El Plano de Santa Bárbara

Since 2023

Oils and vinegars

Calaceite, Teruel

Nerea Bel

Empeltre extra virgin olive oil

Nerea Bel left Calaceite at eighteen to study agricultural engineering in Lleida. She came back in 2023, the year we bought El Plano de Santa Bárbara, and she has run the farm ever since. She is twenty-nine and by far the youngest member of the co-op.

The 17 hectares belonged to Ramón, who worked them for forty-two years. He showed her where the frost lands first and which trees give the most. She showed him the water meter on every block. Ramón still drops by every other day and takes his oil home.

Nerea says she stays because here you can see what you do. Water well and the olives show it. Get them to the mill the same day and the oil shows it. Every bottle sold abroad pays for a little of her never having to leave again.

A day with Nerea Bel

Nerea is up before six, while it is still dark enough that the olive rows only show up a few metres ahead of the headlights. The dogs get fed first, then the coffee, then the weather check: frost on the leaves means the shaker crew starts late, so she can sit with it a few minutes longer than she would like.

By eight she is walking the block Ramón worked for forty-two years, deciding which rows go first. He still comes most mornings, not to work the shaker anymore but to say which trees are carrying more fruit than they look, and which ones she should leave for next week. She writes none of it down. She does not need to.

Lunch is whatever is fastest at the kitchen table in Calaceite: bread, the oil from two harvests ago, and ten minutes with her phone face down. The co-op meets most Tuesdays, and today is a Tuesday, so the afternoon is less trees and more spreadsheets, arguing gently with the other four growers about when to book the mill.

The last hour of daylight she spends back among the olives, alone, checking the drip lines the way her professors taught her and the way nobody here used to need to. Ramón thinks it is overkill. The trees, so far, have not agreed with him.

By the time it is properly dark she is back at the mill in Calaceite, watching the first run of the day come through the press and checking the temperature gauge every few minutes. Below 27°C or it does not count as the oil she wants to sell. Most nights she is home by nine. Tonight, with the frost forecast, probably later.