The project

Hi! We are Anna and Sven

We are located in L’Espluga de Francolí, in the Conca de Barberà in the centre of Catalunya. We are in a region of ‘secà’, meaning ‘dry’, without irrigation. Therefore we have to make maximum use of the little rain we get by using techniques to capture rainwater and ameliorate the soil so that it can hold more water. Being dependent on rainwater in these times of global warming makes harvests unstable and unpredictable but the big advantage is that the taste is a lot purer and intenser and the products are nutrient dense.

The Catalan word ‘lligam’ has a variety of meanings related to links, ties, connections etc.
We believe that in any healthy system everything is connected to each other and there are no loose ends, just like in an ecosystem. In our project these links are visible in our interconnectedness with: the ecosystem, the soil, the land, the elements, each other, our network (customers, other farmers, producers, teachers, students, neighbours, volunteers,…), the village, different cultures/countries, different visions,… 

‘Organics’ stands for the organic and ecological way we produce, but it also reflects that these connections have to grow in an organic way, given the time & space needed without being forced. Thus they are strong, real and long-lasting connections. 

We see ‘organic agriculture’ as a starting point, even though we are well aware that the organic certification is far from perfect. We believe that the input from outside the farm should be an absolute minimum and are applying techniques from permaculture, KNF, syntropic agriculture, agroforestry, regenerative agriculture, biodynamic farming, veganic farming,… to achieve our goals and to create systems that have a maximum of biodiversity and are as close to nature as possible. 

We try to do as much as we can by hand to reduce the machinery needed to provide food. We do this for various reasons. Not only is there a direct impact on the land in the form of compaction, but our food production nowadays is also very technologised and dependent on machinery and fossil fuels, which is why it often comes from far away and is produced on huge monocultural fields, where there’s no space for biodiversity. 

If we take into account the energy that goes into the production of these machines, the mining of the raw materials, the production of chemical fertilisers,… (we’re not even talking about working conditions and environmental impact of this process), we notice that the energy input in conventional agriculture is bigger than the output in the form of food, which is obviously not a sustainable system. 

This way of production also makes our food system very vulnerable: if anything happens in any of these steps, our food supply is endangered. 

We believe it’s important to re-establish the link between people and their food and have them involved in their own food production, which should be as close to home as possible. This link is now lost, resulting in people eating a lot of unhealthy, cheap, processed foods, leading to lots of diseases and allergies.  

We now still have the choice between a system where robots produce our sterile food and a man in a suit programs which nutrients they should put into it… and the alternative of small-scale, agro-ecological agriculture with a lot of biodiversity and a community involved in their own food production. We know which gives us the most confidence.

For more info and to see the evolution of our project: Follow us! 

We want more people on the field and less machines, more biodiversity and less pesticides.