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https://www.positive.news/environment/black-tomatoes-and-white-aubergines-the-future-of-farming-is-quantum/>
"I am tucking into the first artichokes of the season, bathed in a pool of
olive oil, alongside a slice of polenta cake topped with the most delicious
strawberry jam I’ve ever tasted. Made from 15 different kinds of heirloom
strawberries and minimal sugar, the fruits are so sweet, they leave a lingering
intensity on the tongue.
We are crowded around a kitchen table on an Umbrian hillside at Quintosapore
farm in Italy, looking out over Città della Pieve. The scent of crushed juniper
and wild thyme clings to the air.
Twin brothers Alessandro and Nicola Giuggioli bustle about the property,
pointing out their 62-acre farm below, home to 1,500 varieties of fruit and
veg, including 140 types of chilli pepper and even edamame beans.
“We like breaking the rules,” Nicola tells me with a mischievous grin.
The Giuggiolis do farming a bit differently. An ex-actor and CEO respectively,
the twins turned ‘farmpreneurs’ just before the pandemic, transforming a piece
of depleted Italian countryside into a living laboratory. Now they run the farm
with their sister, sustainable fashion icon, Livia Firth.
The family-run estate challenges the central tenets of industrial agriculture,
growing fresh produce that is sustainable, oozing with favour and, crucially,
serves the whole community.
The farm’s origin is a lockdown pivot story. When the worst drought in Umbrian
history hit in 2022 and temperatures soared to 45°C, the twins noticed that
while crops in neighbouring fields shrivelled, around 30% of their plants were
thriving.
They decided to save the seeds from these drought-surviving individual plants,
beginning a process of natural selection. Unlike lab-driven GMOs, these are
crops with biological memory – a result of biomimicry: drawing inspiration from
nature’s efficiency rather than overriding it with chemical intervention.
Two particularly resilient species are their prized black tomatoes and white
aubergines – niche heirloom varieties that are virtually non-existent in
European supermarkets.
This regenerative journey relies on core principles: no pesticides, no tilling,
and replacing synthetic fertiliser with biological intelligence – what they
call their “dynamic toolbox”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
