Seminário Farm

“We don’t make rice any better or worse than anyone else. Everyone makes rice the same way. What we do differently is how we select it.” Telmo Martins is clear and grounded, no awards or recognition have gone to his head.

The business began with his father in 1982, when he bought the family’s first plots of land in the Baixo Mondego region. Telmo joined in 2005, the year they bought Quinta do Seminário, in Soure.

“I liked this. I liked the tractors, I liked the rice,” he recalls. “In 2005, I was 19 and I told my father: let’s buy the farm and I’ll help you out. At the time, we were managing 90 hectares and that nearly doubled with the new land.” He says it with the same drive that made him roll up his sleeves back then.

At the time, Quinta do Seminário had “a small processing unit producing around 100 kg of white rice per hour.” They started offering their rice to family and friends. “At Christmas, instead of boxes of chocolates, we’d give out bags of rice,” Telmo laughs. “Then people started saying the rice was really good and asking for more. A bag for my cousin, a bag for this friend, another for that one — and that’s how it started.”

Word-of-mouth spread quickly, and getting into a few shops and restaurants around the region was the next natural step, always keeping growth steady and under control. “My father always said it’s better to sell less but with quality than more with none,” Telmo notes.

But what actually sets Quinta do Seminário’s rice apart? “There are more than 150 varieties within carolino rice, and each one requires a different cooking time. What happens in the industry is that all those varieties get mixed together,” he explains. “Today you might harvest two varieties that take 12 minutes to cook, but next month, you could harvest a batch with four varieties that cook in 11.”

At Quinta do Seminário, they only grow the Ariete variety, one of the oldest carolino types, and now rare in most production areas. “We use a single variety per package. Every grain cooks the same because it’s all the same type. That’s all there is to it.” Well, maybe it’s not that simple. The rice is also sown, harvested, and dried at the same time, then stored in ventilated silos. And then there’s the Baixo Mondego climate. “It’s milder here. When the rice matures, it does so more slowly — it develops a different flavor, better quality,” says Telmo.

During milling and polishing, the percentage of broken grains — known as “trinca” — is much lower. “With fewer broken grains, you get fewer cracked ones too, which means better quality overall.” The result is a rice that’s uniform, creamy, and consistent it absorbs water more evenly and holds its texture during cooking.

Even though he trusts every step of the process, Telmo was still surprised when his rice won a blind tasting at the 2023 Tomate Coração de Boi competition. “I had no idea — I was on vacation and my phone just kept ringing,” he laughs. The recognition made him proud, but didn’t change a thing. He’s still doing what he’s always done, growing slowly, selecting carefully, and never cutting corners.

In addition to their facilities in Vila Nova de Anços, Quinta do Seminário carolino rice can be found at specialty grocery stores across Portugal, like Mercearia Criativa in Lisbon or Pátio d’as Marias in Porto. It’s also available at the biweekly market in Montemor-o-Velho and the weekly fair in Louriçal.