Just outside Capua, there is frenetic activity at La Colombaia, a biodynamic farm with two souls. Joined by an umbilical cord, one is set in the valleys and hills, busy with the sustainable rearing of black pigs and Marche cattle, with Barone, the young bull, watching over the cows; the other, covering 100 hectares, slumbers down on the plains, producing cereals and winter vegetables exported all over the world: lettuces, cabbage, fennel, spinach, maize, chard, strawberries and pumpkins. “Our business began 30 years ago,” says Francesco, “through the inspiration of three siblings, Enrico, my mother Orsola and Pasquale.” Two souls but a single structure. “Our goal is not so much livestock rearing in terms of meat production, but rather the manure produced by animals that eat only our own produce, light years away from chemicals and pesticides.

Sixty hectares of green shimmering with a thousand shades. A corner of England in the Capua countryside. It looks like the home of the Windsors, but instead, tractors and workers are in operation on the farmstead. “Joe Sole,” says Nicola, “has been a multifunctional farm for 30 years. We work on agricultural crops, processing raw materials, running rural tourism activities, and producing electricity using photovoltaic systems. The largest of the latter, 1,000 kW, was installed on the agricultural greenhouses where nectarines are grown. This plant makes the company independent in terms of energy use.

“Our hens are free to follow the rhythms of nature, waking up with the sun and going to sleep at sunset.” Nothing like the intensive concentration camps where the life of hormone-stuffed hens is spent in a space the size of a shoe box with lights on at all times. Barbara and Pietro have an “extended” family: 3 children and 150 chickens. Leghorn, Fulva del Sannio, Cucula campana also known as “Cicirinella” and some Araucana with baby blue eggs: all living side by side in the pursuit of freedom and wellbeing. They scratch roots, herbs, insects and earthworms and 100% organic grains. The result? Very good eggs with qualitative and nutritional values that far exceed those on the market. Excellent eggs that testify to choices that prioritise life, human values, affections, and a love of the land.

Masseria del Sesto is both the vertical link be- tween grandparents and grandchildren and the horizontal link across a network of other local companies. Biodiversity and sustainability are the cardinal principles that inspire the work of Anna and Crescenzo, who witness daily how past values are even more important in a contemporary world driven by hyperproduction. “In a flattened and standardised market, authenticity is a value increasingly appreciated by conscious people.” Legumes such as the giant Lupine of Vairano and the Teano Chickpea (both Slow Food presidia), ancient grains, saffron, traditional native corn and ancient tomato of Pietravairano are all Masseria products.

Mimmo Barbiero, poet of the earth and passionate traveller, shares his thoughts under the hashtag #resistenzacontadina (#farmersresist). Cultured farmer and anthropologist, he switches easily between Italian and the local dialect, expresses revolutionary ideas such as the red energy of the Riccio tomato, an ancient nineteenth-century cultivar. Along with his naturalist brother Lino and his partner Jurate, a design engi- neer, he is the life and soul of La Sbecciatrice, an agricultural company that combines ancient family teachings and current tecniques to fortify the plant biodiversity of the Alto Casertano area. In addition to the Riccio tomato, they work with precious products such as lenzariello beans (cultivated in small plots of land known as “lenze”), curniciello or munaciello beans and chickpeas from the hills of Caiazzo. Preserves, creams and jams are the essence of a noble, tiring lifestyle choice, just as Mother Nature intended.

Welcome to Alife, a fortified city with imposing Roman walls that embrace the city for approximately 2 kilometres. Here, life is simple and precious like Antonietta Melillo’s onions. Antonietta herself is a great little woman with a strong spirit and a touch of genius. It all began when Aunt Mariannina, a kind soul with eighty-three springs under her belt, gave her some seeds for a variety of onion that had almost disappeared. The very same onion that Roman gladiators rubbed onto their bodies to tone their muscles and which it seems the Lombards used for bartering. Antonietta is the Alife onion lady; it is thanks to her that there is now a Slow Food Presidium dedicated to the Alife onion with its sweet, tasty, delicate and pleasant taste. In her workshop, she pickles them or creates the cream that tops the Memento, one of the most elaborate pizzas on the Pepe in Grani menu.

In Squille, Giuseppe Coscia is the master of the Caserta black pig, an ancient pig that dates back to Roman times. The family farm has been producing excellent cured meats and sausages for five generations, like Uncle Pascale shown in a photo from the 1950s along with Pachiacchione, a fine example of this type of pig. Ham, capocollo, guanciale, bacon, loin, salami and three special sausages are obtained from the Casertana breed pig: ‘a sasiccia, a’pezzente and c’a vufara. Passion, competence, and a love for his land and family traditions represent the values of Giuseppe, the company’s deus ex machina.