Organic Vegetable Garden

The Dello Scompiglio vegetable garden began in 2007, with the idea of an organic and sustainable production focussed on respect for the balance of the soil and the environment. The vegetables we grow are mostly ancient, typical and local varieties. The crops are grown according to the seasonal cycles, using agronomic techniques that have little impact on the ecosystem. The vegetables produced in this way are the protagonists of the gastronomic creations of the Cucina Dello Scompiglio.

CULTIVATED VARIETIES
Every year, in collaboration with the Cucina, we evaluate which cultivars to plant in the search for new flavours, paying attention to ancient and forgotten varieties. Among the vegetables grown every year at Dello Scompiglio: the zucchini cultivar Alberello di Sarzana, with elongated, light green fruits, valuable from an organoleptic point of view and resistant to bad weather and diseases; Cavolo Nero Toscano, star of many creations at the Cucina; the aubergine Violetta di Firenze, an ancient Tuscan variety also known as “Prospera” or "Prosperosa"; the tomato Canestrino di Lucca, also known as "Cresputo" or "Costoluto", with its unmistakable flavour.

AGRONOMIC TECHNIQUES
The vegetable garden is worked in a four-year cultivation cycle, which preserves the precious and fragile equilibrium of the soil. Improver crops (such as legumes), so-called because they have the capacity to regenerate the soil resources and its natural fertility, form part of the rotation In the same field year after year; a winter vegetable garden planted mainly with crucifere, apiaceae, asteraceae (i.e. from the same families as cabbage, fennel and salad leaves), the roots of which aerate and improve the structure of the soil; a summer vegetable garden of solanaceae, liliaceae, cucurbitaceae chenopodiaceae (from the same plant families as potatoes and aubergine, garlic and onions, pumpkins and zucchini, beets and spinach), which requires tilling in order to restore the deep soil structure, finishing with a new planting of improver, thus ending the cycle.

COLD GREENHOUSE
Intentionally without heating systems, the cold greenhouse uses sunlight to support the growth of plants in an effective and minimally invasive way. Equipped with technology that monitors the temperature automatically, it can adjust openings in the walls to increase or decrease the heat, depending on the crops planted inside. The cold greenhouse is used to protect the most delicate and sensitive crops, such as salad leaves and aromatic plants, from the cold temperatures of a bad season and to maintain continuity of production in autumn and winter.

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