Herdade do Freixo do Meio

What is the Herdade do Freixo do Meio?

The Herdade do Freixo do Meio is a farming estate near Montemor-o-Novo in the Alentejo, the dry heartland of southern Portugal. On 584 hectares, people there are showing how an old Mediterranean landscape can be renewed instead of abandoned: the montado, an open woodland of cork and holm oaks under which animals graze. The estate combines it with mixed forest, fruit and vegetable growing, agroforestry trials and the processing of its own products, all certified organic.

For a place like Sa Medada, Freixo do Meio is a particularly close relative. The climate is semi-arid Mediterranean, with dry, hot summers and rain in winter, and according to the European Climate-ADAPT case study, heat waves in the region can reach 50 degrees. Whatever works in the Alentejo has had to prove itself under conditions that resemble those of Sardinia.

Its history

The estate is in the hands of the family of Alfredo Cunhal Sendim. In a report from 2020 he dates the real beginning of the project to around 1990, after the estate had come to his family. Since then it has been farmed organically, and over the years a cooperative has grown alongside it: the Cooperativa de Usuários do Freixo do Meio organises the community and social economy side of the estate.

At the centre stands the montado. Sendim wants to preserve it and at the same time make it richer: with new techniques, more layers and more fruit. He sees the estate as a place for ecological, technical and social experiments.

The idea

The montado is one of the oldest silvopastoral systems in Europe. Widely spaced cork oaks and holm oaks shade the ground, animals graze beneath them, and cork, acorns, wood and meat are harvested. In many places in Portugal this landscape is ageing: old trees die and no young ones follow. Freixo do Meio is trying to reverse that.

The key is water. According to Climate-ADAPT, the estate holds the winter rain with small retention basins integrated into the landscape, swales and boomerang-shaped earthworks, and plans terrain, trees and crops according to the principles of keyline design. The soil is covered with straw, leaves, wood chips or compost, worked along the contour and left untilled on steep slopes, apart from firebreaks. Where irrigation is needed, drip lines carry liquid organic fertiliser made on the farm, with pumps powered by renewable energy.

The work

The estate is divided into four parts, according to the case study: 275 hectares of traditional montado, 139 hectares of mixed forest, 66 hectares of crops and agroforestry trials, and a northern area of 106 hectares. Jujube orchards, holm oaks grafted with sweet acorn varieties and many other crops grow on the estate.

Since 2008 the estate has been investing in processing sweet acorns into food. The acorn, for centuries mainly pig feed, is to become a product of the montado again in its own right. Through community supported agriculture, people sign up for three months in advance and receive a weekly box, becoming co-producers in the process.

From 2018 to 2022 the estate led the project Ecomontado XXI together with the University of Évora and other partners. With a Yeomans plough, water-retention lines were drawn across the land, and on 51 hectares cork oak, holm oak and stone pine were planted, around 7,000 trees in all. The lesson from the project is valuable: the yearly ploughing of the lines can be stopped after the first years of tree growth, because its effect on the roots then outweighs the benefit. Visits to the site, the partners noted, convinced farmers more than any brochure.

What became of it

According to Climate-ADAPT, the estate employs about 30 full-time workers, 4 seasonal workers and around 2 trainees a year, about seven times as many people as a comparable unirrigated montado farm of 400 hectares. More than 8,000 visitors come each year. Monitoring of soil, rhizobia, tree biomass, carbon and biodiversity found high biodiversity and very good ecological condition. These figures come from the estate and from project reports. In a report from 2020, Sendim spoke of about 35 permanent staff and about 10 people in internships and voluntary programmes.

What we learn from Freixo do Meio

Terra Humana takes from Freixo do Meio the conviction that an old landscape is not an obstacle but a foundation. On Sa Medada that foundation is the old olive grove and the macchia on the steeper slopes. Renewing what is there and enriching it with more layers is more promising than starting from nothing. Which oak belongs where on our land, cork or holm oak, will be decided by the soil analysis that is still outstanding.

We also take the order of the work: water first, along the contour, with small basins and lines in the slope, and only then trees. The insight from Ecomontado XXI, that the plough is needed only until the trees stand, is a good rule for any work with machines on a slope: as much as necessary, as little as possible. And we take the openness. A place that receives visitors, shares its trials and processes its own products shows that restoration and livelihood can belong together.