My name is Alessandro Pasquini. My and my family's objective is to carry on a family tradition, we are now in the third generation, a history that has discovered changes, as I have already illustrated, from livestock farming to the pure cultivation of vegetables and fruit. Always attentive to the demands of the territory, we immerse ourselves in projects that can safeguard the economy of the Val di Cornia. An area that was very much affected, in the past, by an industrial pole that is no longer competitive and that seeks in its roots, the source to continue to prosper.
I started thanks to my father Pierpaolo, who handed down the tradition of grandfather Alvo. After finishing school at a very young age, I accompanied my father in the cultivation and management of the farm. Discovering the tricks of the trade is fundamental in order to be able to continue on this very difficult, environmentally related, difficult path. For example, my father and grandfather taught me how to use the hoe, an indispensable tool for every farmer. It is very important to be able to grip the hoe well and have good body posture. Technology certainly comes to our aid, but knowledge and know-how remain fundamental aspects that nothing can replace.
The alarm clock goes off very early in the morning, and the days are not always the same, depending on scheduling and the crops of the season. It is also a work of foresight, taking care of the soil today to work well tomorrow, to get a good harvest. So talking mainly about the melon and my work, the task is monitoring. Checking that the growth of the plants continues in the correct way, so you check that water arrives, that the irrigation system works perfectly and that there are no hiccups, often small rodents spoil and interrupt the precision irrigation system.
Another aspect to check is that the fruit breathes and is not too much covered by the leaves of the plant; it is important that the sun arrives directly. Another aspect I would focus on is to understand when the fruit is ripe, it is important not to pick it too early as the sugars if they do not develop well make the melon unpalatable. We have to wait until the stem is well dried, and with a simple twist we can detach the melon from its stem, otherwise it is better to wait a few more days.