Don’t take ‘NO’ for an answer! Conservation farming success story
May 16th, 2012 by Marianne
Before Christine Daka took the Foundations for Farming course at Masaiti, Zambia she was producing 400 bags (50 kilograms each) of maize on 10 hectares, a good average for a small scale farmer. Her first crop after the course produced 400 bags on two hectares. That’s a good average for a commercial farmer. One a small scale farmer only dreams of. We visited Christine yesterday. She is part of the two to five percent success rate her instructor Boet Pretorius talks about. Why does she succeed where others fail?
"I just wish everyone would learn to do as I do, then there would be no hunger in this nation," says Christine Daka, small farmer in Zambia.
“Start small, then when you can do it well, you can increase,” she always tells people looking for her advice. But that’s not advice they want to hear. She tells us of one farmer who insisted on growing 15,000 cabbages his very first try. She tried hard to stop him. He thought workers would plant, God would water, and he could harvest and make big money. He didn’t harvest one cabbage. “They were all chewed,” Christine said, by aphids. Now he is ready to listen, after losing a lot of money. It is a typical story. Why start small and make little money, when you can make big money quick? That you can lose big money quick isn’t part of their thinking.
Christine started farming small, after separating from her husband. Her first farm was a three hour walk away. “You are tired just from walking, then you have to work all day!” she says. But she had three children to provide for. Now she maintains a large market vegetable garden in her sister’s backyard , owns a two hectare plot outside the town of Luanshya where she grows more vegetables, and plants corn, soybeans and peanuts on 15 hectares in Mpongwe. She grows a quality product that customers come to her gate for.
Christine loves to teach - whether in the same classroom she once learned about Foundations for Farming, or in her own garden with boys from the street.
What impresses me most about Christine is that she doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. “You don’t have enough education,” her brother told her when she asked him for money to attend the Conservation Farming five day seminar. She went and excelled. “There is no market for soybeans,” farmers say. But she had no trouble selling hers. “Soybeans are too difficult to harvest without a combine,” they said. She designed a unique harvesting table.
Christine has a wide reputation now, and is constantly being called on for advice. She is very happy to teach, wishing all Zambian farmers would learn and apply what she knows. Then Zambia would be a prosperous nation, she believes. Small scale farmers struggling to provide food for the family get free consulting services. They need to eat too, she says. She has learned to charge those able to make a good profit.
If ever we wonder if small scale farmers can do well, Christine reminds us it is most definitely possible. “Don’t take shortcuts and work hard,” she would say.
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Rainy season in Nairobi and South Sudan
May 9th, 2012 by Marianne
I’m waiting for the rest of me to catch up with my body, which is in Nairobi, Kenya. Yesterday afternoon we were still in Switzerland. The last apple trees stood like brides among golden canola fields and blue sage blooming in the meadows. The roads were smooth and clean; the air pure after the last rain.
We left Switzerland at its best. Lush meadows, blooming canola fields, and the forest newly leafed out.
It’s raining in Nairobi too. It’s the beginning of the long rains here, which arrived almost a month late, and then heavy. This part of Kenya has two rainy seasons, a short one (December to January) and a long one – March to July. Many farmers plant two rain fed crops, unlike Zambia where there is just one long rainy season from November to April, then nothing at all.
The streets are as congested as usual or more so. Our driver said that Nairobi now has close to four million residents and keeps growing. We got into part of morning rush hour – cars bumper to bumper, most of them with dents. No wonder, as they keep trying to push in, just inches from each other. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to the process. Our driver said, “Just don’t make eye contact with another driver.”
AIM Mission Mayfield Guesthouse is an oasis in the congested, busy city of Nairobi. I didn't dare take pictures on the street.
The open sewer canals along the street are full of tepid grey water, and garbage fermenting. I suppose I notice it more coming directly from Switzerland, which is known for being very clean. When I see how crowded the streets constantly are, it’s no wonder they’re not clean, really.
We had chai (Indian tea) with our Sudanese friends this morning. Edward told us about farming in his home village in southern Sudan. I’ve read that South Sudan has the capacity to feed all of Africa. The land is extremely fertile. If there is peace, Edward says, the people have no problem feeding themselves. He maintains it’s relatively peaceful right now, despite the recent squirmishes. He hopes to retire soon and go back to his home village to farm. Funny this idea, also very prevalent in Zambia, that when you retire from your job in the city, you return to your village and farm. Canadian farmers do it the other way around!
The roadside markets are full of fresh fruit like mangos and papayas.
Sudan also has two rainy seasons. They plant millet and sorghum as their staple crops, followed by sesame. They also grow tomatoes, potatoes and other vegetables in smaller gardens. The fields are prepared and planted together as a community – going from one field to the other, and also harvested together. They don’t burn the crop residue, but leave it there to rot, as fertilizer. This is something we’ve tried convincing our Zambian farmers to do.
Hardly arrived, and already I’m preaching herbal medicine. Edward has an arthritic shoulder that’s giving him grief. I told him of our Zambian friend who cured his arthritis by chewing a spoonful of papaya seeds a day. Sounds easy, but the things are terribly bitter – I’ve tried it. He can also ease the pain by rubbing a mix of pounded piri-piri chillies and oil on the joint. Easy on the chillies – too much can burn.
It`s mango and papaya season in Kenya. I got Edward to buy me some mangos at the market. If he bargains, he`ll get a decent deal. If they see my white skin, they`ll double the price. There’s a two year old hybrid mango tree in the garden, whose fruit is almost mature. It`s pretty tempting to pick it!
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What good is it doing? – Development and Aid to Africa
May 2nd, 2012 by Marianne
As we prepare to go back to Zambia for another short term (May 8 to June 25) our neighbour Hans tells me, “We’ve sent millions down to Africa. And what has it done?” It’s a comment we hear from many others too. The prevalent opinion is that the developed world keeps pumping money into Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and there is no improvement. I decided to do some checking to see if that is true or not.
Field day at Golden Valley Agriculture Research Trust in Zambia. GART is funded by First World governments. Conservation Farming is high on its agenda.
In 2000 the United Nations set a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reach by 2015, with eight targets – including reducing extreme poverty and hunger by half, gender equality in schools, primary school completion, clean water, and environmental sustainability. It was a monumental moment, as never before have so many nations – both developing and developed – stood together in solidarity to work hard towards these goals. The developed world promised money and support. A lot of money. Did it help?
Yes. To even my surprise, apparently it did. Despite so many reports of corruption (which is very real), despite the reports of all that should yet be done, progress has been made. Check out these two World Bank and UN reports. The first one is for Sub Saharan Africa. The second one is for Zambia, which interests me particularly.
Another field day at Dawn Trust Community Care, an NGO in Ndola, Zambia. Conservation Farming is big on their agenda too.
UN Report for Zambia meeting MDG
http://www.undp.org.zm/joomla/attachments/005_Zambia%20MDGs%20Progress%20Report%20Zambia%202008.pdf
There’s a long ways to go yet though. Sobering to me is that the rural areas of Zambia have much higher rates of extreme poverty than the urban – 67% in 2006 (but down from 81% in 1991) compared to 20% in urban areas. 51 Percent of the population of Zambia still doesn’t meet the minimum level of dietary energy consumption – which means they don’t get enough to eat. That’s where we’ve been trying to help as we consult with small scale farmers.
Zambia has more water and fertile soil than many other countries. We’ve been there long enough to see that small scale farmers can produce enough food for their families and more if they follow conservation farming (CF) practices, which don’t use a lot of external inputs. Many in Zambia – both NGOs and government agencies are working hard to promote CF among small farmers, and we’ve seen it being practised more and more. But not nearly enough.
Boet Pretorius spends his time travelling over southern Africa to teach CF principles as part of Foundations for Farming. Robert and I took his five day course two years ago. Boet summed things up nicely in a discussion he had with the Tanzanian Finance Minister some time ago. The Minister asked him what his success rate was with his work.
“Between two and five percent,” Boet answered.
“Then why do you do it,” the Minister asked him.
“Because of the two to five percent.”
It’s a sobering thought, such a small success rate. But it often seems to be reality, even for us. Sometimes we’re discouraged, wondering why we are there. Then we see someone prospering because of something we helped them with, and it is enough to keep going again. Because it’s more than just the two to five percent – it’s everyone they influence and teach.
Improvement is slow, but there is improvement. That’s encouraging.
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Staying power: celebrating 65 years marriage, 60 years custom farming
April 24th, 2012 by Marianne
What is easier, to keep a family business going for 60 years or to stay married to the same person for 65? Last Sunday I attended two anniversaries. My in-laws, Heinrich and Emmi Stamm were married for 65 years on April 17th, and the Brütsch family in Ramsen, Schaffhausen held a two day party and open house to celebrate 60 years of their custom farming operation. There was a lot of reminiscing done at these two events. How much has changed, both in individual lives, our social environment and agriculture in these 60 or 65 years!
Grandma Emmi laughs at the stories her children remember at their 65th anniversary party.
1947, the year my in-laws were married, was one of the driest years on record. They’d just moved onto a newly built farm site, there was a pile of debts and in time seven children would join them. There was no tractor yet, no chemicals, no combine harvester. Much of the work was done laboriously by hand, in a time when women still wore long skirts to the field. There were no throw-away pampers, no automatic washing machines. We talk of the good old times, but Grandma thinks they weren’t always just good. She talks a lot of the hard work, but also of the great times they had as a family.
It's a far cry from that first Hercules combine harvester in 1952. The Bruetsch family runs a large custom farming operation.
Hans Brütsch, now 82, bought a gas powered motor to irrigate his field in 1952. He found it paid better though to use it to pump out water holes for builders, and cellars that flooded every year at the time. Cellars rarely flood anymore. The creek was corrected long ago so it would stay within its banks. With that first money he financed the first combine harvester in Switzerland and went custom combining. The director of the agriculture college was quoted as saying that this machine might be okay for canola and barley, but it would never work for bread or seed grains. The family has been custom combining ever since. Hans’s son Werner now owns the business and runs three combines – two Claas Lexions and a New Holland hillside machine. Besides the combines they run seeding and cultivating equipment, a sugar beet harvester, round balers that wrap for silage, and even a rock picker. That one surprised me – but Werner assured me there are a lot of rocks in their area and the picker makes them good money.
It's very much a family operation, with grandson Hansjoerg helping out when needed.
I see my in-laws walking slowly through the village hand in hand and know life wasn’t always an easy road for them to walk. There were serious accidents, financial setbacks, and family difficulties like everywhere else. Last Sunday we celebrated the fact that they are still together, love each other and the wonderful family they raised.
Hans Brütsch showed me that first pump, standing right across from the three modern shiny combines. It was a long road between the two machines too. There were hard times, with lots of work and disappointments that he told me about. Money and opportunities lost. On Sunday he was just very grateful for all that he and his family had been able to accomplish and for everyone that came to celebrate with them.
Neither is easy – whether to be married 65 years or maintain a family business for 60. Many fail trying. Families like these two are an inspiration to the rest of us to keep working hard at it.
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Wheat research bad news and good news for Celiac sufferers
April 17th, 2012 by Marianne
Poor Ruedi. Our choir is tuning our concert repretoire at a retreat in a beautiful Black Forest resort. While the rest of us butter nutty whole wheat croissants and top slices of braided loaves with our Black Forest ham, Ruedi makes due with heavy pieces of gluten free bread.
A person with Celiac disease will always have to walk by those shelves of fresh bread from the oven.
Three years ago Ruedi learned that he had celiac disease. The disease is an abnormal immune system reaction to gluten protein found in wheat, barley and rye (and for some, also in oats). The reaction reduces or stops the absorption of food in the small intestine, resulting in malnutrition. There is only one cure – stop eating anything containing gluten protein. Logically that includes breads, pastas, cereals and other bread products. But gluten is used in many places we don’t think of – in spices, additives and sauces. Ice Cream and even chocolate have to be carefully screened. It’s a tough diet change!
Ruedi is upset with the Swiss agriculture department, which plans to set up a new pricing system for wheat, adding increased pay for higher protein content. We already have that in Canada, where the base price for wheat starts at 11.5% protein. Higher protein wheat receives higher prices. Traditionally Swiss wheat varieties have been low protein. Schaffhausen seed growers have just started some trials with two varieties of Hard Wheat, with higher protein traits. This isn’t good news for Ruedi, who believes that the new high protein varieties are causing the increased rates of celiac disease.
Although increased celiac cases have as much to do with better assessment and knowledge of symptoms, Ruedi might not be so wrong. Check http://www.doctorauer.com/biochemistry-nutrition/understanding-gluten-the-effects-of-grain-based-diets-part-ii-the-nitty-gritty-on-gluten/ for one story. Our North American and European diets include much more high protein wheat products than they used to. We eat more bread made from higher protein wheat (because the farmer produces what the industry wants), more pasta and packaged cereals. So much of whatever else we buy contains gluten protein too. For those who are at all gluten intolerant (which is a genetic trait) it is a dangerous world out there.
But Ruedi would be happy to know that research is also working for him. Professor Diter von Wettstein at Washington State University is labouring with an international crew to breed a variety of wheat that is celiac friendly. Wheat contains over 150 different proteins. Only six are needed for good baking quality. The group is trying to eliminate as many proteins as possible in the hope that celiac sufferers will one day be able to eat bread like everyone else.
http://www.edmondsun.com/opinion/x611944287/Wheat-research-Improving-on-the-staff-of-life
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/01/genetically-modified-foods-are-becoming-1/
It’s highly likely that at least some farmers will be vying to grow a low protein wheat in the future again.
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Burnout: Fill your personal fueltank!
April 10th, 2012 by Marianne
Every farmer knows a tractor burns fuel when used and makes sure to check the gauge every so often. No one wants to be left stranded at the side of the road or field. But if we don’t check, there’s always the warning light to remind us we’re running low. We know how to look after our tractors. Do we know how to look after ourselves?
Life on the farm can look idyllic, like this coffee break during haying season in the Swiss alps. But burnout is a very real issue for many farmers all over the world.
Burnout was the theme of a workshop I attended at the Strickhof Agriculture College in Wülflingen, Switzerland. It’s a common word in the working world. Swiss farmers aren’t exempt, and I don’t think Canadian farmers are either. The idyllic picture many urbanites have of the farm – a slower lifestyle, riding the range with the dog trotting alongside – is far from reality for most farmers all over the world. Increasing pressure from tight margins, heavier regulations, more paperwork, less personnel for more acres are taking their toll. One or both partners work off the farm. Relationships are more complex. Sometimes it all becomes too much. Even the smallest task feels too hard, we’re so tired we can hardly move, there’s no point to living anymore. Call it depression or burnout.
Why do we fill the tractor when it’s time but don’t heed the warning signs of our own bodies? We’ve been tired for a long time, we’re always irritated and uptight, we smoke or drink more, we lose interest in our work, our relationships, sex. It’s time to tank up! But we don’t – we don’t know how, or we don’t have time, or we’re ashamed to admit we need help. We don’t want to look like a wimp.
It takes a long time to recuperate from a real burnout. Two weeks at the Mexican Riviera isn’t going to do the trick. It can take years and often we never quite regain what was lost. A counsellor once told me it’s comparable to running a motor in the red. If you wait too long, the motor is never the same again.
It’s important to take breaks. Annual holidays are good, but better are daily little time-outs. “It’s better to take a mini holiday every day, than to long for the big ones,” Dr. Marianne Breu told us at the workshop. Take time for a cup of coffee out in the garden or an after lunch nap – especially during calving season! Go for a walk through the bush when the leaves are coming out. Do deep breathing and/or yoga and meditation exercises; draw, run, or do whatever relaxes you.
And please, go for help! Admitting he has depression is probably about as hard for a farmer as it is for an African to admit they have AIDS. Often both would rather die. At the workshop, Dr. Peter Strate said that people usually wait 10-15 years before they go for help, and by then they’ve often lost their job or families. Don’t wait that long – for your own sake and the sake of your families.
Watch that personal fuel gauge. Are you running low? If you’re not sure, ask your family. They might be quite happy to tell you! Don’t wait until you’re stranded at the side of the road, alone.
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Cowsignals – what your cow is trying to tell you
April 3rd, 2012 by Marianne
As kids, if we were angry with each other, we’d yell, “You’re a dumb cow!” We had it wrong. Cows aren’t dumb. If anything, their owners might be, because they don’t understand what their cows are saying to them. Communication between humans supposedly consists of 97 percent body language. Between cows and humans it’s more like 99 percent. Paying attention to it will increase a cow’s comfort and the owner’s pocket book.
Happy comfortable cows produce better.
Cowsignals originated in Holland, with Jan Hulsen and is taught in over 30 countries. I joined a course in Schaffhausen with instructor Christian Manser, who has taught in Canada too. Cows give clear signals about their well being. Careful observance helps prevent diseases and other issues before they become a problem. Most cattle owners already monitor their cows closely, especially during calving season. But this goes more in depth.
Getting close to the cows enables you to see the little details you miss otherwise.
Christian had us standing out in Bernard Mueller’s feed den for awhile, looking around the barn for problem spots. Is there mold somewhere? Wet spots, danger spots – spots where cattle slip, narrow passage ways, rods poking out at odd places? Is there enough air movement everywhere?
Watch the cows. Why do they prefer that side? Go down there, smell. Maybe the air is cleaner, cooler. Maybe there’s a bully on the other side.
Wonder why cows might avoid their bedding? Kneel down in it and check for yourself!
It’s been awhile since I last had cows licking my rubber boots, but that’s how close we had to get to them next. Check them out. Are there sore spots? Are the spots often in the same place or height in different cows? The cows are probably rubbing against something somewhere. If it hurts when they have to go somewhere, they won’t want to go there. That’s not good news if it’s the mineral lick or the water tank. “Cows never lie,” Christian told us. Bernard made new box stalls, thinking they were an improvement over the old ones. But the cows tried to lay in the old ones if possible. “Roll up your jeans, kneel down there,” Christian said. The new matting was rough, uncomfortable; not as soft as the straw bedding in the old.
“You’ve got to think like a cow,” Christian kept saying. Walk through the milk parlour or around the barn as if you were a cow. Are there slippery spots? Are some areas too bright or too dark? Can their eyes adjust quickly enough?
Well, I am not a cow, even if my sisters did sometimes call me one. But I sure did gain a lot of respect for their behaviour that I never thought about before. So did the other participants. “We’ll walk into the barn with new eyes tonight,” they said. I’m sure their cows will appreciate that.
“Cow Signals” by Jan Hulsen can be obtained at various online booksellers, including www.amazon.co.uk
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Spring is in the Swiss air!
March 27th, 2012 by Marianne
Early daffodils flourish in the protection of an old stone wall.
Not just the wheat is growing! The sprayers are busy.
Despite the coldest winter in over 20 years, the winter crops are all thriving. There was some concern when the coldest days went down to minus 20 degrees Celsius, but there was enough snow cover. It’s been close to plus 20 degrees Celsius lately. The canola will probably bloom in a couple weeks – about then when western Canadian farmers will be getting their seed drills ready. The sugar beets were seeded just before the rain a week ago; the moisture just enough to germinate that which was in the dry. A rain would be timely about now.
There’s a hay field between our house and the street, about the size of four building lots. Every available arable piece is utilized here. The guy renting it just fertilized it – it probably took him all of fifteen minutes. I hardly had time to get my camera out. A good amount of fertilizer granules landed on our lawn. He’s lucky I’m not as picky as some house owners around. I once watched a woman laboriously pick out each granule that landed in her garden, because she passionately believes in living organic.
Bigger machinery makes it ever more difficult to farm those little patches between village buildings.
It’s not always easy for farmers to cultivate fields and meadows tucked in so closely among the village. People are highly sensitized to overuse of chemicals and manure, and there are always those who don’t hesitate to make phone calls if they feel farmers have been on the road with the sprayer once too often. It really does take a certain amount of cooperation between residents and farmers of a rural village like Schleitheim, where most days see tractors hurtling down Main Street at 40 kilometres per hour, and farmers spray insecticide on canola next to apartment blocks. But as long as everyone is reasonable, things seem to work.
There's hardly a field in Switzerland that isn't along the trails of hikers and bikers.
I think part of the reason the Swiss take such an interest in how their food is produced could be that farmers and non-farmers live in such close proximity to each other. The farmer’s fields are the urbanite’s playground. They hike and bike along the fields and meadows. Not much can be kept secret. This frustrates some farmers, who feel they are under constant watch. Others use the opportunities the situation provides for roadside produce stands, cut-flower fields, or signs that showcase what farmers are doing for the environment.
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Farmers visit Tuscany trilogy – Nr. 3
March 20th, 2012 by Marianne
Tuscany holiday highlights are supposed to be admiring Michelangelo’s statue of David in the Galleria dell ‘Accademia in Florence, or visiting the many duomos (domes) of cities like Siena with their frescos and marble carvings. We didn’t see David – that’s for next time. We did visit Siena’s Duoma, which is so spectacular it would take at least a day to really take it all in. But one of the highlights of our trip to the Toscana was the visit to Beatrice Massaza’s olive press and farm.
Before the backdrop of Beatrice's olive groves Robert and Beatrice use their hands to aid their limited English and Italian.
Beatrice, like Serena from our resort, took over the 13 hectare olive farm from her father. She also runs an agritourismo business, providing rooms or small apartments for up to 20 people with meals in the century old farmhouse. But her passion is producing a top quality olive oil. That passion has paid off in the prestigious Italian first prize for organic extra virgin olive oil. Her son Amedeo told us that. His mother doesn’t really care much about winning, he says.
The oil from Podere SS. Annunziata II is better than hers, Serena says. Part of that is size – they can pick faster and press fresher than she can. But it’s more, Serena thinks – Beatrice invests much more time and effort in the care of her trees.
Beatrice (far left) explains the process the olives go through from delivery to the final product - extra virgin olive oil.
Waving her arm at the olive groves in the valley around us, Beatrice says, “These trees are for my children and grandchildren.” She’s working for their future. The olive press and the windmill to pump water for irrigating the trees are for now, for her.
Serena says, “But maybe our children won’t care about the farm when they’re grown.” It seems at least one of Beatrice’s children, her son Amedeo, does care. In excellent English (he’s studying human rights at the University of Pisa) he tells us of staying up nights to communicate with the FDA personnel in the USA. He wants to export his mother’s oil, and that of other farmers whose olives she presses, directly into the US market.
Amadeus takes a keen interest in his mother's business.
The olive press building, powered by the solar panels tiling the roof, reminds me of a winery with its shiny chrome vats and press. The words Beatrice uses are similar to that of wine – they produce a Grand Cru with the fruity flavour of artichokes. But there is no fermented smell of grapes, just of lightly spicy oil. During the olive harvest, which lasts from October to November, Beatrice spends 20 hours a day here, personally watching over the pressing process to make sure each bottle of oil is the very best.
SS. Annunziata produces an average of 2000 bottles of their own oil a year, with Beatrice’s trees averaging 40 kilograms of olives per tree. Recently Beatrice has begun producing soap from her Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
We go home with the gift of a bottle of prize winning oil, a bar of the special soap and the inspiration a passionate farmer always is for another farmer. That she is a woman is even more inspiration to me…
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Olives grow under the Tuscan Sun
March 14th, 2012 by Marianne
We’re back ‘home’ in Switzerland, far from the Tuscan sun and ocean and olive groves. We never did get to visit with the bigger farmer. Instead we got a lesson in organic olive farming from Serena di Malfatto and husband Fabrizio, our hosts at Costa Etrusca, the Agritourismo farm we stayed at.
View from our window to the main house of Costa Etrusca and the surrounding olive grove.
In 1993 Serena took over her father’s six hectares of land close to the Mediterranean coast. She uprooted the grapevines and replaced them with olive trees, which are less labour intensive. Pruning of the trees, which is just finishing, and harvesting the olives are the big jobs. Harvesting is done by hand. A tarp is spread under the tree, and the fruit is pulled off the fine branches with combs. Fabrizio harvests most of their 1200 trees with their hired hand.
Many farmers put tarps under the trees well before harvest, to catch whatever olives fall prematurely. This is what lower quality, cheaper olive oil is made of, as many of the olives are bruised or already fermenting by the time they are pressed. Serena says the best oil is made when the olives are still partly green, before they are fully mature. The sooner the olives are pressed after picking, the better the oil.
Serena brings her olives to her neighbours to press. When they come home with the oil, it’s a party. Everyone joins together for fresh oil and bread, the way good olive oil should be enjoyed. It`s never better than that first day.
Serena di Malfatti (black coat) with her young daughter and son (blue coat) visit the neighbours with the olive press.
The decision to grow olives organically was a life style choice. “I don’t want to grow poison,” Serena says. Since making the switch from conventional to organic, the harvests are smaller. Serena says the trees still produce the same, but the olive fly causes many olives to fall prematurely. There is a biological spray that is allowed for organic farms, but Fabrizio feels it’s not very effective. Some use insect traps, which are quite expensive.
Growing organically didn`t increase the price of the oil. Fabrizio says it’s ironic that people have no problem paying 15 to 20 Euros for a good bottle of wine, but they think that 10 Euros for a litre of good olive oil is too much. (One Euro is equal to approximately Can$1.40.)
A healthy mature tree produces about 25 kilograms of Olives, which makes about four litres of oil. Many trees are still young. Last year was dry, so the harvest was much smaller.
View over San Vincenzo, from the road outside Costa Etrusca. At the end of the road is the ocean.
The Agriturismo business – the resort – is Serena’s main stream of income. In the busy season they cater to 50-60 patrons per day. I’m not surprised – it’s a beautiful location, the food is great, the rooms comfortable, and Serena and Fabrizio are very gracious hosts. (http://www.agriturismocostaetrusca.it/eng/)
Serena didn’t put me to the taste test between better and poorer quality oil, as she said she would. Instead Fabrizio poured dark red wine into goblets – from Suvereto, the best there is, he claims. Serena drizzled their very own organic extra virgin olive oil over toasted fresh baguette slices on a wooden plate. Life can be that simple, that good.
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