I'm Cristiana Sartori and I have been running my own small organic farm for 20 years. Ever since I was a little girl my passions have been plants and farmyard animals. Every day I would come back from school with my schoolbag still on my shoulders and I would run to the hen house to find the chickens and collect the eggs. I would try to take all the eggs home but sometimes there were so many that I didn't always manage to keep them intact. I still remember those moments vividly. I also remember when I tried to make omelettes on the hot path that went from the hen house to my home! Maybe that's why I love omelets so much, especially with rice. In 2018 the brand DICRISTIANA was born. Passion and perseverance in times of environmental adversity, continuous experimentation, and participation in research with institutions and universities, are some of the things that have made my entrepreneurial path so exciting. Me and my team run the project and cultivate our rice with love, passion and soul. My children have even told me "Mum your rice is like another child to you!", and this is true! It must be checked every day to understand if it is healthy, I must know when to intervene and how to manage the water consumption and to protect it from temperature changes. Producing organic Carnaroli in region of the Lomellina, had its hardships at first., and cultivating organically using the strimming technique still has its challenges. The strimming harrow, a tool taken from my 1973 Ford 2000, combs the soil with its adjustable teeth, eradicating small seedlings and thus acting as a preventative measure for the emergence. Using this technique has earned me the nickname of 'woman of the 7 strigliatura' because I personally pass over each plot of land at least 7 times between May and June, before watering the fields, which will protect the rice from temperature fluctuations until the end of the production cycle. My mission is to be aware of the uniqueness of each field with its personal history, its crop rotations, its microbiota, and how this translates to the scents and taste of the grains. What I like most is to disclose to consumers a project of awareness and deep knowledge of the world of Italian quality rice; knowing how to recognize the characteristics both in the field and of the individual varieties in the kitchen with the different scents and tastes is a compelling challenge that will become the new project of International Rice Camp: we are waiting for you!

The family farm is located in Olevano, surrounded by the rice and cereal growing landscape of Lomellina. The farm has been growing organically since 2002; the DICRISTIANA brand was born in 2018 and took my name, the soul of the company. Having graduated in agriculture, I took over this 30-hectare piece of land from my family, which belonged to my great-grandparents, and I immediately decided to convert it to organic farming with passion and resilience. My grandparents and great-grandparents were lawyers who were also farmers for generations, so I thought I would immediately become a farmer and acquire the specific skills to be able to follow in their footsteps, but with a more modern twist. It took courage and creativity, but I persevered and never gave up on the challenge I set myself! Innovation is successful when it builds on the solid foundations of tradition; we cannot look to the future without knowing and treasuring our past. Regenerative organic farming starts from the desire to introduce the winning agronomic techniques used by our grandparents, taking advantage of advanced mechanisation technology that did not exist before. We sow the rice in May and harvest it in September. We produce the rice and store it with external collaborators. Every year I experiment with innovative techniques that preserve limited natural resources such as water. For example, did you know that rice is NOT an aquatic plant but a terrestrial one? Water has the function of a thermal flywheel and therefore protection against temperature fluctuations, as rice loves heat. So why not apply the same techniques suggested by Master Fukuoka to rice? This is the new challenge that has been underway since 2021. I will grow rice in a clover meadow without the use of water. The clover will act as a green, living mulch that will replace water in protecting the rice. The field is only irrigated in emergency conditions by drawing water from the water channels adjacent to my fields. As mentioned earlier, I cultivate my crops following the teaching of Master Fukuoka, agriculture, which involves minimal tillage to preserve the soil's microbiota. I practice a 'non-doing' agriculture. My main concern is to take care of the soil and preserve it. In fact, to increase the fertility of the soil, I grow primaviril/high summer grasses that give nitrogen to the soil. This means I don't have to buy fertilisers. Furthermore, my fields are 'laboratory' fields, where I experiment with low environmental impact techniques. I am actively involved in a research project with the University of Pavia, Faculty of Environmental Engineering, studying the storage of energy in waste from rice husks and other organic cereals from my farm. Nettle grows wild around the edges of my field, which I then use as a condiment for my rice. In order to promote biodiversity in the field, I am active in moving and implementing new reforestation projects. The aim is to regenerate a natural landscape by planting native shrub and tree species that can increase the biodiversity of the fields. By increasing biodiversity we will create natural habitats for beneficial insects that can combat pathogens. I look forward to seeing you in the field to see how this natural approach, which aims to safeguard the "Essence of the Invisible", has evolved.