Our agriculture
Cascina Degli Ulivi is a biodynamic farm known especially for its wines. But the project has a wider scope. We also work as a self-sufficient farm, producing a great variety of vegetables, fruits, cereals. We also breed animals for milk, meat and eggs, and we make our own bread and cheese.
Cereals
We cultivate very ancient varieties of cereals that haven’t been over-selected or hybridated. They are therefore more apt to human nutrition and are tolerated even by those people who are intolerant to the gluten contained in conventional grains.
Our cereals grow very tall, adapt well to poor soils and do not need fertilisation.
In order to increase even more their nutritional value, we have decided to hand-reap. After reaping, the spikes are tied in sheaves and let ripen for at least two months under the patios and then threshed with a still thresher. We grow Verna, Gambo di Ferro, Gentilrosso or Tosella, Autonomia and Frassineto varieties of wheat.
We also grow a special variety of spelt called Monococcum spelt (bot. Spelta minore). This grain has a two-row ear and was almost extinct. It has been brought back in use during the Eighties in Provence by a good-willed farmer and a botanist. Monococcum spelt is a precious cereal, with low yields but great adaptability and excellent nutritional and gastronomic value.
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Vegetable garden and orchard
Vegetable garden and orchard
We have about 1 hectare dedicated to growing vegetables using biodynamic agriculture. We supply vegetables to the restaurant of our agriturismo as well as to the people who work with us and their families. We also do weekly deliveries to a number of families in Genoa. We have various fruit trees, mainly peach and apple of ancient varieties typical of our mountains such as the Carla, Calvilla Bianca, Campanina, Lavina, Astracan and others.
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Animal breeding
Beside having donkeys and a horse, we breed poultry (chickens and ducks) that supply our restaurant.
We also have cattle, both for milk and meat. In spring and summer, they graze in the meadows nearby. In other seasons they are fed on fodder and cereals produced on the farm.They supply us all year long with excellent milk from which we produce delicious cheese and other dairy products.
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Biodynamics
Biodynamics is presently the best method for a healthy, living, agriculture able to enrich soils where it is applied, hence guaranteeing sustainability for the future. This way the soil gives tasty and authentically nutricious fruit that truly express its terroir.
Fruit & vegetables
We have always cultivated our lands with the biodynamic method. We hand pick vegetables and seasonal fruit, which all have great gastronomic and nutritional qualities.
Fresh bread
We make our own bread with flour freshly stone-milled from our ancient grains. It is made with sour-dough, let leaven for many hours and cooked every day in our wood-fired earth-made oven.
Dairy products
With the milk from our cows, we produce fresh cheeses, yogurts and delicious seasoned cheeses every day.
