Madeira Consorcio

Christmas 2015

The Team had a great dinner in one of our member’s Quintas (Manor House), built in 1866. A wonderful atmosphere for a Christmas Dinner with much discussion and friendly banter. The best: our hostess is Swedish, so she treated us to a genuine Smorgasbord (google it) with marinated salmon and knackebrot. Aquavit is not that well known on the island so we had that, and we learned (or rather, listened to) the proper Swedish song to be sung before drinking it (good digestive!).

The Madeira Consorcio started its activities in April 2012, and we had 75 meetings so far. We have learned that, having good ideas and giving them to the population, is not working. Of maybe 10.000 farmers on the island, you would have to find the two or five persons who get the idea – say of an island covered in high quality medicinal herbs – to have the project come to fruition. Not easy, and we do not want to approach the Government for input because experience has shown that this is often the wrong approach…We shall develop new approaches next year

Now we are looking forward to a new year, with new ideas and exciting projects!

Ursula