For the 17th consecutive year
Quinta do Martelo wins “Green Key” award.
Quinta do Martelo – Centro Etnográfico e Gastronômico, located on Terceira Island, has just won the “Green Key” award for the 17th consecutive year, that is, in all editions held in Portugal.
The award ceremony took place this Tuesday at the Algarve Congress Centre in Vilamoura, with the presence of the President of the Blue Flag Association of Europe.
This development is the only one, located in the Azores and in Portugal, to have won this trophy in every instance.
This is an international distinction that aims to highlight good environmental practices, particularly in energy and environmental education, in the area of sustainable tourism, as well as the socio-cultural authenticity of the host territories, preserving their cultural identity.
The founder and owner of Quinta do Martelo, Gilberto Vieira, acknowledges that these values have guided the spirit behind the creation of that space for over three decades, long before the prospect of any award, and laments that it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and appeal to these concepts in a "selfish" world that only thinks "about the immediate," disregarding the means to achieve easy profits, regardless of the damage that compromises the future, "not only of the activity, but of life on the planet itself."
In a venting tone, he adds that "now a large part of people only speak because it suits them, or it's a current topic, or because it's fashionable, but they don't change any of their behaviors," trying "to find advantages to continue to take advantage of, which allows them to have a comfortable life at the expense of the present and future misfortune of others, as if it didn't also knock on their door."
Gilberto Vieira acknowledges that "we are few in number and active, but we were even fewer," in a world where "more is invested in destruction than in preservation," always with money and power as the ultimate goals.
“We don’t consider our part finished because there’s always more to do, but it’s not easy to pull in the direction where few people are seriously helping,” he notes, concluding with an example: “If you have to kill weeds on public roads with herbicides or turn land into useless things, you don’t look back.”
Quinta do Martelo is a pioneer in the Azores in defending and promoting tourism in rural and nature-based areas. For over 34 years, it has been recognized by various national and international bodies as a success story in combining commercial tourism with the rigorous preservation of tradition, the environment, and the cultural and ethnographic authenticity of the region in which it was born and operates.
The estate has also focused on producing its own food products through organic farming, used in the preparation of dishes served in the farm's restaurant, in what is now known internationally as "farm-to-table." This includes crops ranging from orchards, legumes, tubers, aromatic and medicinal plants, and various types of vegetables. It was this meticulous and uncompromising work that also earned Quinta do Martelo the first national "Chef's Garden" award, in the only edition of the trophy held in Portugal.