This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Cesare Manerba has got a law degree and after twenty years spent as a sales account for pharmaceutical companies, he decided to open a farm in 2010. He mainly focused on saffron cultivation in Mornico, a traditional place where that very plant has been present for years along with vines and assorted vegetables. Cesare now offers his pure saffron (Crocus sativus) in organically grown pistils, naturally dried and then grounded on the spot for each customer.

His production reaches almost 1 kilo, using 160.000 flowers – it takes approximately one hour to pick up 1.000 of them, with a density of 60-80 bulbs per 10 square feet.

In three years, bulbs usually double their number, therefore they have to be removed from the ground, and replanted in the same place only after one to two years. This is usually done at the end of August and by the first days of October, they start blooming again.
Flowers are hand-picked early in the morning and collected in wicker baskets. Right after that, pistils come off and they’re dried on steel mats placed on extinguished hot embers for 10 minutes. The whole procedure takes place every ten days.

Cesare Malerba sells directly to his customers, in Frazione Losana; he also supplies restaurants, farmhouses, groceries, bakeries, markets and festivals.

This farm also produces organically grown vegetables, including spinach, arugula, herbs, a particular variety of red mountain garlic, and especially Jerusalem artichokes.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)