Preparation for the Foundation’s agricultural activities started several months ago.

In September 2018, with a follow-up in October, we held events exploring traditional agricultural practices at a vegetable garden and nursery in Rome, precursors of the agricultural market activity to be held by CRA this year.

 

Our hosts were the Merlenghi family, the last (most likely) contadino family working within Roma. who grow the vegetables, plants and flowers following Roman agricultural practices handed down from many generations ago. Of course the ortaggi [vegetables] are excellent and delicious.

 

They showed how they practice their trade and allowed us to participate and experience first-hand soil cultivation, plant care and harvest. The event consisted of a full day of activities at the garden, commencing at 9 AM and ending at 6 PM with a pranzo contadino [farmer's lunch] -mostly open-pit pork and home-grown vegetables.

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Activities included:

- Guided tour of each of the different areas of the property - Orto, Vivaio, Fish pond, tree area, "natural" areas.

- help in the garden, harvesting, weeding, potting, repotting, seeding, other agricultural chores

- Help in the lunch service, cataloging and other event chores.

- Help in the fish ponds and garden, including feeding the fish and pruning the aquatic plants

- Practical lecture on growing and caring for vegetable and flower plants.

- Practical lecture on cooking and preserving vegetables and flowers

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In addition to the work and lunch, participants took home a Complimentary Goodies Bag: vegetables from the garden, as available – including those they helped harvest, such as cavalfiore, broccolo, broccolini, insalata, pomodori, melanzana, cetriolo, zucchini, zucca, fiori di zucca, meloni, patate, basilico.