AZIENDA AGRICOLA TERRE DEL SOLARO

Alessio Casaretto’s azienda agricola belongs to the big family of PDO Riviera Ligure EVO, a fact that confirms his modern and respectful vision of farming. The story of the Casaretto family could be defined as common: the choice of a different lifestyle, the countryside, a professional who reinvents himself. However, there is much more to tell. The aforesaid professional, in fact, works in the field of solar energy and renewable sources.

The scale of the azienda’s ecological choices differed considerably from the ones made by other “evolving” EVO businesses, as they were undertaken at family level, too: from electric cars to solar energy applied to all the needs of both household and farm. As Alessio continues his “first” professional life, he starts his farming business based on olive growing. The original (2017) 2,000 square metres – the family’s olive groves – were quickly augmented through rents and/or recovery of other plots of land. At present, one hectare in Leivi, premium quality territory (olive growing dates back to the 11^th century) overlooking Chiavari and the Tigullio gulf. The area is called Solaro (“sole” i.e. sun), the name itself a tale of olive groves in the sun, renowned for the local traditional cultivar – the Lavagnina.

Therefore, for Alessio producing PDO Riviera Ligure EVO is the most logical of choices, as well as a guarantee of origin for customers. The place, furthermore, is a small paradise of wine, fruit, chickens.

Attention towards olive growing is meticulous: Alessio likes to cite his journal of climate trends, diseases, interventions in the countryside. In the future it will represent a memoir for tomorrow’s historians. Plants are the focus of all cares: grassing, manual mowing, organic fertilization, pruning and harvesting following the lunar and biodynamic calendar and, of course, contrast to the oil fly: kaolin, copper and organic traps. In fact, the company is one step ahead of European guidelines. A new member of the PDO Riviera Ligure family, which interprets at its best the character of the Riviera di Levante subarea.