The Bruno Sodano farm is a small agricultural reality handed down from generation to generation. The total area is about 6 hectares, partly in rent and partly owned.
For about twenty years the company has adopted a sustainable cultivation method and has choosen to grow traditional Campania horticultural varieties now in danger of extinction among which there are:
The cultivation of these products is done with almost entirely manual operations that respect the environment and the integrity of the product.
The farm is involved in many networks and project: Guardian Farmers of the Campania Region; “Orti Di Napoli” – a Chamber of Commerce project for the recovery of the vegetable germplasm of five products; Gaggiù project; ABC project for the establishment of the Campania herbaceous agrobiodiversity network. It collaborates with the Agricultural University of Portici for the recovery of traditional species and with local administrations to enhance local products. The company participates in the plan of the integral struggle of the Campania Region.
Furthermore we organize guided tours of the company for education project with the schools.
Thanks to the company’s commitment to safeguarding endangered varieties, safeguarding biodiversity and enhancing the company’s production area, Pomigliano D’arco, it has aroused interest and has been invited to several TV programme such as: Linea verde, Mela Verde, Report and reports on Tg5 and Tg3.
The papaccella is a small sweet pepper, round and ribbed with a very thick skin that can be bright yellow, red or green. Young consumers often confuse them with regular peppers but older generations remember them well and never pass them up when they manage to find them in the market. The peppers are excellent when pickled or in a sweet-and-sour dish typical to Brusciano. The Campania Regional Authority has salvaged the germplasm and reproduces the seeds of the original variety in an experimental field, making them available to the Presidium producers to grow.
Production area: Agro Acerrano-Nolano, Naples Province
Its name, which means “a hundred days,” comes from the average length of the production cycle. The peas are grown in open fields, often intercropped with fruit trees like apricots and cherries, or sometimes grapevines, and do not need to be irrigated. The climbing plants are supported by a system of wooden poles and interwoven wires or nets. Appreciated for their sensory qualities, such as their exceptional sweetness, and the tenderness of their skin even when dried, the peas make an excellent accompaniment to meat dishes and endures thanks to a few farmers who guaranteed its survival by maintaining the production from generation to generation. This presidium was created to protect this variety and to promote the work of the vesuvian farmers.
Production area
Somma Vesuviana, Sant’Anastasia, Massa di Somma, Pollena Trocchia, Cercola, Naples –Ponticelli quarter, San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, San Giorgio a Cremano, Portici, Ercolano, Torre del Greco, Torre Annunziata, Trecase, Boscotrecase, Boscoreale, Terzigno, San Giuseppe Vesuviano, Ottaviano, Pomigliano, Poggiomarino and Pompei municipalities around Vesuvius, Naples province, Campania region
Even the most renowned vegetables can be at risk extinction. This was the case for the San Marzano tomato, an extremely delicate vegetable that is difficult to grow and process. When it is ripe, its fields release wonderful scents of cut grass and spices. The same aromas are experienced when eating the tomato. Dozens of ecotypes exist and they have been recovered from the vegetable gardens in the Naples area and selected by the researchers of the Campania Regional Authority. The Presidium has re-launched the San Marzano production and today producers grow fresh tomatoes as well as produce puree, other traditional preserves and tinned tomatoes.
Production area: Agro nocerino sarnese (Naples province)
Seasonality: fresh tomatoes are harvested from July until the end of September, but the preserves area available throughout the year.
The cultivation of this cannellino bean in the countryside of Acerra is mentioned in a historic 1938 edition of the Touring Club guide, a data resource about Italian agriculture that today has unfortunately disappeared. It is a local ecotype, which found its ideal cultivation area in the volcanic, rich soils of Acerra. It has a particularly thin skin, excellent texture and intense flavor. In the Neapolitan gastronomic tradition, it is particularly suited to the preparation of dishes such as soups and pasta with beans. During the last decades its cultivation had dropped dramatically, being continued only for household consumption. The Presidium aims to support a group of local producers that decided to resurrect the cultivation of the beans.
Production area: Acerra, Brusciano, Mariglianella, Marigliano, Castello di Cisterna and Pomigliano d’Arco Municipalities, Naples Province, and Maddaloni and San Felice a Cancello Municipalities, Caserta Province
Seasonality: sown in spring, in April, or late, in July. Harvest takes place respectively in July and September-October.