FIOR DI MANDORLO
In Marineo, there will also be space for a small almond processing mill. “Today, in Western Sicily it is difficult to find a place where to mill these seeds, while in the past there were proper almond mills. And you only need little equipment: a shelling machine and a grinding machine, to make flour or granules. You don’t even need much space,” explains Simona. She turned 40 in September 2020. With her husband, who is five years older, she bought the land in Marineo four years ago. “We wanted to move there by the time I was forty. We are slightly behind schedule, but now the project is ready to go. Meanwhile, in the summer of 2020, we started reclaiming the land, because it was in a state of total abandonment.”
Abandonment
Simona and Giuseppe invested about € 65 thousand in the purchase of the land in Marineo. The history of the property is indicative of what happens in rural areas all over Italy. “We bought the land from five cousins, who were the heirs of two sisters; people who live in the city and didn’t even know they owned that land. They’ve probably never been here and don’t even know where it is. Maybe they’ve seen it on the land registry maps. They found out they owned it because they were called by a court. Their two neighbours claimed rights on that land, both believing they were the owners, and so they sued each other. During the court proceedings, the names of the real owners emerged. It didn’t make much financial sense for them to divide the land, the neighbours didn’t want to buy it and so we came along” says Simona.
Simona and Giuseppe will also build a straw house for them to live in. It will be the first one of its kind in western Sicily. The engineer whom they entrusted with the task of designing the house is Chiara Brigatti, who took part in ReStartAlp 2018 and started in Valtellina EcoHub Design (here is her story on Storie di giovani imprese). “Chiara came here in October 2020. Initially, I wanted to build a wooden house, because I’m in love with the ones I’ve seen in Trentino, but I realised that they are not suitable for Sicilian summer temperatures. During my placement on the course, however, I was lucky to learn about the experience of cooperative Cooperativa Valli Unite (Editor’s Note: an organic farm and educational farm in the Tortona hills, in Piedmont) and the straw house they use to host their young Wwoofer volunteers. I asked them to tell me about it and realised that the use of straw as an insulator and the raw earth rendering are perfect for a context like that of Marineo. Yet another unique element to be explained to and discovered by the children who will visit our educational farm”.
