There are some people who have the innate passion for Nature, others who discover this passion during the course of their life. There are some who discover that they have a need to return to rural roots, and there are those who desire to live close to the rhythms of nature all the time – awakened by the rooster’s call and not the cellphone alarm clock. The pursuit of a more natural rhythm can be not only pleasant, but also rejuvenating. Better yet if this pursuit puts you into direct and real contact with the beauty of nature.

Our farm allows for this direct contact with a real working farm and we want to provide a service of public education to others…

The outline:

Our educational and agricultural activities on farm are part of our ‘agriturismo’ but can also can be independent. Since 1998 several administrations in Italy have created regional organizations in order to register and qualify agricultural education offered by farms like ours.
The 4 H Club is a movement born in the United States in the early 1900’s and stands for Head, Health, Heart, Hand.  This summarizes the club’s objective: harmonious development of the individual through the head, health, heart and hands.
Even today, after more than 100 years after its creation, The 4 H Club is meant to help educate youth, farm workers and visitors.

The educational courses are generally organized and implemented according to the participants, such the world of education, various community and business associations, consumers, tourists or other special interested groups. Anyone can perceive when humans live in harmony with biological and ecological systems.  For example, on the farm we have the cultivated field, the company or farm itself, the land or property we steward, and the larger ecosystem of which we are part. To date, the involvement of young people is essential for us. It’s essential that our children understand the agricultural environment, the origins of the food we eat, animal life, the life of the farmer and hopefully are able to discover the importance of a job often overlooked and sometimes despised.

The offer:

We offer a variety of ways you can participate in farm education. Come and visit the farm to understand the various stages of the production cycle of each product or breed that we cultivate. In order to fully realize and illustrate these production cycles, we offer workshops where participants directly participate in them. For example, our bread-making workshop where participants make different types of bread. In the first part of the workshop the goal is to make bread in a slow and natural way. In the second part of the workshop, the goal is to distinguish which bread is which according to your senses. In our cheese-making workshop, we begin by feeding the animals, taking care of animals in the barn, milking the cows or goats, making a fresh ‘caciotta’ cheese and we finish with a cheese tasting.

These are just a few examples, but many other educational opportunities await: farm holidays, farm birthdays, Sunday on the farm, pet therapy, parties for parents and children and so on.

Our Farm:

The Olive Garden Farm was born from our love of animals, nature and the desire to live in the country. One way realize this dream of living close to nature, if you’re lucky enough to live in the country, is to keep both your home and everything around it by finding a way to be economically sustainable which is also ecologically sustainable (because for a process to be sustainable it must use natural resources at a rate such that they can be naturally regenerated). To realize this dream, it requires enormous sacrifices in terms of money, resources and labor. In honesty, this sacrifice, effort and commitment is required to realize any dream, not only in the countryside.

OUR DREAM IS TO OPEN AN EDUCATIONAL FARM IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND LIVESTOCK ARE A WAY OF LIFE, AND WHERE THE YOUNG, OLD OR ANYONE INTERESTED IN OUR VISION, CAN BE TRAINED AND INFORMED ON HOW TO PURSUE THIS WAY OF LIFE.

Here in our Farm we offer a detailed farm visit complete with an explanation of our working methods and you are invited to participate in our workshops, such as: Extra virgin olive oil production, Tuscan wine production (Sangiovese, Cabernet and Malvasia), worm farming, lavender cultivation, herb collection, breeding of cashmere goats, cheese production, making olive oil soap, lavender sachets, chalk, handmade lavender essence, caring for ponies and donkeys, etc. all serving the purpose of stimulating a relationship between our visitors and the environment/animals involved.

WE ENCOURAGE OUR PARTICIPANTS TO PURSUE A DAY OF PERSONAL GROWTH AS THEY TAKE IN A GOOD DOSE OF NATURE, RELAX AND DIRECTLY PARTICIPATION IN THE VARIOUS ACTIVITIES WE OFFER.

And finally we would like to conclude by sharing the words of Victor G. Bassan:

“NATURE IS AN OPEN BOOK, BUT AN OPEN BOOK THAT YOU CAN’T READ CLOSED INSIDE A ROOM.“

Text written by Lara Fornai, taken from  www.agriturismointoscana.com