Bringing the Zolfino Beans of the Slow Food Presidium. Simone Botti of Le Fontacce, near Arezzo, describes his work with olives and beans. Living the land is in his DNA, and the fruits of that land and that work are available in the Terra Madre online marketplace.
Olives, beans and iris flowers: theses are the three pillars of Simone’s company, Le Fontacce, situated at Loro Ciuffenna, a small town of around 5000 inhabitants in the countryside between Arezzo and Florence.
The countryside and the plants
“I’m 33 years old and I’ve been doing this work since I was 11,” Simone tells us. “I started with my family’s land, which my grandfather used to cultivate, though he didn’t have a real business with it. When he passed on I took over: I was born in the countryside and I always liked the idea of trying to pull something out of the ground.”
That passion soon became a job: today Simone owns 20 hectares of land. The main product he makes is organic extra virgin olive oil: “I’ve had a special passion for olives ever since I was a boy,” he explains. “And I was born surrounded by these plants, they’re in my blood. Being my great passion, it’s also what I’ve invested in most of all, and recently I’ve also acquired an oil mill for the company, so we can make an even higher-quality product, which I believe is the only secret behind economic success.”