Piccola e multifunzionale: la nostra idea di micro farm.
Piccola e multifunzionale: la nostra idea di micro farm.
The farm "Il Bosco dei Mille Frutti"
We are a small but innovative reality, based on an agro-eco-systemic model inspired by the ethics and principles of permaculture. We are a multifunctional company, based on the reorganization and enhancement of a lowland area of about one hectare, with an old building inserted, which, at the moment, is during a conversion phase, and a high hill area of about nine hectares, of remarkable ecological and landscape value, with a small residential building in wood inserted. Our resilience is based on many synergistic activities. We offer various services that help us in economic and environmental sustainability. We are creating a positive environment from the environmental, food and educational point of view and we propose an intense and varied educational activity. We will soon also be an organic farm.
WHAT
The farm “Il Bosco dei Mille Frutti” is a reality established in 2010 but really active and engaged in the activity only from the end of 2015. The company prevalent orientation goes toward the cultivation of fruit, vegetable and cereals. The farm intends to operate in a fast growing niche of the farming sector, through the production of particular products, such as ancient grains, ancient and unusual fruits and berries and vegetables as well as, aromatic and medicinal plants.
HOW
All cultivations take place in an agro-rural, regenerative, sustainable, organic and eco-systemic context. In practice, we think that in addition to producing, the farm must create a real stable and constantly evolving ecosystem, which, at maturity, can make visitors live and experience a beautiful and profound naturalistic and aesthetic experience, and at the same time becoming an element of embellishment of the landscape in which it is inserted. The agricultural project involves the creation of different agro-rural environments, using permaculture and regenerative and eco-systemic agriculture. The expected output is not only the measurable (material / tangible) output capable of generating a (financial) income but it is also an intangible output, consisting of information: the aesthetic, functional, ecological and social improvement of a small piece of land.
WHERE
The company is structured on 2 distinct territorial units, for a total extension of just under 10 hectares. The largest (about 9 ha) is located in the fascinating Municipality of Canossa, in the south-facing slope of the valley of the Tassobbio stream, in an enchanting panoramic and pedoclimatic context, characterized by a favorable microclimate and with a remarkable variability of types of land, for exposure, windiness, humidity and soil. The second unit, site of the "Trebiolche Permaculture" project, is located in the very first peri-urban band of the Municipality of Cavriago (just under 1 Ha). It consists of a small piece of flat land, of excellent fertility, on which there is a building of about 250 square meters which will constitute the functional business center.
WHY
The name "Il Bosco dei Mille Frutti" wants to have a specific value that summarizes some fundamental concepts implicit in the setting of the Agricultural Company:
Bosco. "The forest", and in return the forest, represents one of the most stable, most bio diverse and most efficient ecosystems present in Nature. It is one of the so-called spontaneous natural evolutionary climaxes. It is the natural system that evolves from an uncultivated or not-touched-by- human-hand land. The forest is able to perform some fundamental functions such as the creation of biomass, the sequestration of CO2, the offer of shelter and home for innumerable life forms, the stabilization of the climate and land, and many others. The "Bosco", in a broad sense, is the natural model from which we get inspired in the design of our system. It is the point of arrival of the cultivation successions foreseen by the project. A designed forest, but based on the same functional principles of Nature.
Mille. "One thousand". The word directly refers to the cultural and multi-product approach of our farm, just as there are many outputs of any stable natural system. The plurality of products pushes the system towards the resilience of the system itself. If it is true that the individual productivity of each individual output will be lower, the overall productivity of the system will be greater, because it will also be able to enhance the temporal and seasonal element. And it will be greater both in terms of seasonality and in terms of evolution over time because as the system evolves, products change. From short-cycle products to medium-cycle products up to long-cycle products. "One Thousand" has a symbolic value also in the aspect of the relationships between the elements of the system. Indeed, borrowing the concept from permaculture, the system as a whole is designed so that all the elements constitute a complex but functional and efficient network of relationships, imitating as much as possible a natural ecosystem.
Frutti. "Fruits". The fruits are the immediate agricultural products of the agricultural system, but, more generally, they symbolize the output of the farm. The fruits are not simply crops but are a "whole harvest". Harvest that consists of fruit, vegetables, animal products, but also, and not secondarily, accumulation of resources and available energy (water, soil, wind, sun, biomass). And it is finally the "harvest" of information, culture, know-how and social relations. And it is this last aspect which is the most important because a human system progresses as much as it treasures the information that comes from the natural system, applying all the feedback obtained from the system itself, and re-elaborates and redistributes this information to the surrounding world.
