Altomonte is a beautiful village in the Calabria region of southern Italy, and while its people may be poor they are also wise.
"We make good food out of necessity, not by will; we cannot but follow the principles of simplicity and seasonality," says Vincenzo Barbieri, owner of Barbieri (barbierigroup.it), a restaurant and hotel perched on a hill with amazing views of the countryside. "We don't give industrial food to our animals, but our leftovers. We do not have the money to invest in technologies for intensive farming, so we trim our olives by hand. We don't bleach our flours, and we dry and salt our vegetables for the cold months."
His hotel pioneers a style called , or "widespread hotel", where there's not just one block of rooms - it is spread over various historic buildings. My room is in a traditional house next to the convent where, in the 16th century, Tommaso Campanella developed his heterodox philosophy. In the village's small main square some men are playing cards and drinking wine outside a bar, behind them a 360-degree view of the countryside, the source of food for these people.
Barbieri takes me on a tour of his 14-hectare garden, where he grows whole nuts such as hazelnuts and almonds, chillies, lettuces, onions, mulberries, strawberries, apples, figs and olives. He is proud of his land and of Calabria's families who, generation after generation, dedicate themselves to excellence in their produce. "If we abandon our traditions and our land, we don't have any hope of making it into the century," he says.
Keeping its farming and culinary heritage alive is the only viable economic opportunity for Calabria, Barbieri says, and a source of healthy and gourmet food for us.
When you go grocery shopping, ask where the products come from, who made them, and what stories lie behind them. In Europe, the "Designation of Origin" law protects the name of quality agricultural products and foodstuffs. It guarantees the product you buy comes from where it belongs: tomatoes from Pachino, parmesan cheese from Parma, and more.
