What does sustainability mean for us
More and more often we hear about sustainability, and sustainability is one of the fundamental principles on which Podere Il Casale and the entire agricultural organism of the farm are based. But have you ever stopped to think what is meant by the word “sustainability” and what it really means?
The concept itself is very clear: by sustainability we mean the possibility of carrying out a certain behavior or a model over time, and this implies a balance between the consumption of resources and their regeneration but also between the production of pollutants and their natural elimination. The concept of sustainability affects several aspects, namely environmental sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability.
Another definition of sustainability allows us to look at the issue from a different perspective and is the following: sustainability is the condition for which the present generation satisfies its needs without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their own. In practice, we did not inherit this world from our fathers, but we borrowed it from our children.
Here at Podere Il Casale, sustainability is based on the continuous synergy between the various parts that make up the entire farm, or rather the entire agricultural organism that represents a closed cycle.
Another key concept in the logic of sustainability is respect: respect for the earth, respect for food, respect for ourselves and for our guests. This translates first of all into attention to reducing waste. So let’s see, with concrete examples, how this synergy manifests itself from the organic garden to the restaurant, from the fields to the dairy, up to the stables.
Sostenibilità nell’Azienda Agricola
Sustainability in the farm
To ensure the sustainability of the farm, we start from the fields, we start from agriculture and livestock. At Podere Il Casale we have been practicing organic farming since 1991. The goal is to guarantee sustainable agricultural production by reducing consumption and waste, favoring the conservation of the environment in which we live. To achieve this we have worked on our production model in order to minimize the impact on the environment, integrating the processes with all the elements that populate the agricultural organism.
- Protection of Biodiversity: it’s very importante to guarantee the presence of bees and insects useful for the protection and propagation of crops and this is possible thanks to floriculture.
- Beekeeping: the farm has 20 hives, in periods when the climate is mild, located inside the farm to encourage pollination.
- Seasonality of production: we respect the natural cycles of the seasons in production. The attention to seasonality can be found in the production of our biodynamic garden, in the availability of products at the farm’s agricultural market and in the menu of our restaurant.
- Multi-year crops / Green cover: this practice allows to counteract the overheating of the land and the hydrogeological instability in case of severe weather.
- Green manure: using the practice of green manure, that is, the burying of special crops has the purpose of preserving the land by increasing its fertility.
- Periodic crop rotation: always in order to preserve the land we practice crop rotation.
- Natural fertilizers: to fertilize our land we use resources within the agricultural system. We only use natural fertilizers, i.e. manure from our farms and compost obtained from production waste.
- Mulching: at the end of the crop cycle, the mulching technique is applied in order to maintain soil moisture and protect the soil from erosion.
- Maximum care and protection of plants: during the cultivation phase, specific procedures are implemented to safeguard the development and final flavor of the vegetables. For example, to use the stems of thistles in the kitchen, these are covered during growth and protected from sunlight, in this way they are pleasant and not too bitter.
- Respect for the life cycles of animals: The growth of the new born on the farm is respected at every stage. The puppies of our flocks in fact feed and grow with their mother’s milk until the moment they are weaned. All farm animals live in suitable spaces: all farm animals are guaranteed a living space where they are free to move in the open air.
- Reuse of processing waste: Processing waste is used for animal feed, such as the remains of olive tree pruning.
- Rainwater recycling: rainwater is collected in special tanks and used for the irrigation of the fields and for the cultivation of the vegetable garden.
- Renewable energy sources: In every area of the company, energy production is made possible thanks to the presence of photovoltaic panels and solar panels.These are just some aspects that represent our philosophy, in the next articles we will provide other examples of sustainability in other sectors of the farm such as the restaurant or the dairy.
