Daily life in Tramonti has been the busiest and most peaceful experience I have experienced. Acarbio offers a lot of nature-linked activities such as harvesting , planting vegetables, going in the forest to collect mushrooms after rainy days …

In the region of Campania , there is a gardening tradition that works on terraces. The landscape here is mostly mountains which is a hard place to garden in flat fields. A thousand years ago , monks  decided to find a way and terraces were born. Due  to the previous Vesuvio’s explosions ( a volcano) , the ashes spread and the soil here is very fertile.

Considering that it is hard to have large  spaces they availed the terraces to their maximum . On one section you have 3 levels : the ground ( for pumpkins , potatoes, tomatoes , eggplants …) , the second is the grapes that are hanging on wood constructions and the third is trees ( chestnut , lemon , olives …) . The terraces can look messy and hard to work with from the beginning , considering that you have to climb to go to different parts of the garden and a lot of things are growing in the same spaces. But it is  so rich and efficient .

Having a restaurant kitchen in the office with the garden gives us a lot of experimenting possibilities and  to cook in a different way which is actually the simplest: taking what our garden has to offer.

For instance I have been doing a lot of different jams with the fruits that are growing here ( plums, figs , chestnuts …) . The more I spend time here the more it feels surreal to go to a grocery shop . We cook by ourselves all the time  whether in the office or at home with the volunteers. At lunch during weekdays I cook with the president of the association for the rest of the group and learn from him a lot from everything linked to nature and food. You can see here a gorgeous gorgonzola e pistacchio dish with handmade pasta.

I am not back home yet but I already miss Tramonti. This mountain became my friend and whoever tries to pull me away from her must be careful 🙂

Written by Laura Clement