The last day of the harvest season begins in the orange groves of Masia El Carmen, in Bétera, north of Valencia.
In the soft early morning light, Gonzalo and Gabriel Úrculo move between the rows of orange trees on the farm inherited from their grandfather. Pruning shears in hand, they help workers fill crates that will be shipped later that same day to customers across Europe.
“Neither we nor our grandfather ever imagined we would become farmers,” Gonzalo says. But after their grandfather’s death, the family farm was left abandoned.
With no formal agricultural training, the two brothers decided to revive the farm in 2010, switching to regenerative organic farming.
Today, they run Europe’s largest direct-sales platform for organic agricultural products.
