Paula San Martín, from Buenos Aires, is a sworn translator, but she has also studied psychopedagogy, nutrition, cooking and, finally, agriculture and permaculture studies.
And everything helps her, both to cook for weeks for European families during their vacations in the Mediterranean, and for the Permaterra project in La Florida, where cultivating with respect for the natural ecosystem serves to reconnect human beings with the island's landscape.
She tells it in an interview with the radio program Más de Uno Gourmet from Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero.
- Where are you from?
I am Argentinian, born in Buenos Aires, but I have lived in many places and I have been in Lanzarote for 9 years where I took root precisely when Permaterra was born, this project related to the land.
- How were you trained?
My university degree is as a sworn translator. I have also studied psychopedagogy, nutrition, dietetics and cooking. And finally, studies in agriculture and permaculture.
- What is permaculture?
Permaculture encompasses any area of human development needs, whether it is economics and finance, food, agriculture, education, bioconstruction... Everything carried out in a more sustainable way, integrating the landscape with the people.
- How do you land in Lanzarote?
When my son was born, his dad and I decided that the neighborhood of Buenos Aires where we lived was not the best place to raise him.
While pregnant we came to visit friends here in Lanzarote and also family in Italy. We opted for Lanzarote. Here we feel much more welcomed and cared for. In addition, we wanted to set up a 100% vegetable restaurant and we considered that there would be more public for it here.
- When did you set up the restaurant and why did you leave it?
We arrived in 2016 and 6 months later we opened the restaurant. My son was a year and a half old and it was very difficult without family support. At one point, I blew up my car, I forgot to put oil in it, I was always here and there. Then I said to myself: I want a much quieter life.
- How do you become a luxury chef at home?
I started to focus more on private cooking and I cook all over Europe for families who go on vacation. For example in Greece.
Everything was thanks to social networks, which are a great work tool in my case. Families started contacting me, who then recommended me to other families.
- How did the Permaterra project come about?
They called me to open a 100% vegetable restaurant in London as well. Once there, when I was preparing the dishes to serve to the customers, I realized that they were mountains of beautiful things, but they were not designed from nutrition.
I needed to go a little deeper into the entire cycle of food and nutrition and what better than planting it yourself, knowing the conditions of the land.
- Where is the farm?
In San Bartolomé. A restaurant client had inherited some land from his father, I explained the project to him and he and his family loved it, so they gave me the land.
- What does the project consist of?
Permaterra is above all a training space where I want to infect people. I think that many of the problems that we human beings have is because we have moved a lot away from nature.
A space to reconnect, not only with the land and food, but also with people. It arose after the pandemic, for people who had been isolated.
- How can you participate?
We have several days, in general, Thursdays and Fridays are the days that I spend the most time on the farm and volunteers come. You can check the activities on our Instagram profile.
There are two community gardens, one is from the Papacría association and the other comes from a syntropic agriculture course we did. (Syntropic agriculture promotes a model in which agricultural processes resemble natural processes, both in terms of their function and their dynamics).
Then we have the composting pilot project, in which you can also participate.