We are back after a long absence on Chiara Garini’s farm at the foot of the Italian Alps. Seven years ago, Chiara and her partner started from scratch with a lot of dreams. Now they have a fully operational farm business. While proud of realising their vision, rather than resting on their laurels, they are now looking to sustain the necessary growth. Over to Chiara.
The past year has been very busy with farm development and I am glad I can finally take the time to tell you about it!
In summer 2024 the original plan for our agroecological farm was fully realised. We have two agroforestry systems producing every year shiitake mushrooms, aromatic herbs, annual vegetables and fruits without the use of any fertilisers or pesticides. The farm food lab is running where we transform most of our fresh products into artisanal jars and bottles. We have an online shop and last summer we opened the farm shop.
Opening the farm shop has been an important milestone as one of our early objectives was to make the agricultural fields accessible.
During the summer we organised three microfestivals to promote the farm shop where we offered a free tour of our forest garden, we hosted a small local crafts market, live music, aperitivo with local wines and our products and we also offered a whole meal made mainly with our mushrooms, herbs and vegetables. It was very emotional to see many people experiencing our farm and happily celebrating and supporting our visionary project.
Sustainable growth
Now that the season is off we are going around to markets and fairs in northern Italy to sell what is left of last year’s production. Right now I am writing from a (not so busy!) wellness fair.
We are proud of what we have built so far but there is not much time for basking. Now we have reached our initial objectives, we have already set new ones. Like any other business, in order to be sustainable, we have to plan for well-guided growth.
After establishing all the production in the research and development phase of the early years, we have now started to focus more on the marketing side as this is crucial to sustain the necessary growth.
Until now we have managed all the farm activities with only two full-time people, but it is clear that this is no longer enough. So from this season we are hiring a person that will take care of all the outdoor farming operations both in the forest garden and in the mushroom yard. We are aiming at hiring a worker also for the food lab, but for this year we will still take care of that part as we are economically growing but we also have to plan realistically!
Do I have to be economically stable before hiring people or do I have to invest in hiring workers in order to become economically stable? What I had always thought of as a dilemma I finally realised is normal decision-making for every business. We recently invested in an external financial advisor to help us in the budgeting process and it has been very helpful. Not having to rely only on our own skills but asking for professional support is something I would suggest to any newly established farmer.
Obviously every new investment or expense, such as hiring a new worker, needs to be sustained by increased income and ideally by more stable income.
Community supported agriculture
For this reason we recently launched a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme for our products. It is uncommon to see a CSA scheme for preserved products; they are usually established for the weekly supply of fresh vegetables.
However the principle of creating a community that durably supports ethical and ecological agriculture, with small adjustments, can apply to any products.
So we now offer a subscription scheme where people can have delivered to their home every 3 months a box with a mix of our jars and bottles. We offer a better price for people that subscribe for a whole year, as knowing in advance how many products are sold, and to who, is a great advantage for us.
CSAs are not very common in Italy but we are glad to have sown this seed as we believe this selling scheme has great potential. Moreover it offers great advantages to conscious consumers as it is a concrete way to be an active part of a community that wants healthier food production for the future.
Meanwhile we keep working on more conventional ways of selling: fairs and markets in the off-season months, also to promote our online shop; and planning new experiences with the local tourist office to attract people to our farm shop during the weekends from April to October.
For both of these activities we decided to collaborate with another external professional who is working on a complete rebranding of our farm as the visual identity is a crucial factor to successfully communicate the complexity of our project.
Finally we admitted to ourselves that we can be farmers, food designers, producers and sellers, but we cannot also be financial advisors and art directors!
Chiara Garini has beautifully chronicled her agroecological journey on these pages. Commendably, she and her partner have stayed true to their vision throughout. We invite you to dig into the archives below to discover how it all started seven years ago, and the many ups and downs long the way.
More from Chiara’s farm
Letter From The Farm | What worked from the 1st growing season?
Letter from a Farm – Ruminating on the First Two Years in Italy
Letter From The Farm | Three Years In: Realism And Planning For Utopia
Letter From The Farm | Cresting the Peaks of Constant Change
