Manuela Vestri
I am a registered farmer, keeper of ancient grains in the region of Tuscany. My farm Vestri is in the province of Arezzo, and we grow ancient durum wheat from the Senatore Cappelli family. We are trying to make flour and pasta from this wheat as naturally as possible.
My family has always cultivated in an organic way even though they never looked for an organic certification, they simply believed in the practice of respecting the Earth. I am a third generation farmer, and after meeting Shumei in 2014 I decided to convert to Natural Agriculture completely. My relationship with the Earth has become deeper and more intense.
After we harvest the grain we use a sifter to select seeds for the next crop, a tool that my grandparents used. We then make stone-ground flour in a small mill on the slopes of Mount Amiata where the microclimate of the area allows us to keep the grain without having to use artificially cooled containers, and the grinding is done with a local peperino stone, which imparts a special fragrance to the flour. Grinding is done a little at a time so that the flour in the final product is no more than two months old. This allows us to always provide a high-quality product, and especially fresh.
With whole wheat flour we make tagliatelle and other pasta, produced in two artisanal pasta factories. Both of them work with ancient grains and dry the pasta slowly at least for 37 hours.