Local producer SA MARINA DE LLUCMAJOR

Maria Antònia Fiol wanted to spend more time with her family, but her job was preventing her from doing so. So in 2017 she made a decision: to leave her job and try to make a go of it in the livestock sector in order to find the true work-life balance that she craved. She now spends her life on the family farm at Marina de Llucmajor, where she raises her Mallorca-breed pigs and lambs.

The farm covers a little over half a square kilometre, which she takes care of all by herself, and the animals more or less look after themselves. What she grows on the land is for the animals and for her and her family.

What matters most to Maria Antònia is doing everything to ensure the animals grow up healthy and are healthy for human consumption. They roam and graze freely on her farm, but if the pasture is lacking she adds barley flour, which she grows herself using traditional methods.

“We prioritise the animals’ quality of life, which is why, even though we have so much land, we prefer not to have too large of an operation,” says Maria Antònia, who rears, looks after and fattens Mallorca-breed black pigs, porcelles, and lambs, to be sold for meat. In this way she is able to guarantee both quality and provenance.

Her dealings with her customers couldn’t be more direct. At the beginning of the week, Maria Antònia messages her contacts by WhatsApp, letting them know what will be available. Depending on the orders she receives, she’ll take the animals for slaughter. And on Friday, her customers receive their orders at home.