Giving a second life to historical monuments is possible, and a clear example of this is the great rehabilitation project of the old Molina de San Bartolomé, an artisanal gofio mill run by women.
The building, created in 1870, was acquired by José María Gil years later in an attempt to preserve the historical heritage of the island. Since then, this disused building classified as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) has been part of the Gil family, but it was not until five years ago when Silvia Gil, the owner's granddaughter, met the businesswoman Lourdes Rodríguez and both embarked on the project of rehabilitation of La Molina.
"La Molina was a ruin, all propped up and stained with diesel," says Lourdes. "Silvia and I wanted to expand the circular economy because it was what we believed in, and this project was a great opportunity."
However, both had to face several problems during the rehabilitation process, such as the lack of millet plantations in Lanzarote. What little there was on the island was for own consumption, so if they wanted to start their gofio business they had to find a way to increase production on the island.
After creating a team made up of different professionals and learning to make millet on their own, they managed to increase the volume of capacity by 30%.

"Now we hardly need millet from outside," says Lourdes. "Although the entire rehabilitation process has been a constant and hard self-learning."
All this effort has turned La Molina de José María Gil into a successful business that is committed to sustainability, with a totally artisanal development, where the natural grain arrives, is cleaned, toasted, ground and bagged with recycled paper, leaving aside plastics.
"We wanted the process to be more ecological, that diesel was not used, so through social networks we found a young man from La Gomera who helped us change the diesel engine for an electric one," explains Lourdes.
In addition, La Molina's philosophy is based on generating local economy, not only with the sale of grain, but also with the synergies established with other products that are being sold in stores, from small businesses to Spar supermarkets, helping to promote that people consume more legumes and cereals.
"Our gofio could be cheaper, but we are not interested because we want to pay our workers and farmers what they deserve", adds the businesswoman. "This is how we create commitment with our farmers and we are generating employment."
Tourism and education to value agriculture
One of the fundamental pillars to make the project profitable has been the opening of the business to the world of tourism, especially to small companies that offer excursions with guides, where the operation of La Molina is taught, but also concepts such as the circular economy and kilometer zero.
In addition, Lourdes insists on the importance of not only explaining how a product such as gofio is made, but also giving them the opportunity to learn how to make it with their own hands. For this reason, they also have a workshop where they teach how to make the famous peya de gofio.
La Molina also has an educational project focused on schoolchildren, both schools and institutes, with the aim of bringing agriculture closer to the youngest, or what is the same, a more ecological way of life.
"The students come to our facilities to learn more about the project, but also about their own culture and traditions, since it is an in situ learning that helps them to value our heritage", explains Lourdes. "The young people of today are very disconnected from the rural world, so much so that many Canarians consume gofio, but they do not know where it comes from. The generational leap has been enormous."

These two formulas, together with a lot of effort, have contributed considerably to the growth of the company in terms of profitability and benefits. After starting its activity three years ago and with a pandemic in between, the company has managed to increase its turnover this year by 50% compared to 2021.
"The numbers are rising progressively, since being an artisanal activity where everything is manual, the growth is somewhat slower", explains Lourdes. "We are at that limit in which we have to start considering taking the step of entering modernity with an ambassador".
Social networks have also played a crucial role, especially during the pandemic, as they became a platform to get their products to younger people. In this way they managed to create an interaction space where their followers sent them recipes that they had made with their gofio, for example.
A future marked by training
Lourdes now intends to put her efforts into rehabilitating the mill, as well as repairing and expanding her own land to plant cereals. In addition, she admits that she would like to promote contracts with Adislan so that they themselves could take care of the collection issue. She also has in mind to open a small store inside the facilities.

Despite the different open fronts, the businesswoman does not want to rush and prefers to study all the possibilities well before launching to make them a reality. A decision that is marked by the great uncertainty posed by the current economic situation, the pandemic and the war between Ukraine and Russia.
However, Lourdes encourages anyone who is interested to start a business in the agricultural sector, especially young people, since today there are many ways to train and become professional.
"My advice is to learn everything they can and not limit themselves to being a weekend farmer, but to believe in the profession and try to live from it, although the administrations have to do their part and open up to that", says the entrepreneur. "In Lanzarote there is a lot of abandoned land that is protected by city councils and the Cabildo, so they could reach agreements and start creating."