What if I told you that we did actually not have a project to end up up here? What if I told you that I was brought up as a town girl, and to be a political scientist (whatever that means…)? What if I told you that until my thirties I was not very good at cooking and doing stuff with my hands in general? Probably you would not believe me, as many people don’t. But that’s the truth.
Hi, my name is Vea, I am Italian and I live in an alpine smallholding called Mas del Saro with my family. It’s me, my husband Renzo (the man with the big grey beard), Pietro, Viola and Sole (my kids, aged 17, 15,12).
Our smallholding is called a maso. Maso is the italian word that indicates specifically a mountain farm in the Alps. The maso are (and have been for centuries) isolated mountain farms, where self sufficiency was the only way to survive extreme conditions (long winters, poor soil, isolation).
These farms have been self sufficient for centuries, and in our area (the area of the Dolomites) they still exists in quite large scale. Obviously, conditions today are very different: we have warm, cozy homes, we have cars to reach the next village, we can grocery what we do not produce ourselves. But the idea is still the original one: producing as much as possible in a small scale, in a small piece of (hard) land, mostly with no machinery.
I was born in Tuscany, very close to the sea, and moved up here 20 years ago, following love and heart. My husband Renzo was born here in among these high peaks, and I decided to leave warm and relaxing Tuscany to follow him up here.
Very soon after I moved up in the north of Italy, we bought this secluded, abandoned mountain house. We had no idea that that was the first day of our new life.
We bought this house because it was cheap (now it’s quite fashionable in Italy to dream this kind of life, but nobody at the time wanted to live so isolated) and because we loved hiking and trekking and skiing in our free time…but that was all. Never dreamt to be a mountain farmer or breeder or cook…
The house literally got us. This is what we think happened.
The farm building was built in 1876 and then abandoned in the 70es, when a lot of people here gave up farming (or at least the old way of farming).
What we think is that Mas del Saro was waiting for us to bring it back to its origins…and this is what happened in the last 15 years.
Living here has changed us, slowly but relentlessly. When I turned 30, I realized I was not happy with my office job, I was not happy about how I was mothering, I was not following my path (even if I still did not know what my path was). I just felt that I wanted to be more at home, I wanted to put my hands in the soil, grow some of my food, see my kids dirty and happy and wild…so I started baking sourdough bread. And that’s when it all started.
Baking my bread made me realize “I could do it”, I could use my hands to make something delicious and healthy for my family. And this “bread teraphy” was the first step to many other changes. I started to see that the house wanted to be a maso again. And I definetly wanted that to happen.
Today we have a real “maso”, with a small vegetable garden, a bit of fruit trees, a lower field for corn and potatoes and some other fruit, we have bees for honey, hens for eggs and sheeps for wool.
Four years ago we realized we were producing exceding food: it was too much for us, but still we had to put a lot of work in it. And we realized that we could share this beautiful, healthy and local food with others. That’s how our farm-to-table restaurant was started in 2016. We can host just up to 20 people on 5 tables, I am the cook and my husband and kids help serving. It’s very familiar and cozy. We offer a tasting menu, that changes with the season, depending on what we produce at the farm. What we do not personally produce, we buy here in our surroundings.
Our kids are now teens and get to help a lot at the farm. They all study in town (the oldest, Pietro, is currently studying in Ireland for one year), but the bondings with their mountains are in their blood. You can see that they need to be at the farm, and they miss it when they have to stay away too long.
I imagine that many of you have small kids, and maybe sometimes you are asking yourselves if this is the right choice for them. You hear comments about them being isolated, strange, different, about them wanting to run away as soon as they can…I listened to those comments too in the past, and I had my days, when I had so many doubts. It was not always easy. But today I can see the outcomes of our choices: they are autonomous, responsible kids, with so many more skills than the average Italian kid. They can literally make things out of nothing, they can carve wood, spin wool, cook, lit a fire, move safely in nature, walk long distances, climb…all these skills make them really self-confident teens. And you know how it is important to be self confident at that age.
So no regrets at all. And I can say loudly that it’s never too late to understand what your path is. Just listen to yourself and trust your feelings!
I began my homesteading journey from the perspective of a Nutritional Therapist, closet herbalist, and beekeeper. This mentally gave me a few barriers to diving into the conventionally accepted tools for animal health such as antibiotics, injectable vitamins, generic minerals and mass produced bagged feeds…
I am not well traveled. I’ve never flown on a plane. I’ve never been north of Ohio or west of Texas.I’m not as well traveled as some may say one should be, but this piece of land has housed all of my fondest memories…
Do you ever worry that your kids will miss out because of this homesteading lifestyle choice? This fear crosses my mind time to time. I’m sure many, if not most of you, could agree that it can be extremely difficult to get extended time away from the homestead for more than a full day, especially in the busy summer months when daily chores demand our regular attention…
“In some Native languages the term for plants translates to ‘those who take care of us’ … the land knows you, even when you are lost.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass…
Babies, Business, and Bumper Crops: How I am Learning to Homestead with Babies in Tow
Have you ever had one of those days? You know the days when you are cleaning the baby’s diaper, milking the cow, scooping poop in the barn, wiping noses, and cleaning more poop off of kids’ shoes…
One year ago, I resolved that I would learn to make all of the bread products my family needed. With an ever-shrinking bank account battling current inflation prices, I would walk the aisles of our local markets frustrated that I did not possess the skills required to make most of the things I needed to purchase…
Hey there, Homesteading Mama’s!
I’m Rachel from @frontier_homesteading. My husband Ryan, three children and I have been homesteading for about 10 years now, first in Wyoming and now in Alaska.
We currently have milk goats, pack goats, sheep, a pig, a cow, chickens, rabbits, bees and a dog. Seasonally, we also have more pigs, meat chickens and turkeys….
Stained glass windows date back to the 7th century. With the earliest known reference dating
from 675 AD when workmen were imported from France to Britain to Glaze the windows of a
monastery…
Homesteading and growing food is not the easy way out of this life, i would say it is the hard way as there’s nothing convenient about it. It’s a lifestyle, a life change not a trend or hobby. Well, that’s my opinion any way…
