photograph by Rick Gush
This cartridge clip , Vita in Campagna , is one of my favorite resources to Italy ’s small - scale farming .
Most people might think all those Roman ruins and medieval castles and paintings are the most notable historical artifact in Italy . Personally , I guess the boom small-scale - farmer polish that still overtop Italy is the most important gift from the past .
Sure , there is a whole plenty of commercial agriculture in Italy , but Italy ’s core farming interest is still in the hands of small tiller . Almost every township sport a local veg marketplace , where small cultivators trade their products now to consumer . Small farmers in Italy can boast of an official register of thousands of handmade and homegrown farming products not available through the big - business mart . And every day , Italian TV shows laud the values of pocket-size - farm production .
My wife and my garden is rather small , and we produce just for our own economic consumption . But we have been repeatedly extend the opportunity to sell extra product . The little food market a few hundred railyard from our nursing home is always asking if we have something we want to betray . Last year , I was in the market when a customer asked the proprietor if she had any fresh parsley and marjoram . The proprietor did n’t , but I run short up into our garden and harvest a gracious caboodle of parsley and a handful of oregano to give to the customer . She offered to give me , but I was happy just to be able to gift something from our garden . If I wanted to , I could easily sellfigs , grapes , wild asparagus , fave edible bean , idle plum tree , mushrooms , fresh herb , tomatoes , peppers , broccoliandsquashfrom our garden .
I in person know a dozen small farmers here in Rapallo who make their intact living cultivating their farms and gardens , several twelve masses who sell something from their gardens , and two hundred people who trade some fortune of theirolive - oil product . I revel the fact that while olive oil in the supermarket is priced around 5 euro per liter , the terms for homemade oil is about 10 euro per litre . hoi polloi appreciate the quality of low pile oil production and are happy to pay up twice the price when they can . My favorite magazine these daylight ( aside fromUrban FarmandHobby Farms , obviously ) isVita in Campagnaor Life in the Country . All the small farmer in Italy read this magazine . It ’s focused on articles of interest to citizenry who are growing and acquire food as a personal business — mostly hard - nosed discussions about topic related to financial achiever for small-scale farmers .
I think Italy is the most fervently organic nutrient producer in the human beings , not because they do n’t have the money to buy expensive fertilizers and pesticide , but because sustainable cultivation makes more economic sense than the factory farm method acting .
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