L'Hort de Carmen

Like so many men of his generation, Mr. Polo has worked his entire life in the field. As an exceptional farmer, at the age of 82, he still oversees his orchards and has accumulated a lifetime of experience caring for his orange trees with remarkable professionalism among his colleagues. Polo is the president of the Cullera Irrigators' Association, knows all the paths, ditches, parcels, and even the names of many fields.

In a town of twenty thousand inhabitants, where we still know almost everyone, the older folks still call their neighbors by their nicknames, and the farmers refer to the orchards by the owner's name. Or the owner, of course, since in Valencian society, both men and women inherit the land. Such was the case with Mrs. Carmen, who gives her name to the piece of land by the sea that belonged to her family. And that's the affectionate name Polo uses when he talks about his wife's orchard. "L'Hort de Carmen," about four "hanegadas" (three thousand five hundred square meters), is just a few meters from the beach, closer than it might seem advisable for a fruit orchard, but the proximity to the sea of the crops is one of the characteristics of the Cullera region.

The climatic and orographic combination in Cullera, where the river, sea, and mountains meet with different types of flat soils, makes it a unique place where fruits ripen at different times depending on the location of the plot. Thus, the sandy soils near the sea, which centuries ago were marshes, usually yield the earliest fruits. That's why, for many seasons now, Carmen's oranges are the first ones we harvest at the beginning of the Navelina season. To them and their owner, Mr. Polo, we want to dedicate this small space of gratitude.