vocational, if you connect with it, it relaxes you, and you see it's part of you, go ahead! But if you don't see it that way, it makes you feel like a slave and takes many hours. I'd tell young people to please try it, get into it, we need them. Instead of being in a bar or watching television, come to the harvest. They'll see how satisfying it is to make their own olives! And the wine world is very cool, and they'll meet lots of young people who farm.

Original source of the interview: Technical Office for Municipal Forest Fire Prevention and Agricultural Development of the Barcelona Provincial Council