Podere 101
Country of origin: Italy
Contact person: Caterina Lenzi
E-mail: info@podere101.com
Website: www.podere101.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/podere101
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/podere101/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@podere101
Podere 101 is a young agricultural company born from the desire to do something concrete to contrast climate change, protecting and enriching the biodiversity of the territory, with an agroecological approach compared to traditional agriculture (Fig.1).
In the Bologna countryside, by applying low environmental impact methods, we practice beekeeping, we raise laying hens with movable chicken coops in rotation on pastures, and we cultivate a vegetable garden and orchards according to regenerative agriculture (Fig. 2). To enrich the ecosystem and protect plants from extreme climatic events, agricultural areas have been redesigned through agroforestry by planting around 1,000 trees and shrubs each year.
Honey is the main product of the company: each year five or six types of monofloral and polyfloral honey are harvested from the spontaneous plants in the hills around Bologna and presented in our product portfolio. Migratory beekeeping is not practiced. This production choice is accompanied by a commitment to a cultural transformation in favor of recognizing the prestige of the specific “terroir” of each honey. The names on the labels of the wildflower honeys produced, differ from each other and refer to the various production areas located along the Bolognese territory. Each honey is thus given its own identity, capable of telling the peculiarities of the floral landscape in which it was born. This process was accompanied by a strong graphic and communication strategy around the product (Fig. 3).
Our small farm exhibited its vision of sustainable development at the ADI Design Museum in Milan in the exhibition ‘ITALY. A new collective landscape’. We also applied for European funding for young farmers, with the aim of implementing and improving our reality and we occasionally apply to subsidies for beekeeping equipment. However, we mostly focus on in-house or local events, we always rely on help also from our local community and people who share our own values: we keep them informed and we offer them the possibility to actively participate in our development through their labour. This participation on the field, is building a strong link as everyone can feel as a member of our team!
To achieve this, we can suggest to focus on communication. In a world overloaded with information, only transparent and valuable (meaning also containing ‘our values’) communication will set us apart. Honey should never be undersold, it is such a precious product and through good storytelling these values can be transmitted to the final customer, who will understand and appreciate it.
FIG1.: Tommaso (agronomist) and Caterina (graphic designer) are the founders of Podere 101.
FIG.2: Movable chicken coops, rotating on pastures, are not only adding a product (eggs) to P101 basket: through the natural behaviour of hens, they are enriching the soil, promoting plant diversity and controlling insect population.
FIG.3: The different honeys are labelled according to their apiary of origin, to strongly link them with a peculiar environment. During ‘open days’ organized at the farm, people are offered with a tasting session and are informed about quality honey production and the specific sensory profile of each honey.
