CLARA GUTIÉRREZ: PASSION FOR PLANTS

This week we finished the course given by Clara Gutierrez, biologist, ethnobotanist and expert in wild plants. The aim of the course was to teach the steps to take to convert a conventional farm into an organic farm. Clara has been teaching courses on medicinal plants, culinary plants that heal plants and organic agriculture and horticulture at the Fraisoro School for many years. We took the opportunity to interview her.

-You are a biologist. How did you start specializing in organic farming?

My grandfather from Gernika was an agricultural engineer and my family has always had an organic vegetable garden, an oak grove… and that sparked my interest. Since I was 17 I used to go to France to learn how to make organic preparations, to take courses… Then I started doing research, and while I was studying for my degree I practiced on the farm where I lived. At that time, I would get in touch with the local farmers to show me different techniques. I have spent my whole life observing and learning from here and there: Zumaia, Gernika, then Andalusia, Colombia…

I started advising farmers in Andalusia, through an agricultural school. Meanwhile, we were cultivating biodynamically on my farm, for family consumption and to sell surpluses. I also worked for an agricultural company in Seville.

– When did you start training?

I started giving occupational workshops on horticulture and organic gardening in the Aracena mountain range. In the 80s, there was still no specific training or qualification on these subjects. At the same time, we taught, studied, researched and learned a lot. And since then I have been giving courses continuously, now also online.

– You work a lot with wild plants. What drew you to specialize in this subject?

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I have always been attracted to wild plants. I specialized in botany at university, but wild plants were not a subject that was taught in the faculty. I studied, observed and researched on my own. Much later, I joined the Serrano Studies Research Center in Huelva and worked with other researchers and ethnobotanists. I have always had a passion and curiosity for wild plants.

– What do wild plants have that we don’t find in cultivated plants?

All plants fascinate me, even cultivated ones, because they are simply plants that were once wild but have been “domesticated”. Wild ones especially fascinate me because they come out on their own and are perfect in their cycles. I came to this conclusion during the two years I lived in the Colombian jungle: that world was completely wild and it was perfect.

– Regarding this year’s school year, you are explaining the process of converting a regular farm to organic. Is this process difficult?

The most difficult thing is to change the way of thinking, to change the way of looking at things. The beginning is difficult because you have to transform yourself. It’s easier in the second and third years, but nowadays the techniques for regenerating water and soil are very fast and effective. You just have to learn.

I was lucky because I learned about organic farming before conventional farming. What my grandfather did in Gernika would be considered organic now, but before it was the norm, what everyone did. That’s why it’s important to know, to look. I’ve been lucky to know some excellent organic lands and that’s what convinced me.

– Do you think the future will go that way?

I specialized in ecosystems in college and there you understand the interaction between all the elements. The planet is inevitably changing. We humans have polluted and destroyed it, but now the process is being reversed. Otherwise, it is unsustainable.

As always, it was a pleasure talking to Clara. We won’t be saying goodbye for long, as we will be back in Fraisoro on March 23rd to give another course, this time on representative installations.