Terra Madre, regeneration through farming.
I’m looking at the blinking black line on this white page trying to frame sentences in my head about the experience of working on a farm. Physically, I can feel the pain in my arms and legs, like the next day after a hit workout. It’s a sweet pain. It’s a pain that gives you satisfaction. People who go to the gym might relate; physically.
Here I am tucked away in this small town in a corner of the world, in silent Cilento. This summer I have had the privilege to cook with some remarkable produce, from this Mediterranean region. From fresh vegetables, cereals, and grains to seafood. In these past 3 months, I have gone to the market to pick it up fresh on farmers’ day, I have directly come to the farm to pick up the produce kept aside for us. But I never woke up at 6 am to start milking the animals, feeding them, taking them to graze, and later, even witnessing cheese making from that morning milk. Walking under the high afternoon sun to hand pluck tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, aubergines, and bell peppers filling up crates of them. Those same crates that used to arrive in the kitchen receiving area.
It is exactly like Alfredo the guy I was working with told me, “So now you completed the circle, you're full". Yes, I am. So full does my heart feel that I understand better the meaning of the word 'content’. It's not that feeling when you're very hungry and you've been given a full plate of food to fill your stomach, satisfactory was too meager a word to describe this feeling. It is that inexplicable feeling of happiness at the end of the day when you're washing away the sweat and dirt from your body, you then sit down to reflect on your day and all you feel is contentment.
As I plucked the last of the tomatoes and the aubergines of this season, I couldn’t help but think of a happier place to be. I was at the precipice of the next crop rotation. Finishing up the last harvest of the vegetables of this season, inspecting the newly sown seeds of the autumn-winter season: fennel, cauliflower, broccoli, and salad leaves- winter is all about those leafy greens and summer those bright-colored vegetables. I was in a new territory, food yes but a city-born and bought-up girl I knew nothing about farm life, but it felt like home, fitting in, from the farm animals to the mean machines on the farm.
When I started here three months back, I was on the verge of a probable breakdown. I had not stopped working, I was finishing my studies while working, then moving to another city, and going to India for a few weeks what I thought was a break turned out to be more stressful than it should have been. And I knew I had not slowed down for months at a stretch and it was really taking a toll on me. I never had worked like this before, I always made sure to take care of myself. I wanted to just stop and give up and go back home. But being here for these last 2 days has healed me. Physically I was working, I was on my feet from 6 am but mentally I couldn’t be in a more peaceful situation than this. I knew that Mother nature has its own way of regenerating you, but I thought you had to stay still, do absolutely nothing, relax, switch off from social media and sit with a book, but not really.
Regenerative agriculture is the most resilient way forward for the current climate crisis. Regenerative agriculture focuses on soil health and regeneration of the topsoil, letting that soil heal and improve, and getting ready to nurture the next crop. I was reading an article my friend recently shared about the need to regenerate ourselves, at first, it felt silly, like coming from a person who had the resources to take a break from work but, I was also reading 'Women who run with wolves' it talked about similar things and it started to make more sense. We, women, do need to regenerate ourselves like the soil to be able to receive more. But we are always running behind the next project and next client, forgetting ourselves and depriving our spirit. It is not easy to achieve all the things we want to, sometimes we need to change course. We neglect to hear the inner wolf voice that’s telling us to stop and realign our direction. We are nurturers and growers at the end of the day, this is our common connection with Mother Earth. I do envy Edmondo and the others for having this life every day, even though I understand it’s not an easy life for them.
For me, the last two days of work at the farm was the regeneration I needed. It put into perspective a few things for me, including an understanding of who I am. ‘Who are you without your work?’, is a necessary question you need to ask yourself. Grounded on that soil, on mother earth I understood the true meaning of what it meant to be content, joyful, caring, loving, sharing, kind, grateful, and humble.
Life is indeed a full circle.
Thank you to Luigia, Simona, and Edmondo Soffriti and to every single person at the La Petrosa farm for welcoming me and making me a part of your family and for teaching me and sharing your knowledge. I shall remain forever in debt to each of you. Thank you to Future Food Institute for making this happen.
Grazie Mille.











