Three Farms in a Island
The ancient Greeks called Sicily Trinacria, meaning “Three pointed”, from Akra, “end, point or headland” and Treis, “Three”. Deriving the name of the largest island in the Mediterranean from its shape…today we know it as Sicily.
It is here in the South East of Sicily, nearby the town of Noto, that we operate our 3 small family-run organic farms where we live. Although the farms have been in our family (only) since the 70’s some of our wild trees and roots date back way longer and we estimate that some were planted more than 400 years ago.
We farm our organic certificated produce applying Regenerative and Agroecological practices alongside historic and traditional farming methods and crops. Our passion is to farm great food for people who really care about it.
Make good food from scratch.
Our ethos and the core of everything we do circles around growing good, healthy, and truly organic food while applying and seeking to finetune long term sustainable practices, not just grow products for maximum profit. We achieve this by looking back in history to identify solutions anchored in tradition which help us resolve our modern problems and which allow us to cultivate our lands with respect for wildlife and great attention to the regeneration of our soil.
Our “make good food from scratch” philosophy drives us forward every day at the farm pushing us to look after our soil and promote a resilient and regenerative farm life.
Agroecological Farming
It was clear from the start: our modern way of farming is not compatible with the current ecological situation and we believe that we must look at the old traditional techniques to uncover an old/new way of farming.
We all witness with every passing year that this becomes more of a necessity.
We live the farm like a home, in harmony and respecting mother nature, not like a food factory. Giving bees a vast variety of plants to pollinate, granting trees the time to grow well, allowing the soil to create its own network peacefully.
“All these meetings around the same table converged around these topics: good food, how to produce it, how to distribute it. Inevitably the conversations would lead to deeper reflections about the truest and most important issues surrounding food and culture.”
We use our food production to build and regenerate our food system model and to share our knowledge, values and believes where environmental and economic aspects join to enhance the social material of our region.
For this approach to be fruitful it requires crucial personal consumer choices which is why our produce is aimed at people who want to deal in a more conscious and authentic way with food which requires less process and more quality.
Biodiversity
We are blessed to be living on an island with one of the highest rates of biodiversity in the Mediterranean and we have a responsibility to transfer the respect for this biodiversity into modern farming. If not increasing this diversity at least maintaining it by farming with nature in mind, not only focused on the market. Approaching farming in this holistic way pushes you to look at your farm from a different perspective where quality of your produce and health of your land becomes more important than the quantity of produce you sell.
“We can no longer delay, let’s protect biodiversity. The world lives if biodiversity lives. Even before being a slogan, an expression of politics or culture, biodiversity is however a representation of what surrounds us every day.”
Carlin Petrin, Slow Food Founder June 2021
Combining Traditional Farming with Regenerative Agricolture
he traditional approach to farming means that we start by planting a seed and growing wild roots which then form the strongest possible basis in which to graft the most suitable variety of fruit tree for your region. The challenge was not to produce high volumes quickly but ensure the highest quality over the long term. Like in our Adoption Program.
Combining traditional farming and regenerative farming allows us to adapt in critical times, times where re-wilding becomes necessary, while keeping the traditional rules alive. We farm out of choice and the produce we offer have strong connections with us, this land and obviously this great island’s history.
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings”
Masanobu Fukuoka
The wild Orange Garden
Sicily’s climate is ideal for citrus. We focus on moving away from the monoculture approach and promote diversity of citrus trees looking at ancient varieties which form part of the past of this Island.
Spontaneus Aromatic Herbs
Where the herbs decide to grow is where they are the happiest and will produce the best essential oil. We don’t grow them we just harvest them.
The Carobs Forest
The carob tree might well be one of the most ancient resident of this island. In our hills it is one of the largest threes, a majestic, evergreen, beautiful tree baring incredible fruits. We recently planted 300 of them to reforest our hills.
Almonds and Almonds
Sicily and almonds share a story since at least 800B.C. This three found its perfect habitat here. On our Farm we have 3 different ancient varieties.
Roots and Communities
First and foremost, food grows in any place, good food however is always the combination of a set of factors. As farmers we understand that forcing nature in one direction does not work and that is a fact. Our role has evolved, and it is our responsibility to seek to understand all these factors and combine them in the search for a new healthy balance, a sustainable balance.
The right way is often closer than we might think and that is where we see that traditional and ancient practices still have a lot to offer us in this modern world we live in today.
“The balance of Nature is not a status quo; it is fluid, ever shifting in a constant state of adjustment. Man too, is part of this balance”
Rachel Carson.”Silent Spring”, 1962