Fresh Italian vegetables. That's our story and we're sticking to it.
First we drew a line in the dirt and said "let's plant here. And here. And here."
Then we brought in soil experts, water analysts, weather gurus and told them
"make it natural, no funny pellets, amend our soil in a good way."
Meanwhile we germinated over 30 heirloom vegetable seeds from Italy,
transplanted them in the Old World tradition, and planted them with our Italian
ancestors in mind.
Then the word got out about our Italian vegetables and fellow paisanos called
with offers of vegetable seeds from their Italian garden who were first planted by
their grandparents when they arrived in America. Now we have Old World tomatoes
from the Commardi family from Cupertino, frying peppers from the Enfantino family (our cousin)
in San Jose, and even a cactus from the Madella family of San Diego whose first shoots
originated in Sicily and were brought through Ellis Island in 1915. In return, we named
them after the donors which makes them now official "famiglia" vegetables and now
available to our Centi' Anni (may you live to be 100) members for the first time commercially.
We will also make them main ingredients of our VR Green Farms tomato sauces that will debut
this fall. Fun stuff . . . family history and stories grown fresh and heading for the cellar.
Before long, we started to hear from chefs from California to Italy who offered us their
small village recipes from the old country which was our idea all along for our Italian farm.
Grow it and they will come and we want to share those recipes with everyone who has ever peeled
a garlic glove, salted a fresh picked San Marzano, or stuffed a zucchini blossom. It's all about famiglia
and it's all about la storia (story).
A special "mille grazie" to John Fornarro and Mark Zane of Bella Collina Towne & Golf Club in
San Clemente, California who shared our vision and their raw land so that we could realize
our dream to grow and enjoy fresh Italian vegetables from the old country (Italy).
