Cultivating a real love for Bimi^® broccoli

Sacoje

Eva Lerma heads up a team 15 people at Sacoje, an agricultural cooperative based in the Guadalentin Valley in Murcia, Spain. Along with Diego, one of the Bimi® broccoli growers, who is a 3^rd generation farmer, Eva and her team harvest around 40 hectares of Bimi® broccoli each year.

Sacoje has been growing Bimi® broccoli since 2016 and has seen demand for our delicious new vegetable increase dramatically. Sacoje supply Bimi® broccoli to shops across Europe and because of the temperate climate they can grow and harvest all year round.

Hand-picked and set on ice at the point of harvest, Bimi® broccoli is brought to customers in the best possible condition due to the particular care and attention to detail the Sacoje team deliver. As well as growing Bimi®, Eva and her team also grow and export kale, sweetheart cabbage, baby cauliflower and broccoli. Her favourite way to cook Bimi® broccoli is to steam it and serve with scrambled eggs and cured Spanish ham.

Deilor

The team at the Deilor farms in Totana and Lorca, based in the Guadalantín Valley, Spain harvest around 200 tonnes of Bimi® broccoli each year. Headed up by Antonio Gimenez, Deilor's General Manager, Antonio is supported by up to 50 trained employees who harvest our versatile vegetable by hand between the months of October and May, supplying Spanish retailers and a few other European countries.

Antonio Gimenez and his team are totally passionate about producing the best quality crops at Deilor, growing a range of fresh produce including melon, broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, grapes and watermelon, but Antonio’s favourite vegetable is Bimi® broccoli. His preferred way of eating Bimi® broccoli is simply grilled with a splash of good quality olive oil and a pinch of salt.

Grupo Lucas

Meet Juan Martinez Tomé, Grupo Lucas's Technical Manager, a passionate farmer and lecturer at the Agricultural Engineering School of Orihuela, Alicante. Juan Martinez leads a team of around 35 people, who are trained specifically to harvest Bimi® across several farms, depending on the season, spread across the regions of Murcia and Castile-La Mancha in southern Spain.

Juan Martinez says: “Bimi® broccoli needs a lot of nurturing in the planting but also in the harvesting—you have to do it by hand. We pick it every three days or so. We monitor the plants very closely as leaving them for one day too long before harvesting can mean the difference between a good crop and a bad one.”

Grupo Lucas started growing Bimi® broccoli 4 years ago alongside several other fruit and vegetables such as lettuces, spinach, endive, chard, kale and lots of different herbs. Juan Martinez loves eating Bimi® raw, picked in the field and eaten straight away the flavour is delicate and slightly sweet. If he is cooking it for his family, he grills it slightly, so you can still taste those subtle flavours.