Assay it's a crushed turnip tops and Cerignola broccoli. IS natural is biological. Seen from the outside, it could seem like one of the many delicacies that feed the shelves of Made in Italy, but the label – yellow with green and fuchsia writing – betrays a certain originality. In fact, going backwards to the beginning of its supply chain, it turns out that Assay's is the story of a food for which what matters is not just the taste or the packaging, but also who produces it and how. Essential aspects, of which today we are perhaps losing awareness.

A "new" crushed broccoli and turnip tops

The ingredients I'm essential. No dyes, emulsifiers or preservatives, but only organic turnip tops and broccoli, extra virgin olive oil, olive oil, onions, garlic, chilli and salt. The recipe is equally simple, designed to enhance the flavors of Apulian tradition. On the site, where you can also buy it, it is recommended to taste it as garnish for canapés and bruschetta, perhaps accompanied by another couple of regional specialties, such as seasoned caciocavallo and a glass of Negramaro. Good assay! But there is more.

A transparent Apulian product, from all points of view

Who eats Assay, knows what it is made of: the label is clear. But, if you wish, you might even know what they are the farms that have decided to do business in a way different in the territory of the Capitanata, in the province of Foggia. IS the faces of the people who worked the land, planted the seeds and harvested the fruits. They are Yusuf, Mounir, Paap, Hussein, Ibrahim, Matthew, Guebre, Abdoulaye and Mamadou. They come from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo and have experienced the tragedy of illegal hiring and illegal work.

Caporalato, the new scourge of agriculture

Most of them lived in the ghetto of Borgo Tre Titoli, one of the many that swarm in the countryside of the Foggia area. Here thousands of foreign laborers they live in shacks or makeshift shelters, without water or light. In peak periods they also work 16 and more hours a day. I'm paid on piecework: For tomatoes, for example, we talk about 3.50 euros for each three-ton container. A misery. To decide under which conditions and in which field they are sorted are i "Corporals", people who mediate between the demand and the job offer. In some areas of Italy today, unfortunately often, this is how it works, as demonstrated by several investigations including those of the journalist Stefano Liberti and Fabio Ciconte, director of the environmental association. Land! Onlus.

"IN THE FIELD! Without corporal ”, the project of Land! Onlus

The nine boys could have gone the way of their many friends and compatriots, but thanks to the project “IN CAMPO! Without corporal ", own of Land! Onlus, have produced Assay. From the ghettos they were moved to a house in the center of Cerignola. Under the guidance of Pio Bufano, consultant to numerous farms of the Capitanata, the nine participants carried out 150 hours of theory and practice in partner companies. In the same period they followed a Italian language course. In this learning path they have been employers are also involved. None of them, in fact, produced broccoli. Today, however, they can boast of new skills.

Cultivating rights for "clean" agriculture

As Giulia A. Bari, responsible for the pilot project, explains, the value of the operation is enclosed "in simple but effective transmission of technical and practical lessons that gave both farmers and workers the opportunity to improve and increase their knowledge. All aimed at reconstructing the supply chains not only agricultural, but also working, that work in a clean manner, as indeed it should be .

Assay, in the name a taste of something good

In addition to having cultivated vegetables, boys and peasants also took care of the communication and marketing of the jar of broccoli and turnip tops. Led by a marketing expert, 15 people from six different countries gathered in taste the product with bread, rice and pasta, but in the end the group decided that the bruschetta was the winning combination. The name, instead, was born from a error writing in a chat. Since one of them wrote assay instead of very, the word has become an adjective for everything: "I worked assay", "It's hot assay", "I'm tired assay". Coincidentally, in English, "assay" means taste. When it came to deciding how to call the new product, there were not many doubts. However, as we eat Assay, we do not taste only an Apulian delicacy, but we are also wise a different way of conceiving and doing agriculture, biological and above all ethical.