Meet JUAN
JUAN HAS BEEN FARMING SINCE 1996; a calling he shares with his father, grandfather and sister. Every morning, fifteen minutes before his work begins, Juan stretches, feels the crisp morning air and soaks in the view of the farmland. “I love listening to nature in its purest form,” he says. “The rabbits, birds, people in the distance...”
FOND MEMORIES PEEK OUT FROM EVERY OLIVE BRANCH. There’s the tree where he first tried his hand at grafting, carefully attaching young buds to healthy trees to foster growth. (“The experiment was a success,” he says.) Over there, you’ll see the tree where Juan made “a very special promise to my wife; a promise I definitely kept.” Juan talks about olive trees with a tenderness usually reserved for family.
He loves working alongside Paco, a fellow farmer who cracks jokes even when he’s had a tough day, filling every hour with joy. “There are so many ways to work,” Juan says, “but doing it in a way that doesn’t feel like work? That’s an art.”