We manage our agroforestry alleys (where we have our growing rockrose), where we coppice the rockrose. After 2-3 years we come back to the same alley. During this time we promote the growth and coppice in other alleys. In summary not only we harvest rockrose, but we also promote its extension. Furthermore we are testing the benefits of turning back to soil the post-distillation material, i.e. not only the management promotes the growth by coppicing, and expansion of the shrub (increasing carbon storage), but we also promote the incorporation of organic matter in the soil.

Besides the wonderful characteristics of hydrolate and essential oil of rockrose, when you buy from MyRockrose you are contributing to 1) the existence of a carbon negative agricultural system, 2) regenerating soils towards a transition to regenerative agriculture, 3) sustaining a rural and local livelihood full of traditions and wisdom, 4) a demonstration and sharing a business model that we envision other to uptake, 5) support research MVARC activities, that help the transition towards a more resilient and regenerative agriculture, capable to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? We are also responsible consumers and we also hate greenwashing! And we are very satisfied to deliver a carbon negative product. How? It’s relatively simple: 1) we control all the processes that are sources of carbon and 2) we manage the agroforestry system that sequesters the carbon. In other words we do not outsource the “carbon offsetting” of our activities to be carbon neutral, but we make our own management that sequesters carbon and we make the respective calculations, and be transparent about it. Our background, also from past and ongoing projects, in agroforestry research, allows us to be confident enough of our calculations and show them to you. In practice we manage 160ha of agroforestry, and we know how much the 50 000 trees grow every year by using published growth models from scientific literature. Storing carbon in their biomass know how much our trees in the agroforestry stand

MVARC stands for Moinhos de Vento Agroecology Research Centre and is the company that harbours the MyRockrose enterprise. MVARC has several ongoing projects, research oriented, dedicated to sustainable, regenerative, resilient and adaptive agriculture, with particular emphasis to agroforestry – mixing woody perennials (trees/shrubs) with crop or pastural livestock systems. We are the same people (yes… researchers can also be tractor drivers!), that see in the MyRockrose project an escape to bring research into practice at different levels. From soil microbial sampling, to modelling agroforestry resource use efficiency, to policy challenges, we look forward to meet interesting agents for the transition needed to sustain rural livelihoods, cultural heritage, and regenerative agroecosystems.

Yes… and no… Although we do harvest plants that grow naturally, without seeding or planting or fertilizing, we do manage the plants. In the agroforestry system we manage, we first coppice old stands of rockrose to a height that promotes a leaf growth, then we wait 2-3 years to go back to the same plant to coppice again, while promoting the natural regeneration too. We know which alleys of the agroforestry system have been harvested, so we can make our harvest plant every year.

A carbon-negative product is one that not only reduces or offsets its own carbon footprint but goes beyond that by removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits during its production. This typically involves implementing practices or technologies that actively sequester or capture carbon, contributing to a net reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide. In our context we manage an agroforestry system as a super technology!