Tag: adopt

How to adopt a cow, cherry tree or beehive – Italian Cuisine

An idea to help farmers and receive cheeses, fruit and honey directly from the producers

The idea of adopting an animal or tree remotely is not new, but such initiatives are continually born. The last in order of time comes from the province of Belluno in time of COVID-19: the Peralba Costalta Cooperative di San Pietro di Cadore launched the proposal to adopt a cow.

How to adopt a cow (and receive butter and cheese at home)

Against a fee paid for theadoption of a cow from Costalta (you can choose whether to do it for a month at 39 euros, for six months at 219 euros or for a year at 409 euros), you receive an adoption certificate in exchange with the description, personal details and photo of the animal (c is 6 year old Barbie, 3 year old Pearl, 8 year old Pauline, and a certain amount of butter and cheese made with milk. The initiative had a boom in requests so much so that the cooperative at the moment had to suspend the adoptions ("for this month the cows have given all the milk they had", the farmers say). The cooperative, in fact, is a small company made up of five members with about forty cows that try to maintain the tradition and authenticity of a small artisan dairy, and that has also thought of doing it through the help of adoptions: the contributions received allow farmers to feed the cows to the fullest and take them to summer pasture in the huts of the Val Visdende. The cooperative is not the only reality to propose the adoption of a cow: similar initiatives exist in Val Sugana (Trentino), in VALVESTINO (province of Brescia) and at, to give another example, the Fattoria Muretto di Alagna Valsesia.

How to adopt a cherry tree (or another fruit tree)

From cows to cherry trees. TO Vignola, land suited to the production of cherries, theAmidei farm, member of the Consorzio della Ciliegia di Vignola Igp, instead proposes the adoption of a tree. Adopting a cherry tree you have the opportunity to visit the orchard at the foot of the Modena Apennines at the moment of flowering, you are informed when the fruit is ripe and you receive 10 kg of cherries with shipments throughout Italy. The cost is 70 euros and, they say from the company, it can be a nice gift idea, for example, for the birth of a child, but also a way to find contact with nature and rediscover the rhythm of the seasons. You can also adopt a fruit tree biological from farmers across Italy through Biorfarm: after the adoption (possible for a year with a cost that varies depending on the fruit you want to receive) you can remotely monitor the production of the tree, choose whether to receive the fruits at home or collect them in the fields and order other fruit after the first harvest at a discounted price.

adopt a cherry vignola

How to adopt a beehive (but also a truffle dog)

There are many initiatives that give the possibility of adopt a beehive (costs generally range from 50 to 90 euros for a year) and receive the honey produced by bees, a way to protect these insects, endangered by climate change, pesticides and pests. The start-up of agri-tech 3Bee allows you to choose a beekeeper throughout Italy based on the honey produced, monitor the growth of the hive and then receive the desired amount of honey at home. Even the countryside "Give Bees a Chance" by Mebee it gives you the opportunity to adopt a beehive for a year, give the name to the queen, choose the color of the hive, receive the certificate of adoption, as well as periodic updates and photos on the state of the bees and of course honey. The adoption of a beehive is also proposed, for example, by theBelè farm in Missaglia (Lc), fromRonchello di Gandellino farm (Bg), from the project Made in Langhe & Roero which allows to adopt other excellences of the territory to satisfy all tastes and help those we desire: you can adopt a vegetable garden, a sheep, a portion of hazelnut grove, a goat, a fence of Cherasco snails, a row of Barbera and even a truffle dog!

Adopt a pomegranate and the fruits arrive home – Italian Cuisine

Giuseppe Savino from Foggia launched the initiative: with a video call you choose the tree and in November the pomegranates will be sent all over Italy

The new frontier of long distance adoptions passes from the earth. And from the web. Because if there weren't any farmers 2.0 like Giuseppe Savino from Foggia none of this would be possible. Giuseppe is someone who uses the internet to "trace a furrow", as is done in the fields. The last of these furrows was traced in full lockdown, with the launch of the project Adopt a pomegranate.

He told us a moment after finishing the wheat harvest, after a few missed phone appointments because, as he says, "there is a precise moment when the bean is ready, but it cannot be foreseen when it is". And in the same field where the ears of corn were, right next to the rows of pomegranates, there will be pumpkins, so everything will be ready in November for a big party (pandemics permitting).

Who is Giuseppe Savino

But let's go in order. Giuseppe Savino is a farmer's son, as he likes to remember. The father is the classic man whose experience is all in the field, in the true sense of the word. As his son says of him: "He can tell you what problem the plant has by looking at it at two meters, while my brother who is an agronomist must study it under a microscope". Experience teaches, but Giuseppe's youth and being smart have integrated his father's millenary wisdom, bringing it to the virtual square of social networks, working on relations between farmers and on the Vazapp platform from which it started with a great project of agro-integration and sharing of ideas, also passed by the Contadinner (dinners between farmers to make them known). To this were added many other initiatives and that of the adoption of pomegranates shows that with a small gesture you can weave life stories.

Birth and realization of an idea

«We were in full lockdown and I realized that people had become used to video calls. I had long had in mind the plan to adopt trees, but a theft a few years ago had stopped it in the bud. Now the time is ripe to promote this idea, but I didn't want it to be just a pre-purchase, I wanted it to be an experience for those who decide to adopt a pomegranate ". An even therapeutic experience that has virtually brought people to the countryside at a time of closure.

The experience begins first by filling out a form, then there is the first video call, in which Giuseppe with his smartphone brings those who have joined the initiative to the field: the plant is chosen together, the plate with the name chosen for the tree by the holder is affixed, then when the call ends, Giuseppe sends the geolocation of the tree on whatsapp. In the middle there is a chat, which often ends up being touching: «I left to have trees adopted, but it is I who am adopting people's stories. I was impressed by the story of a professor who said he wanted to support this initiative, because it was made by young boys like his nephew who unfortunately is gone. There are those who called the Hope tree, hope, those who chose the name Futuro and it was a grandfather who gave the pomegranate to his grandson who is fighting an illness and for whom he dreams of a fruitful and painless future .

Also through social media, whatsapp and video calls, Giuseppe keeps up to date all those who have adopted trees on how it is going, waiting for the harvest to take place in October-November. What better time than the feast of the dead, which is very much felt in the Foggia area? We eat the grain of the dead, which is a sweet that promises fruitfulness and contains precisely cooked wheat, pomegranate seeds, walnuts, held together by the vincotto. In a village in the Dauno Sub-Apennine, in Orsara, every year on November 1st the involving manifestation of Fucacoste takes place, the bonfire of the heads of Purgatory, which is thought to be at the origin of Halloween.

"I undertake to send a box of pomegranates throughout Italy to all those who have adopted, making them watch the harvest from their tree, which will be at least in video call, but it would be nice if they could come in person to gather them with me, to live the feast of the dead here in Foggia and to eat together the wheat of the dead among the adopted trees and the field of pumpkins that I am about to plant .

World Bee Day – Bees in danger: adopt them! – Italian Cuisine

The alarm was raised a decade ago when the sudden and inexplicable depopulation of entire countries began to be noticed in many countries. bee colonies. And with the United Nations World Bee Day we rightly talk about it again.

Between 2007 and 2014, there has been a 30% drop in the number of insects in the hives worldwide and is a trend that has not diminished in recent years.

Now according to United Nations data, it is estimated that over 30 years their world population has shrunk by 70%. While in Italy 200,000 hives have been lost in 5 years. And in Europe 1 out of 3 bee species is endangered 1.

This phenomenon directly worries him beekeepers that produce the honey and, with them, the whole food production chain, since 70% of the plants existing on earth depend on the pollination of bees. To give an example of how much it can affect economically, just think that, in certain areas, the production of coffee has decreased by 50%.

The projections for the next decade speak of alarming hypotheses.

The dangers for bees

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) almost 10% of European wild pollinators are at risk of extinction.

Many factors contribute to endangering bees worldwide: the rarefaction of biodiversity and intensive monocultures, the illnesses infectious and bacterial, fungal diseases, i parasites, like the fearsome varroa destructor, which acts directly on the hive, i predators and, last but not least, poisoning from pesticides and agricultural treatments.

Within this scenario there are many activities to preserve these precious insects. From the choices in environmental policies: the European Union since 2018 banned the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which were decimating European hives. To private initiatives to raise awareness and safeguard the beekeeping heritage.

A thousand bees adopted for each year of the company's life is the idea of Monini, producer of Spoleto extra virgin olive oil. The project is part of the "2020 – 2030 Sustainability Plan": for its centenary, Monini is giving "family" to 100,000 bees from the Milanese hinterland, thanks to the collaboration with the Terrafiena organic farm in Carugate.

For example Meleto Castle, in the heart of Chianti, launches the Nel nome project
Bee. The goal is to triple the presence of bees through the time-controlled system of its biological hives. Whoever becomes the custodian of an apiary, will take care of it remotely and will be involved in the growth step by step. On each hive taken in custody with a donation of 350 euros, those who have adopted will have their name affixed to the cottage and will receive 1 kg of honey per year, for 5 years of foster care.

Actimel, simultaneously with the release of its new 100% Italian honey probiotic, has adopted an apiary supporting more than 180,000 Italian bees together with 3Bee, an agri-tech startup that develops intelligent monitoring and diagnostics systems for the
bee welfare. And it launches the consumer awareness initiative, inviting them to support and expand the 100% Italian Actimel apiary, adopting hives or planting flowers at home.

Barbara Roncarolo
May 2020
credits photo: PollyDot