HIGH QUALITY VEGETABLES FROM SALENTO, SOUTHERN PUGLIA.
I Contadini, "The Farmers", is a company located in Salento, the southern most area of Puglia in the "heel" of the boot of Italy. This sun drenched land is surrounded by the sea and is well known in Italy for producing the best sundried tomatoes, artichokes, broccoli rabe, and other vegetables. The company was founded 30 years ago, on the heels of the hard work in the fields done by the grandparents of the founders and present day workers who used to work their land for their family's subsistence. Today the factory is run by local inhabitants and ships their vegetable preserves world wide as well as out to us in California and the United States.
SALENTO SUNDRIED VEGETABLES - ARTISAN CULTIVATION, HAND PICKED, HAND PROCESSED
All the vegetables are cultivated by I Contadini on their land. Their cultivation methods include crop rotation, cultivation, and processing methods with low environmental impacts. All phases from seed to finished product are done manually by local personnel. Traditional methods and machinery was handed down to them by their grandparents and great grandparents. The excellence of the finished product is due to painstaking and time requiring sundrying which has been done from the beginning of time in Salento. The uniqueness and quality of each product is a far cry from industrial vegetable preserves because I Contadini utilizes traditional and fully natural methods without the use of preservatives or non natural ingredients.
I CONTADINI BY SABRINA MEROLLA - MOVIE
Click on the movie link to see a video by Sabrina Merolla bringing us on a rapid tour of the I Contadini facility and processing methods.
SUNDRIED TOMATOES - MOVIE
Click on the movie link to see a video showing I Contadini cultivating, sundrying, and processing their sundried tomatoes.
