Samstag Märt

Paysage à manger

Paysage à manger is an agricultural project, taking shape in a company that was born in 2014 from the idea and initiative of Federico Chierico and Emanuele Panza, in the conviction that the mountain territories could once again express themselves through agricultural production, which has always characterised and shaped them.

It is from research into Alpine culinary culture that their attention first fell on the potato, or rather on the potato varieties that have been selected and cultivated in the Alps over the centuries. In collaboration with the Swiss Prospecierara Foundation, they obtain the first tubers of around 20 ancient varieties, such as Safier, Parli and Fläckler. These tubers are promptly cultivated, reopening some of the old sloping fields of Fontainemore. In 2015, Federico Rial joined the project and together they participated in the Restartalp business incubator, designing and starting to cultivate what is now the company. Potato cultivation has expanded to around sixty varieties, with a cultivated area of just over one hectare, between 1,000 and 1,800 metres above sea level. The heart and physical seat of the company, however, has become the large vegetable garden in Strada Castel Savoia in Gressoney. 

Agriforno delle Goilles by Katia Massari 

The Agriforno delle Goilles is a family-run farm that was established in 2016, cultivating cereals in the highlands of Verrayes (AO) and transforming them into delicious loaves of bread using only the natural leavening of rye sourdough. They mainly cultivate rye and ancient soft grains in the parched soils of Verrayes between 1000 and 1500 metres above sea level, carrying on with stubbornness, chaos and passion the historical practice of growing rye in these lands and baking in a wood-fired oven.
Thus, every week they bake 6-7 types of sourdough bread, including a very proud rye-only bread that we deliver to various shops in the Aosta Valley, to some restaurants, and which we sell in some markets in the valley.
Our focus is always on cultivation that respects the land that hosts us and on simple bread-making without ‘useless ingredients’.

Company C'era una volta di Wanda Favre

C'era una volta was founded in 2013 when Wanda started making biscuits with the principle of using as much local raw material as possible and doing most of the processing ‘as it used to be’, hence the name of the company. Among the local products the company uses are honey, chestnut flour, walnut flour, butter, rye flour, apples, walnuts and many others, to produce eighteen types of biscuits including a gluten- and lactose-free line, two types of cakes and a savoury line.
We are immersed in nature five kilometres from the village of Fontainemore and have around 20 hens and various other animals.
In order to make ourselves known, we started doing markets around the Aosta Valley and distributing in some local shops that fortunately believed in us so that we could grow and reach the number of 35 outlets.

Azienda agricola Naturalys di Alessia Ceppi

NaturaLys, from Natura and Lys, the river that runs through our valley, was founded in 2008 when they bought four beehives for the family production of honey; the desire was to get back to dealing with bees, and to start an activity in close contact with nature. Since that summer, they have not stopped, and today they own around 90 beehives and grow vegetables, potatoes and berries, which they cultivate and turn into delicious compotes and juices. Finally, some 20 colourful laying hens cheer up the family and dispose of vegetable waste. Naturalys is also an agritourism, and in the small restaurant they offer lunches and snacks based on their own produce; the agriturismo has a double room and a small flat created from the renovation of the barn where guests can stay.

Walsergarten of Brunero Umberto

The Walsergarten farm was founded in 2018 as a result of Umberto's passion for agriculture, born during his studies at the Institut Agricole Regional in Aosta. The cultivations cover an area of about 1 hectare divided into a dozen plots, located in the upper Lys valley, from 1000 metres above sea level in the village of Issime to 1600 metres in Gressoney-la-Trinité. The particular climatic conditions of the high mountains make it possible to cultivate an agriculture that is as natural as possible, harvesting a product of the highest organoleptic and nutritional quality. During the summer, the farm produces potatoes and root, leaf and fruit vegetables. What is special about our mountain farms is that they are able to produce typically autumn-winter crops, such as cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli, during the summer months. Products are sold directly on Saturdays at the Samstag Mart and on Sundays at the municipal market in Gressoney-La-Trinité. In addition, a number of catering businesses in the area rely on Walsergarten products for a cuisine that focuses on local, quality raw materials.

Laurent Lidia's farm

The Laurent Lidia farm was established in 1979, at the beginning with just a few goats and a couple of cows, but with the passing of the years, the passion for this work and for the mountains, the farm has grown a lot, and now has around thirty cattle and ten goats as well as a mule for transport to the mountain pastures. In winter, the farm is located in Gressoney Saint Jean while in summer, the farm moves to the Loo Valley, nicknamed the LooVe Valley by friends. In the alpine pasture, which can only be reached on foot via a picturesque mule track, the famous Toma di Gressoney, alpine butter and fresh tomini are produced. Renovation work began in 2014, resulting in a dairy, which complies with current regulations for the production of cheese, and a small agritourism, which offers its customers the chance to taste the farm's own products, with cold cuts and meat produced entirely on the farm. In Gressoney, the farm is located at 1350 m, while in the alpine pastures the altitude ranges from 1890 m at Ondròò Loo to Obrò Loo at 2100 m, where the Blékéné farmhouse is located, a name derived from the titsch dialect, meaning the milk that was milked in the glass for the children, this milk gave rise to a foam that was said to be restorative for small children. Every Saturday, they set off from the alpine pasture with the faithful mule, Wizard, to the Samstag Mart.

Market Valdobbia by Jose and Anna

The Valdobbia Market is a small grocery shop that opened in the 1960s, a period when Gressoney experienced the advent of tourism. Like many businesses in the small high-mountain village, the resort's guests are among the main users during the high season, but the continuous service guaranteed by the shop provides fresh or conveniently sourced products for the entire resident community. Alongside the best large-scale distribution brands, from the outset Jose and Anna offered products from small local and non-local companies, with an eye to those who live in the resort for a few periods, but also with a focus on improving the quality of the offer. In 2016, just opposite the shop, in Strada Castel Savoia, they opened the vegetable garden of the Paysage à Manger farm, of which their son is a partner. Pursuing the philosophy of searching for territorial and quality products, a close collaboration was immediately born. First with the supply of different varieties of potatoes in the autumn and winter periods, as well as the valorisation of the surplus vegetables produced in the garden in the summer months. Subsequently, with the consolidation of cooperation with the other farms and handicraft businesses that set up the Saturday market, the shop began to offer and valorise their products as well.  

The Rhythm of the Earth' organic farm of Fabio and Elena

Fabio and Elena and their 3 children live and work in Cuignon, a small village in the commune of St Denis; in 2011 they started the organic farm ‘Il Ritmo della Terra’. The production address is mixed; in fact, in designing the farm, they were inspired by the farming families of the past who produced a little bit of everything for the family's sustenance and sold the surplus.
They cultivate about 1 hectare of vines for the production of a white and a red wine, as well as growing vegetables and fruit at an altitude of between 750 m and 1300 m.
They breed about sixty bee families by moving around the region to chase the blooms at different altitudes. This allows them to produce wildflower honey, chestnut honey and in climatically mild springs also dandelion honey.

Azienda Agricola di Bonin Lidia Serafina

The family-run business was established in 2011. The family has always reared cattle, pigs, goats and sheep; they produce cured meats and cheese and still follow the recipes left to us by Grandfather Serafino, who always worked as a pork butcher, and in the winter months, passing from one hamlet to another in Arnad, he would bring with him his knowledge and his recipes, written down in his notebook, which he guarded with great respect.
During the winter months, the company produces cured meats, following the phases of the moon, with a slow and natural maturing process.
From spring to autumn, they produce goat tome, with milk from goats of the Valdostana breed.
They also have a small production of vegetables grown naturally, without adding chemical fertilisers.