Juan Ignacio Valdés, Dehesa de la Sabina

Juan spent the first part of his life in Madrid as an academic specializing in international economics. After obtaining his PhD, he grew tired of the big city and found an ecological project that matched his ambition, the olive oil farm Dehesa de la Sabina. On the wild hills at the edge of the desert of Taberna, in the region of Andalucia, he found the vital intensity he was looking for.

Pick three words that best describe your Dehesa de la Sabina olive oil.

I would simply describe our olive oil as genuine, sustainable and healthy.

Personally, how do you most enjoy having Dehesa de la Sabina? 

There are three basic uses I love the most. The first one is a drizzle of Dehesa on a casserole of meat, in which the olive oil brings a green vegetable taste. I also like to add Dehesa in various sauces such as pesto or aioli. Finally, I highly recommend my friend Alfonso’s recipe of chocolate and almond brownie with Dehesa instead of butter. A real treat!

You are part of a cooperative with 6 neighbours. Why did you decide to join forces?

 In our area, nobody was interested in organic farming. We were the ones who started and we needed to be together for this new challenge.

In converting to organic, what was your approach and the main difficulties you faced?

Our general approach was to gain as much knowledge as possible to create the optimal environment for our olive trees.

I would say that we have faced three main difficulties in this adventure:

1.    Acquiring the needed knowledge: organic farming is radically different and gaining a deep understanding of the way it works is an important time investment.

2.    Social cost: in rural areas, calling standard practices into question has a very high social cost. People don't like others doing things differently.

3.    Financial strain: to introduce a new brand in the market has been a considerable financial effort.