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Acknowledgements
Your name will appear on the plaque of acknowledgements that we will place in the Econau Classroom.
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About this project
Help us recover an old carob processing machine and create the first organic carob mill in Catalonia.
Show list of needs
Task
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Minimum | Optimum |
|---|---|---|
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Campaign design
Fees and time spent on project creation
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$ 967 |
Infrastructure
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Minimum | Optimum |
|---|---|---|
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Commissions
Bank and PayPal commissions, as well as Goteo.
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$ 208 | |
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Carob processing machine
Carob processing machine that separates the seed (locust bean) from the pulp of the carob pod. Flour and syrup are made from the pulp which are the base ingredients of our products.
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$ 8,470 | |
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Commissions
Bank and PayPal commissions, as well as obligatory costs of the Goteo platform.
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$ 416 |
Material
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Minimum | Optimum |
|---|---|---|
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Reward expenses
We will have some expenses for the elaboration and shipment of the rewards.
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$ 3,014 | |
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Promotional material
Preparation of the promotional video of the association and the project. Preparation of photographs and video shorts for the promotion of crowdfunding on social networks and on the project website.
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$ 852 | |
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Carob mill
The carob mill allows for the production of carob flour from the pulp that has been previously processed. This mill will be located at the EcoNau.
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$ 13,927 | |
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Flour bagger
A machine to bag the carob flour made with the mill
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$ 7,899 | |
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Rewards
We will have certain expenses for the elaboration and shipment of the rewards.
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$ 1,663 | |
| Total | $ 13,511 | $ 37,415 |
Necessary
Supplemental
General information
We are a group of producers, transformers, cooks, and environmentalists who want and believe in
the recovery and regeneration of the land. We associated as the EcoNau to promote production, processing and the elaboration of products derived from native crops such as carob, olive and rain-fed fruits.
As a core element, we have chosen the carob tree, a tree accustomed to our Mediterranean climate with little rain and strong sea winds. It can live more than a thousand years and a single tree can produce more than five hundred kilograms of carob in a year without any high maintenance or fertilizer. It is an example of resilience and adaptability to an increasingly hostile environment of high temperatures and continued droughts.
We want to empower carob and turn it into much more than the memory of our grandparents´ stories about how they ate it as a snack. It is much more than the food for cattle that it has been relegated to in recent decades. We want carob to have a place in our kitchens for its numerous nutritious, qualities (it contains fibre, protein, calcium, magnesium...) and enormous possibilities as an ingredient for cooking and sweetening.
Empowering carob, we are recovering and rethinking the rhythms of the earth and nature, adapting to the seasonal crops and thus freeing ourselves from buying and consuming food that travels many kilometres to reach our dishes.
We want to create and strengthen a new agricultural network of small farms that
cultivate the land and the environment with care. They are often newcomers to the
agricultural world but aware of the moment of climate emergency we are facing.
We want to invite those lifelong producers with conventional practices to listen to our project and the ideas we have.
To get all this...
The EcoNau association is recovering an old farmhouse turning it into a training, transformation and healing space, equipped with solar panels and its own water well.
*: The space is prepared for:
- Creating the first organic carob flour mill for human consumption totally produced in Catalonia.
- Collecting the fruits, separating the pulp and seeds with the processing machine.
- Conditioning the environmental classroom and maintaining a program of agriculture, personal wellness and nature education.
- Installing an ecological, vegetable and gluten-free communitarian workroom where to transform and produce products derived from carob, nuts, olives and other crops from our dry farms.
- Having a classroom for training and exchange of knowledge on organic farming,
biodynamic, regenerative and syntropic farming. - Teaching courses on cooking and nutrition so as to learn how to easily cook and eat a healthy diet based on carob, nuts, olive oil and organic products of the territory.
- Creating a space to start a Forest school, respectful and connected to the environment and nature.
- Having a space as a healing room for the body and soul with yoga and dance therapy workshops.
One of the first steps will be to rehabilitate and install an old carob processing machine belonging to Salvador Baldrich that allows cleaning, crushing and obtaining, on the one hand, of the locust bean (carob seed) and, on the other, the pulp to make flour and syrup. Modern machinery is very expensive; recovering this machine that is over 80 years old we recover the rural, industrial and agri-food history of Catalonia.
During the rehabilitation process, a digital scan of the parts will be done to make a model that allows to replicate the machine.
Let’s Empower Carob means to create a communitarian and cooperative project so as to become resilient and adapt to the climate by strengthening the rural world and allowing people to live with dignity.
Main features and goals of the crowdfunding campaign
EcoNau is a groundbreaking project in the territory selected to be part of a mentoring program - Ecological-HUB Tierras del Ebro - for 3 months. In addition, it was chosen as a 'Singular project' by the Social Economy program of the Department of Enterprise and Work of the Generalitat of Catalonia, with the endowment of income that would allow the hiring of personnel for its implementation.
EcoNau brings together people from diverse fields and experiences who will find integral support and help to take care of their crops, manage their farms and enjoy continuous training.
"Let's Empower The Carob" is a circular project that aims to inform, train and
sustainably transform the rural world - from grain to table - for our generation and the future.
The global objectives of the project Let's Empower The Carob of EcoNau are:
- Revalue carob as a nutritious and resilient human food and make it known.
- Create and strengthen a new agricultural network for the cultivation of carob and nuts.
- Strengthen the rural ecological agricultural fabric and generate quality workplaces in rural areas.
- Recover ancient practices and knowledge of the rural world.
- Achieve a production of processed products derived from carob and other crops that are typical to the area.
- Contribute to the recovery of the rural, industrial and agri-food history of Catalonia.
- Educate on conscious and responsible consumption.
- Increase the members' agricultural production for the secondary and tertiary sectors, creating added value and thus contributing to the profitability of their productions.
- Distribute organic and local products by promoting responsible consumption and opening new markets for agroecological and ethical products.
- Be a transformative reference for a social and supportive economy, promoting selfmanagement, food and energy sovereignty and promoting balanced gender relations.
- To encourage the conservation of the environment and biodiversity, promoting the study and dissemination of rural, cultural and natural heritage, and strengthening educational and leisure activities in nature.
Concerning these objectives, the budgetary needs that we hope to cover thanks to all the people who support us in this crowdfunding are basically for:
- Rehabilitating the carob processing machine
- Building the first organic carob mill in Catalonia (and the second in Spain)
- Buying the carob flour bagger
- Carrying out the campaign itself and publicising the project
Why this is important
EcoNau is a space, a project, a network, that values and accommodates all those with interests in the cultivation of carob and rain-fed fruits, nature, organic and regenerative agriculture, cooking with local products, ecological and high quality, ethical food processing, sustainability, ecology, and farm management.
EcoNau wants to be a meeting space for:
- Sharing joint services with local farmers, especially those unfamiliar with the processes of production and sales.
- People with small farms in the area of Tarragona and Castelló who have few trees and want to care for them in an environmentally respectful way and achieve a good performance.
- People who need to process their vegan and organic products in a shared workshop, with small volumes, either sporadically or often.
- People who want to promote and encourage the sale of their products by jointly attending farmers' fairs and markets and through the online shop.
- Consumers who want local products that are respectful with the territory and that generate wealth and jobs, and that care for the environment throughout the process.
- People with concerns about training in agricultural, environmental topics, cooking or wellbeing of body and soul.
- Families with needs of a respectful education for their children, in search of a safe and respectful space where infants and children can feel comfortable to develop their mental and physical potential.
- People with new ideas and a desire to be part of an active community in defence of carob and the territory.
The EcoNau Association is a newly created entity with 12 registered members. Currently, an active group of 4 people is part of the Board of the Association, and 3 people are hired for administrative and management tasks.
All the members are - for 10 years or more - owners of businesses related to the agri-food sector, with farmland and fields of carob and almond and are aware of the sector's reality. Among the members, we have the projects Penyaflor and Ecotros, the creperie Crême de la crême, the project
Cultius Gaia with the brand “Garrofina”. The latter have previous experience with a crowdfunding campaign with Goteo: ¡Consolidemos la elaboración de productos con alma!.
As an infrastructure, the association has a warehouse (Nau in Catalan) rented at a very low cost, of almost 300 square meters divided into 3 spaces. Each space has mezzanines for the material warehouse that add up to 140 square meters of usable surface for storage and for the installation of machines. Each space will be divided into several rooms according to the needs of the future workshop and the mill.
With our resources, we cleaned the spaces, made small improvements such as wall lifting and painting, as well as a dry sink installation for users and the access improvement.
Promoting group:
Aurora Requena. Sea and field biologist. Member of the communication and training working group of EcoNau.
Daniel Méndez. A sailor by profession and a farmer by vocation, a few years ago, he decided that the future of the planet resides in returning to the working of the land. Oil and carob producer. Member of the finance working group.
Sara Moretton. Professional translator. Producer of olives, almonds and carob and owner of a farm in Terra Alta. Member of the communication and training working group of EcoNau.
Chuchi Estevez. communication and training working group. Dry stone master, a neighbour of the EcoNau and custodian of the space.
Luana Torre García. Cook and owner of the Crême de la Crême, an ice cream shop and
homemade creperie in L'Amettla de Mar.
Montserrat Serramià and Stefan Keller. Passionate entrepreneurs and inventors of the delicious products of the "Garrofina" derived from carob; producers of carob, almonds, olives, hazelnuts and grapes, Montse is the president of the association, while Stefan is responsible of the commercial department.
Cecil Thevenot. Owner of the permaculture farm "Penyaflor", responsible for accounting and everything related to technology and the internet.
Social commitment
Agrorural development
We are a group of producers, transformers, cooks, and environmentalists who want and believe in the recovery and regeneration of land. We associated as the EcoNau to promote production, processing and the elaboration of products derived from native crops such as carob, olive and rain-fed fruits. In addition, the association promotes meeting spaces for farmers that allow them to train in cropping and farm management techniques in a way that respects biodiversity and the environment, as well as in healthy
cooking and body wellness practices.
Sustainable Development Goals
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Good Health and Well-Being
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development.
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Quality Education
Obtaining a quality education is the foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable development.
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Decent Work and Economic Growth
Sustainable economic growth will require societies to create the conditions that allow people to have quality jobs.
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Responsible Production and Consumption
Responsible Production and Consumption
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Climate Action
Climate change is a global challenge that affects everyone, everywhere.
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Life On Land
Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss