About us - Zappoh

Zappoh! is a farm where, according to the principles of natural farming, we grow the purest saffron: 100% italian, it is produced in an artisanal way, without chemicals of any kind.

Our land is at the foot of Monte Ocre, in the district of L’Aquila, far away from industrial areas and busy road arteries: a gorgeous place, with a rich and fascinating history.

Zappoh! was born out of our love for this place, our need of beauty and nature, our search for meaning and purpose: the one you can get from work – any work – done carefully and with conscience.

(It has something to do, also, with both of us having peasant origins: our not-too-ancient ancestors were women and men who, for generations, lived off the land.
Had they been able to choose, it’s very likely they would have done anything else but this.
After doing anything but that, at some point in our life, we were able to choose – and this is also because of those women and men.
So, without indulging too much in rethoric, Zappoh! is also our way to pay homage to them).

Caring for the land and the territory

We like (a lot) the idea of being able to take this land (abandoned for quite a long time) to its former state of beauty, fertility and generosity.

We try to do so keeping a balance between cultivation and spontaneous production: on our land dog rose bushes and hawthorn, wild grape and thistle are free to thrive.

More than owners of this place, we look at ourselves as its caretakers.

In our opinion, caring for the land is synonimous of caring for the territory and that means caring for the local community that live and work here, like us and around us.

We believe in the importance of creating a solidal network among neighbours: we do that as much as we can, also because we very much like doing so.

Natural farming

We rigorously follow the organic criteria, but we chose from the beginning not to get the organic certification, especially because we like having a trusting relationship with the people who choose our products (and because we mind the substance, not the form).

Fair price

This is a rather tricky issue.

In principle, we believe that what we produce is so good that the more people can get it, the better.

However, if you don’t use fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides – and we’re rather adamant about that – you have to work more.

Not a little bit more.

Much more.

So, in the end, since we don’t make bread or other essentials, we think it is fair enough to ask people to consider that the excellent quality of our product is essentially determined by all the work we’ve put into it.

(Just a few more words about food and essentials: we think that they should be of the best quality, in other words good and healthy, and affordable for everybody – and we mean everybody. But this is another matter…)