Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
We use local services such as builders, electricians, plumbers for the maintenance of the property. We recommend these builders to people who buy houses in our area and want to renovate them. When we renovated our house, we only used environmentally friendly and healthy materials (natural insulations such as hemp and linen). All wood used in the house is only treated with natural oils. Nothing is made from PVC.
We use biodegradable/eco cleaning products some of them are made by us. We cultivate our garden without the use of pesticides and fertilisers; we have accreditation of organic agriculture. We compost all of our food and garden waste. We recycle glass, plastic and paper and have facilities for our guests to recycle their waste too. We run a recycling scheme for waste paper. We give our guests leaflets and information about the conservation of the natural environment and encourage them to use public transport. We heat the water with solar panels.
We currently support four charities, a human rights organisation (Amnesty International), one that helps poor countries (Fundación Paz y Solidaridad), an ecology movements (Ecologistas en Acción) and support projects made by women (Fundación Entredos). All organizations work in the entirety of Spain. We give an invoice to our guests, and ask them that choose among one of the four organizations. At the end of the year, we add the choices of the year and pay 1% of our invoicing to these organizations.
We are accredited in organic agriculture. In Spain a public provincial organization controls the European law of organic agriculture. So this organization inspects and examines our vegetable garden, every year, in order to know whether we comply with organic agriculture policies. We breed the Asturian Horse (Asturcon) as they are threatened with extinction. The Asturcon is the oldest horse species alive. The Romans referred to them in their texts in 80a.C. In Asturias they are used for working the ground, but after Spanish civil war, they began to become extinct.
We only source our products from local markets. We encourage our guests to visit local attractions (example ethnographic attractions like “the museum of Porrua”, “la ruta del queso y la sidra” (The cheese and cider route), “the museum of Asturcon” or “el jardin de los aromas”. We provide information about attractions that are specialised in rural life and help to improve rural living in a sustainable way. If our guests want to eat out we recommend local restaurants.
If they want to buy a gift we sell crafts and local produces made by local craftsmen. We also encourage our guests to use public transport or local services, when our guest don’t have a car, we give them the timetables of trains and the telephone numbers of taxis and we help organize trips using the train (visits to Oviedo, Gijón).
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
