After gaining a high school qualification in agriculture and several years work experience with conventional agricultural methods, in 1986 together with my wife, we began our experience with organic farming methods.
In 1988, driven by an awareness that the Earth is alive, and ready to put into action our ideas on protecting the soil's fertility and maintaining it's biodiversity, we bought the rural farm CASE BOTTARO: 20 hectares (50 acres) of land divided about half and half in agricultural terrain and the surrounding woodland and shrubbery, all at 530m above sea level on the slopes of Mount Catria in the Apennines of the Marche region.
From the beginning we have given precedence to saving the seeds from our own crops to replant natural selection seed vegetable varieties which are in danger of extinction. We have a small greenhouse with hot frames for this purpose.
We also experimented with crops never cultivated in our area like buckwheat, millet, and rice.
On our farm we breed local varieties of sheep Fabrianese and Apennine to favour our crop rotation and produce organic meat.
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