Our organic vegetable gardens, which are located in the Organic garden and in the countryside around the tower (basically where the restaurant is) and the village of Apella, fully represent our passion for cultivation. This passion has been inherited from our father Mario and goes back to our grandparents, who used to cultivate a wide variety of vegetables and fruit. This was historically done in peasant lands in order to ensure, at different times of the year, fruit and vegetables for their own diet preferring native and endangered species.
It is a scattered combination of vegetable gardens-orchards (like in the rural courtyards of the past) in order to optimise cultivable land. We have lately introduced several typical and local varieties that ripen at different times of the year, that ensure a varied supply of fruit and vegetables throughout the year.
Moreover these varieties are generally resistant to bad weather and they can also live without the need to resort to synthetic pesticides. These plants include fruits that are no longer found in supermarkets, such as medlars, black mulberries, jujubes, cornelian cherries, strawberry trees and quinces/quinces. In order to take the most of these fruits we usually make jams out of them and also preserve them as syrups and liqueurs.
Besideds searching for forgotten varieties, which represent a heritage of centuries-old selection (such as the rich biodiversity of chestnut trees), we have also rediscovered old recipes for desserts, jams and ancient preservation methods such as drying and wilting. All this is offered to the guests of our agritourism.
By enhancing these ancient varieties and the historical recipes of the area which have been collecting over the years by the women of Apella and Taponecco, we have handed down the traditions from mother to daughter.
For this reason we would like to thank Enza Giovannini, repository of recipes and connoisseur of herbs. Let us therefore take a real journey back in time to an agriculture marked and determined by seasons. This production offers authentic and distinctive aromas and flavours, which do not conform to the tastes and appearance imposed by the global market. Indeed, the identity of a territory is also preserved through the memories of flavours and fragrances linked to a bygone era. Our organic vegetable gardens require a lot of hard work, with their slopes and terracing, but also perseverance, knowledge and passion. Nevertheless, all the things we are surrounded by make us happy and satisfied and we hope that all these emotions can be transmitted, even in a small percentage, to our guests and to those who, while walking through this oasis, are able to grasp the beauty that lies behind biodiversity, sustainability and seasonality. Working the land is an ancient knowledge that encompasses agronomic, culinary, religious and everyday life knowledge.
This knowledge will shape the landscape and preserve it over time. During the early 20th century and in the post-war period, migrants, linked to the farming culture, brought with them in their suitcases the seeds of their land, jealously selected over the centuries, as extraordinary identity documents of their community. Our gardens are our roots, the seeds of what we are today, they are the link with a land that lives at the rhythm of time, in balance with the seasons and the cycles of the earth and sky.
Barbara Maffei
