Thursday, December 14, 2017

Hommage à la France et à ses parfumes






En effet, la France représente la mère des toutes les nations pour la production de parfumes. J’ai vu que ce blog a en effet été beaucoup visité aussi par mes amis, les Français. En plus, moi j’habite en Piedmont et donc les liaisons entre ma région et la France ont toujours été très étroites, même si pas toujours amicales, mais cela c’est du passé.



Revenant aux parfumes, si on lit par exemple le livre l’Herbier de Marie Antoinette (Edition Flammarion) par Elisabeth de Feydeau on peut aisément voir la passion que toujours encore est vivante autour du monde des parfumes dans la terre du Roi Soleil. Dans cet ouvrage on parle avec doucisse de cette Reine Autrichienne à travers de l’amour que elle avait pour les fleurs, qu’on appelle son « ultime refuge »






Et pour moi les fleures, leur beauté, leurs parfumes sont - eux aussi - mon "ultime refuge" au temps de la vitesse et de la vie sans cesse, du stress et du internet.



C’est pour moi l’endroit où je revoie mes grands-parents et ou je me vois déjà « accroupie » par les ans qui vont passer, inexorables.



Par les parfumes on partage les passions, les plus belles: celles dans la vie et celles dans la famille et ça c’est le plus grand cadeau qu’on puisse avoir ; moi je partage avec ma femme (elle bien très liée au monde du parfume par ces ancêtres du temps jadis)  et j’aime penser de partager tout ça à mon tour à qui viendra.



Et encore en revenant à la grande culture française, mes paroles en effet tout simplement ne font autre chose que voler les pénibles soupirs du Poète, que seulement maintenant complètement je comprends … « Vivez, si m’en croyez, n’attendez à demain: cueillez dès aujourd’hui les roses de la vie ! ».

Voilà ses vers...






 


Works Winter 2017

I know, officialy winter starts on 21st December, but this year it seems that it anticipated a little, considering that already snowed two times and temperatures are constantly under 0.
Notwithstanding the cold we went on planting our new projects: roses of damask (cultivar Ispahan and Kazanlik) and Narcisis for parfumes. 
Bottom 4 pictures: preparing the fields for Narcis plantation removing the snow. All by hand!


Bottom: here the field ready for the Narcis:





Bio Certification

Considering the increasing request of bio products and considering that we are already working in a total natural way, our next step was to start the procedure to obtain the bio certification.
We started all the procedure and we got the first statement that we started this. Please pay attention to the fact that STILL we don't have officially this certification, but just the document we post here.

 

Works Autumn 2017

After a little break for holydays we went back to our cultivation. Actually the month of September is usually a very hard and important one. We have to dig out the roots and split them, dry the roots and prepare the products. 

In the meanwhile we went on with the plantation till up to 15.500 new iris roots (end October 2017) of Iris Germanica, Iris Pallida (the most), Iris Florentina, and some specific Hybrids like "Big Squeeze" (Black) and "Ruffled Godness" (Rose colour) (from a top French supplier).


As it is clear in the top picture we also decide to modify our system of displaying the foil. This new system actually provides a lot of saving in time and in foil. The idea is also to obtain a faster way - in 3/4 years - to dig out the roots.

Top: the 1 year iris cultivation and the new plantation

Top: the new cultivation with old and new system of displaying the foils

Bottom: some pictures taken in a wonderful day of October 2017, at sunset. The (almost) total amount of new iris is visible in the photos

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Top & Bottom: it's possible to see also all the protection in wood to defend the cultivation from bomb of water. Alongside the squares deep ditches were dug to collect the water and avoid damages to the flowers
 

Monday, September 11, 2017

Works August 2017

After all the problems we had, we finally managed to do all the works on the fields in August. It was a really hard work and we focused also to a some kind of aesthetical impact of the fields (even though some of our concurrents disagree on this mania for the beauty, and just focus on the gains).
Acutally, we do think that the nature and the beauty must go together in a perfect (or almost perfect) cooperation. 
So we will go on with this way of working, notwithstanding the critics we receive.

In these pictures (top and bottom) you can see in the foreground the iris planted in 2016 and in the background the new iris we mangaed to plant this year (2017)
The total amount of iris we achieved to plant in August 2017 is around 5.500/6.000 flowers.
This brings the total planted flowers in this field to a total of  around 11.000 flowers.
We focused above all to plant "Iris Pallida" in huge amount from our own cultivation; we also added some "Iris Germanica" .

And finally a picture (bottom) where the Celtic gods of the storm decided to visit our lands.

Monday, July 31, 2017

Iris Pallida 2017

July 2017 finally came. And finally we had to start the new production of Iris. Actually we have quite an amount of Iris Germanica but the market seems not to like this kind of iris, even though we do believe that their quality is great.

We started to dig out the iris pallida we had: we thought to have just few numbers, but actually we acheved a huge amount. In the picture one of the first harvest
We proceeded than to split them and to prepare the new fields. The land became very hard and after we repaired the disaster of the flood a new little flood invested the land again (!) and we had to repair again.


 Bottom: these are the fields at the beginning. A hard work was expecting us!

At the end we were able to plant this week end the first 2 squares of iris pallida.
After planting we water them all! We do have 2 wells very usefull for this purpose: the water is absolutely pure and fresh.


Monday, July 10, 2017

A dam protecting the flowers from the flood.

I know that the oldies were telling me that a "bomba d'acqua"  (water bomb) like that of the past June happens once every 40 years, but I am wondering if I was so unlucky or simply it happens much more often.

I also have my personal idea: the rockets the cultivators of vineyards are usually shooting  towards the clouds to protect the their vineyards increase the gathering of the clouds on the sites not protected and hence increase the danger of a flood.

So I didn't trust their opinion and as usual I thought something out-of-normal to protect our flowers. Considering that the flood follows the inclination of the hill, I thought to protect the squares on the top through a dam in wood, around 20 cm inside the field and 20 cm outside.

So firstly I dug the fields (by hand!) to prepare a furrow about 20 cm deep (top)
 
 Then I added the foil to protect the wood (top)

 And finally I put the desks inside, stepping on every edge. They are really steady and ready to resist - I hope not - another flood

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

July 2017: Repairing the damages from the flood & cleaning the flowers

In the middle of the month of June 2017 a sudden "bomba d'acqua" (i.e. "water bomb) fell down -in the real sense - just on few villages of the zone: Magliano Alfieri, Castagnito and Govone, flooding our cultivation.
To be sincere, the long roots of the iris together with the foil held the fields quite good, even though a lot of land was carried away.
To make things worse, after the flood came "Caronte", i.e. the nickname given to the out-of-average heat that shocked fields and persons with temperatures  over 35° C.

The results were that the land became like stone, with little canyons running under the foils. The farmers of the zone that came to see it were a little bit worried how we could fix all. 
Well, it's very easy: will, force, work, labour and again will force, work etc. untill all it's ok.

Top: after removing the foil, this was the situation: little hard canyons!
Bottom: with hard work of hand the ground was all hoed by hand
After thal the foil was positioned as it was
Picture bottom: these are the fields with all the iris totally cleaned by hand. Hard work, but worthy!

Friday, May 19, 2017

Iris "Black Suited" blossoming 19.05.2017

The "Black Primadonna" (I like this nickname) aka "Black Suited" is going on with her blossoming.
Now a second flower (just underneath the top one) blossomed. I had to repair the flower today because of the very bad weather.



Thursday, May 18, 2017

Colours of the fields of iris - Year 2017

The beauty of the blossoming iris is a real spectale: in the foreground the iris germanica are visible, while on the background the later blossoming iris pallide are 





 Bottom: iris pallida
 Iris florentina; bottom





Iris "Black Suited" blossomed 17.5.2017

Finally. It was time. With another good news, this morning I woke up and the "primadonna" was openiong her beauty to the world. (well I like to think in this way)
The petals are intense black, with a silk flavour and a really piercing scent.
I have to admit: she is a real "primadonna"
Just have a look and you'll tell me



Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Iris "Black Suited" - 2017

I bought last year from "Vivaio degli Innocenti" in Florence this fantastic (very) black Iris, called "Black Suited". I was really serarching for a (very) black Iris and knowing the proficiency of this producer I bought 3 flowers, with the (crazy) intention to multiply them till to have 500/600 Black Suited Iris (at the moment I still have 3!).
What touches me of this flower is its colour and above all the appereance like silk of its petals. I also have to admit that I am waiting alreade 2 weeks for the first flower to blossom, but till now, no way. It's really a lazy iris, or - like a real primadonna - it's simply waiting for all the others fade to start to show off its class and charme. Let's see.

Barbaresco's fields ready for harvest 2017

Time flies. It's true. We planted these iris in 2014 with enthusiasm and a lot of hope. Now 3 years have already passed and our iris grew a lot.
I have to admit they are and look really great and sometimes I am sorry I cannot reproduce their beauty with pictures.
The blossoming this year came a little bit early and the Iris Germanica lasted quite few time, as usual. At the contrary the other colors are lasting all this month.
 The quantity and quality of the Iris Pallida is really astonishing and the scent that these 6.000 iris provide is something really unique.
 On the other hand we also obtained a good amount of Iris florentina (bottom) with its fantastic white and pure color.
The long and parfumed rows of Iris Pallida provide a spendid glance.



We have now to wait for 6/8 weeks before harvest. Very curious to see the quality of the roots!