A Taste of Nature

Fleur is affable, enthusiastic, and a feisty woman. You notice it as soon as you start talking to her in her workshop, where she welcomes us and tells us the story of Madre Sierra, a project closely linked to her professional and life journey. An agronomist, after working in different parts of the world, she arrived in Estellencs with a two-month-old baby and settled in a town she already knew after many summers on the island.

"I used to work as a consultant on forest conservation projects, traditional knowledge initiatives and natural resources. When I arrived here, I was inspired by the biodiversity of fruit trees that were not being exploited." This is how the journey of Madre Sierra began, an initiative with which she connected her professional past with the natural environment of her new place of residence.

She started importing coffee, natural and sustainable, from the heart of the Sierra Madre, in Jalisco. A hand-harvested variety that is transported on mules, dried in the sun, and then ground and enjoyed. Committed to the community, Fleur –  or Flor, as her neighbours on the island call her – focuses on the conditions of women producers and the price is negotiated directly with them.

Then, she takes over the management of the logistics for the import to the Serra de Tramuntana, where the beans arrive unroasted. This is where her direct intervention begins: "the weekly process consists of roasting the bean and playing with the parameters to get the ideal roast profile," she says. Once ready, she sells it at fairs, where she grinds it on the spot to ensure the best quality and conservation of all the properties.

Strengthening ties with other entrepreneurs on the island and sharing values motivates her, she explains as she serves us a delicious Ethiopian coffee accompanied by Gori de Muro cookies spread with lemon and cherry jam. "When I started, there was Arabay Coffe and Mistral Coffe Roasters, who roasted specialty coffee in Palma".

However, she has recently met a couple from Pollença who run an artisan bakery, La Mar Dolça, and who also roast coffee in their new project, Chaff Coffe Roaster. "It's nice to meet people who are competitors, but have the same attitude and humility as you," reflects Fleur, who shares  a stall in some markets in Mallorca with another local project, Gastronauta Mallorca. A way to cope with the costs and complement the coffee with the gluten-free pastries made by Gastronauta.

Coffee in Madre Sierra coexists with preserves and jams that are created from the natural resources that, as Fleur saw when she arrived in Mallorca, were not being used. "In Estellencs I reached agreements with neighbors who did not harvest their fruits and with small producers. I wanted to launch a cooperative, but it didn't happen and I decided to do it my way." Fleur is in charge of picking the fruit, sorting it, washing and disinfecting it, peeling and pitting it, and cooking it with sugar so that it can be preserved. Then, she packages, sterilizes, and labels it. The entire process goes through her hands, including the design and printing of the labels. It takes a full day, and sometimes two. It then she sells her product at fairs, especially in spring and autumn, at weekly markets during the tourist season and also on monthly orders from a mix of local and foreign customers.

In addition to their delicate and exquisite jams, artichokes in extra virgin olive oil have become one of their star products. The traditional recipe belongs to a neighbor of Estellencs to whom Fleur asked permission to pick oranges on her terrace and one day "she invited me to see how she made her preserves and encouraged me to try making it myself and put it on sale along with the orange marmalade at the village May 1 fair".

Since she began her journey in 2019, driven by her love and respect for nature, she has always sought a fair and respectful commercial treatment to create her products in an artisanal way. A vision that might seem idealistic but that emerged organically at a very specific moment in her life: "when I visualized this project, for me, it was a life project that as a single mother living in the Serra de Tramuntana allowed me to live from the transformation of the natural resources within my reach and valuing the professional skills of past experiences",  she tells us.

She has always liked, she acknowledges, "to share what he has learned and to value traditional knowledge and forest crops", although the road has not been easy. When you arrive, a woman with no network in the world of catering, with an innovative and small project, you are annoyed. I stayed and did my own tour, and I'm very happy," she says.

After a long chat, Fleur invites us to go up to the roaster, which she bought second-hand in Poland and which she had to pull up with pulleys with the help of the villagers. She shows us the parameters she uses according to the type of coffee and roast it is looking for and, once the roaster reaches the desired temperature, she introduces the beans while the fire begins to do its work. In this case, she says, this Ethiopian coffee needs about twelve or fifteen minutes. Then, you pour it into a tray and let it cool with the help of a fan.

Busy making a way of life viable that she is passionate about, Fleur has little time to think about the future, but acknowledges that she would like to grow as a project "only to the extent that it allows me to delegate and find free time for myself, to propose new things, share experience and create synergies with local projects".

We love the sound of her projection, as much as we love the smell of cinnamon sticks from Mexico and the taste of freshly roasted and ground coffee, which she gives us before saying goodbye. Thank you, Fleur. Meeting you has been an immense pleasure.