I would like to explain how I got the idea to start a farm.
It all started from a passion for cooking and food that I always had, however, only since 2008 I started to get closer to the world of food in a more professional way by initiating, in my spare time, a service of chef at home, called "i Viaggi del Cucchiaio".
It seemed a smooth transition between cooking for friends or for groups of tourists and open a restaurant. With the activity of chef at home you must interact with demanding customers and every time is a test by changing kitchen each service, finding time to time to address and resolve unforeseen problems. Having successfully dealt with these tests gave me confidence to start a dining business.
The idea to close the graphics business (I worked 12 years as a graphic freelancer with my own company Zoidesign) to devote myself completely to the world of food, derived from an analysis of the economic landscape in which we find ourselves and personal needs, reflects both my life path and a more globalized feeling: a desire to return to basics, a search of a simpler and sustainable life, a rehabilitation of manual labor in order to direct sustenance of himself.
Looking so a lifestyle less intellectual and more linked to the concrete, I felt increasingly strong desire to produce something physically with my hands, to give vent to a certain creativity that characterizes me as always, in a more tangible way than, althoughcreative, graphic or web design projects. Anyone who has read "Women Who Run with Wolves" will know what I mean by "put your hands in the earth."
Having a passion for cooking I cannot help but wonder: do I really know what I eat? What I really prepare for people who address to me? What can I do to make sure I feed me properly and above all healthy? I found the answer in self-production, in short chain, in the alternative techniques of cultivation and breeding.
Obviously approach these issues cannot be separated from becoming more and more sensitive about the surrounding environment, the respect of the area and to contribute, in their own small, to a bigger change, so that, in 2011 I decided to attend a course about Synergetic Agricolture at "agriturismo Torri Superiore" in Imperia.
The course was very helpful to me and opened a world about so many people careful about what they eat, to maintain a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. So I started some experiments in permaculture farming and synergistic agriculture.
My goal is then passed from cooking foods tastier possible to cook healthier and tasty foods as possible. Seeing also, especially on the web, that some people tend to divide between "eco-fundamentalists vegans" and " proud-eaters of crap" and having had as teaching from ancient Greek culture "the truth lies in the right half" , my attention was focused on the use of all the tools available to bring a healthy and tasty nutrition to those who have the time, desire or love the traditional dishes so much that he never had the opportunity to get closer to healthier foods.
So the project "i Viaggi del Cucchiaio" in 2014 was then transformed into an association of social promotion, in whose statutes, Article 3 states: "The Association works to promote: a) the development, promotion, and distribution of a culture for a healthy diet in all forms and manifestations, in the Italian territory and international; b) educational activities for the introduction, updating and improvement of practices and techniques designed to the use of a more healthy diet, knowledge of local products and a preference for spending at Km 0 and organize courses of technical education, selection and preparation of food; contribute to the cultural and civil growth of its members / e and the local community through learning and cultivation practices sustainable farming and the knowledge and appreciation of ancient rural traditions."
So the business idea took a form somewhat different from the initial one, the desire to open a restaurant serving traditional cuisine has become the will to start an agricultural farm using alternative and sustainable methodologies and that transforms its products to give customers the opportunity to eat healthy, traditional and tasty, without straying too far from the classic recipes, but surely adding more fruits and vegetables on the menu.
My background in communication at the end can give an edge to the activity, ensuring an approach "marketing oriented" and the development of policies for the control and analysis of the results to create winning procedures. I would not mind to collaborate with institutions and university research laboratories to ensure that this project will contribute significantly to the official collection of scientific data on the synergistic cultivation and half-wild breeding (my flying chickens) so anyone interested to work under this aspect is more than welcome.
Besides all this, my family is in the field of oenology since generations, with the production of quality wines, it seems so natural "fit" in this field of agriculture after 15 years of experience in the graphic to use my cultural to better communicate my experience and philosophy that supports it.
Thank you so, and I hope you enjoy reading the adventures that surely will bring me the project of the wood of flying hens.
