In Manresa, at the Can Poc Oli facilities of the Escola Agrària, a cold room keeps hundreds of native horticultural seed varieties at a constant temperature of around 12 degrees Celsius to prevent their loss. Among the shelves rest seeds such as the long pumpkin of Gironella, the three-eyed lettuce of Rajadell, the chickpea of Vilameric, and the long onion of Berga. "We give them all a name and surname when we collect them," explained Xènia Torras, who leads the Manresa seed bank.
Torras, an agricultural engineer, has led the Esporus project for 17 years. This initiative, part of L'Era, the Agroecological Resources Space linked to the Escola Agrària de Manresa, has become a reference point in Catalonia for its work in conserving cultivated biodiversity and its outreach efforts. The bank currently holds 372 native varieties, with 70% originating from central Catalonia. Torras noted that her ultimate goal would be for the bank "not to exist," which would mean all these seeds were actively being cultivated.
The Drive to Conserve Local Varieties
The awareness of the need to conserve these native varieties is relatively recent, emerging about 20 years ago. Torras explained that this process began in the 1980s, a period of significant agricultural crisis due to the abandonment of rural areas following the introduction of tractors and mechanisation. Agricultural schools, facing declining student numbers, began to specialise. The Escola Agrària de Manresa reinvented itself by focusing on rural development and organic farming, becoming a national leader in organic education, according to Torras.
In this context, local varieties gained importance as a basic resource for organic production because they are better adapted and therefore present fewer phytosanitary problems. However, it became clear that these varieties were neither inventoried nor collected. This led L'Era to establish a local seed bank.
Between 2002 and 2004, a detailed survey was conducted to conserve these varieties. This involved bibliographic research, contacting local councils, consortiums, and cooperatives, and finally seeking out farmers who still cultivated these varieties. "In a two-year period, about 120 varieties were surveyed," Torras said, adding that this documentation work has continued ever since.
Preserving Agricultural Memory
Beyond conserving the varieties themselves, a key objective of Esporus is to preserve the traditional knowledge linked to these native seeds. "Seeds are only one part of this agricultural heritage of centuries of variety conservation," Torras explained. "There is also the way they are cultivated and their characteristics, traditional farming knowledge that has been passed down orally from generation to generation and is now at risk of disappearing." The project aims to document each variety to share both its cultivation methods and its culinary potential.
Torras highlighted the diversity of varieties, including green, red, elongated, round, small, and large tomatoes. She also mentioned a melon variety that can be stored through winter. "It used to be traditional to eat melon at Christmas because these varieties existed, but now we are used to having all products available whenever we want." She believes this food model has an expiry date and that food sovereignty requires cultivating native varieties. "When melons cannot arrive by ship or plane because it is too expensive, we will have to be able to supply ourselves with local garden products."
Examples of varieties conserved by the bank include the long pumpkin, described by Josep Alzina of Gironella as very sweet, elongated, and smooth. The three-eyed lettuce, from Rosa Vilaro of Rajadell, is a Roman-type lettuce with wide, crunchy, and tasty leaves, featuring three heads on one plant. The white aubergine, from Faustino Moya of Manresa, was once common but fell out of favour for purple varieties; it has a sweeter taste. Other examples are the short-cycle, whitish-grained escairar corn from Cal Coloma in Berga, typical of mountain cuisine, and the tall-stemmed forment morè wheat from Miquel Rovira in Oristà, which provides straw and helps fertilise the soil.
Making Seeds Accessible
One of the main goals of the Esporus seed bank is to preserve native varieties and make them accessible to the public. Part of the production is sold and distributed to individuals interested in keeping this agricultural heritage alive. Torras explained that most cultivators of these varieties are local farmers, though some farmers' children continue to plant them as a memory of their parents' work.
"During the pandemic, everyone became keen on self-sufficiency gardens, but our most common user profile is retired people," Torras said. "Young people rarely show interest in planting local varieties for self-consumption, although some individuals are driving collective agricultural projects." Despite growing awareness, Torras believes there is still much unfamiliarity about the existence of these local varieties. The Esporus seed bank continues its work to conserve them.
