Farming

Historically, the Reschio Estate had been farmed by hand along terraces immediately surrounding the fifty farmhouses. Tobacco was cultivated, some food crops, olive groves and, mulberry trees to feed the silk worms resident in the castle and a few head of cattle. When the land was abandoned in the late 1970’s, it was left fallow until the Bolza family acquired the Estate in 1994. It was important that the agriculture chosen reflected the family’s ethos of conserving and preserving the land, letting progress evolve in an organic way and always in ways that would complete the circle. Nearly three decades on, we grow all the grain required for the horses’ feed, sufficient hay for their, and our chickens’ needs. The vines and olive groves are managed efficiently and we make and bottle wines for our own Estate label as well as for some of our House owners. We grow wheat which is taken to a nearby water mill and the flour returned in great sacks for use in Reschio’s restaurant kitchens. It is important to us to reduce the food kilometres, growing ingredients and buying from our near neighbours. It tastes better and just makes better sense

Crops

It was an enormous sense of pride the first year we closed the circle on our organic wheat crop. Fertilising the soil with our compost and animal manure, the stalks after harvest are used as bedding for the chickens. Some grain is held back as animal feed, with the remainder ground in an ancient stone water mill nearby. The flour is returned to Reschio in paper sacks, transformed by our chefs into cakes, bread and pasta

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Chickens & eggs

With more than fifty free range chickens at Reschio, their eggs with rich yellow yokes are in great demand in the Reschio kitchens.

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Olive Trees & Olive Oil

There are more 15 hectares of centuries-old olive groves as well as a couple of hectares of newly planted olive trees. Approximately 1,000 litres of extra virgin olive oil is produced annually, depending upon the vagaries of the weather

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Corn

Fifteen hectares of fields are cultivated with wheat, barley, sunflowers, flax and chickpeas grown in rotation. Reschio also supports local farmers, providing some 80 hectares of irrigated fields for their own crop rotation and we encourage our neighbours to grow vegetables that can be purchased by Reschio for consumption in the restaurants

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Vineyards - Wine

Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grechetto Trobbiano grapes are grown on the Estate producing Red and Rosé wines under the exclusive Reschio label. In addition, wines are made for some of the Reschio House Owners, under their own labels for private consumption

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Lineseed

Linseed or common flax with its pretty blue flowers and bell-like seed pods was widely cultivated for tens of centuries in Ethiopia and in Egypt. The pale yellowish linseed oil has the highest source of omega-3 fatty acid in vegetable oils and is in demand as a nutritional supplement. Reschio has been growing linseed biodynamically for several years and this year will be cold pressing the seed to produce this beneficial oil.

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Honey Bees & Reschio Honey

More then 2 million bees in forty hives benefit from the pure unpolluted air at Reschio. They reward the keepers with incredible honey that tastes of the thousands of meadow flowers the bees frequent

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Farming The Land

Agriculture is essential for feeding animals and humans, but it can be employed sensitively, ensuring that the land is fed and restored. It is for this reason that crops are rotated and our composting has become such a massive undertaking, dug into the soil throughout the Estate. As Reschio has such a variety of weather within its 1500 hectares, we have three weather stations feeding back information to enable us to work with nature to benefit fields in the fertile valley and ensure treatments carried out to the vines are done at the optimum time

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Sunflowers - Sunflower Seeds

Evocative of hot summer days, fields of sunflowers track the sun as it moves through the sky. Producing edible seeds and oil they are not just an excellent food source, but their roots too, are essential in de-toxing the earth

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Orto - Kitchen Garden

The sheer joy of meadering through our kitchen garden with its abundance of colour and texture, must have a health benefit. Many of the varieties grown are historic or unusual providing seeds that are replanted in subsequent years Flowers, herbs and vegetables are mixed together, each benefitting the other and when they fruit, our chefs are seen amongst the foliage choosing the tastiest produce for their seasonal recipes

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