Melaria Monte Novo

One of the main aims of Despensa Franciscana is to promote and publicise the history behind the businesses located in the Alto Alentejo region. This time we went to Vale Lavrador in Caia to visit a melaria, a very interesting and well-recognised family business in our region.

Élia and Jorge, the founders and mentors of this project, are from Alentejo, Élia from Ponte Sor and Jorge from Portalegre. They met 13 years ago when Élia went to work in Portalegre.
Élia trained in educational and socio-cultural animation and did a postgraduate course in social gerontology. In 2010 she was working in vocational training as an IEFP trainer when she met Jorge. She jokingly told us that she knew all his family except Jorge himself, but since they met they've never let go of each other. They realised all the personal and professional affinities they had with each other and set to work. They got married and started life in the Vale Lavrador/Caia region near the city of Portalegre.
After the wedding, Élia worked as a technical director of a nursing home and Jorge in agriculture/apiculture. He is a trained beekeeper and cattle farmer.

At weekends Élia helped her husband with the apiaries and began to get involved with the world of bees, which slowly entered her life and never left.
She became fascinated by the world of beekeeping and began to study the subject. Increasingly involved, she started the young farmer course in 2014 and, together with her husband, began to think about becoming partners and starting a company. And so it was that they opened M.C.M. Sociedade Agrícola Lda. in 2015 through the young farmer project. The company's name is a tribute to the name of their daughter, who was born the year they started the company: MCM - Margarida Correia Morais.
Work at the company was growing and, in 2018, Élia was forced to make a decision in her life - a very difficult one, as she said - and began dedicating 100% to the company, leaving the right job for the wrong one.
One of the projects they had in mind was to open a primary honey factory with thermal packaging conditions, which was completed in 2024 after a few years of struggle.
They currently have the Monte Novo honey factory, which extracts honey and packs it in jars and in bulk. They sell to local businesses in the Alto Alentejo region as a priority.

They have several beehives in the municipality, in the area of the Serra de S. Mamede natural park, and therefore hold the Natural.PT label, a label only awarded to brands that produce in natural parks in the country and are in harmony with this concept.
In the future, they intend to continue to establish themselves as a local brand and to continue with educational projects for primary schools and to welcome children to the honey factory, explaining and showing the little ones the importance of the bee on our planet. They have another project called "A Abelha vai à escola" (The bee goes to school), where schools have the opportunity to receive Élia to explain the honey cycle.
He says that there are still children who don't know how honey is made or all that goes into the process and he considers it extremely important to publicise this natural product with so many health benefits. The bee is the biggest pollinator on our planet and she says it's very important that this information and knowledge is passed on.
They can also accommodate groups for tastings.
It was a great pleasure for us to make this visit and to enrich our knowledge of this rich and natural product. If you love this nectar, you can buy it in our online shop.