THE PHILOSOPHY
Quality is not a luxury

We firmly believe that the pursuit of quality is a goal to be pursued in order to lead a healthy lifestyle. The limited numbers, the small volumes and the meticulous and exclusively artisanal workmanship ensure the attention and care for our products and allow us to create "Quality" with an agriculture that rhymes with nature. Transparency, a very short supply chain and constant monitoring are the guarantee of a product of the territory, true and extremely safe. Our efforts are also aimed at making the information related to the agri-food activities of the Palagiaccio easily usable, carrying out the role of "Educational Farm" with commitment.
The institutions have given us this qualification, believing that our reality deserves to be known. For this reason we collaborate in the creation of educational courses aimed at bringing young people closer to proper nutrition education. We have a small museum that collects tools and some old agricultural machines so that the meetings with our visitors also become a moment to make known the ancient peasant traditions. This is the historic Palagiaccio farm, a place where you work with commitment and passion in respect of the territory that hosts us. There is a strong awareness that the environment represents our greatest wealth and consequently there is a great effort to keep it intact for future generations.

THE ACTIVITIES

Today, as in the past, the historic Palagiaccio farm is a reference point for Florentine agriculture and represents continuity in the tradition of dairy farming. The farm has a large agricultural area where cereals and fodder are grown. The crops are entirely destined to feed the hundreds of cattle on the farm. Agricultural activities are based on the utmost respect for the territory and all carried out with a view to a low environmental impact. For a precise company choice, genetically modified products are not used, the constant goal is to operate in the context of environmentally friendly agriculture; it is for these reasons that we have been awarded the “Agriqualità Toscana” regional certification.
Our excellent products are represented by the High Quality Mugello Milk, milked daily only from the cows of the Palagiaccio, and by the meat of our cattle which are the result of crosses with the finest breeds. All the animals in the farm were born on the farm as well as their mothers and the mothers of their mothers, the cattle are raised free in respect of animal welfare, are well integrated with the Mugello area and feed exclusively on the fodder we cultivate. Cattle breeding is a fundamental activity as it represents the essential condition for the natural development of the biological process of the soil.
The "Cycle of Life", in addition to crop rotations, cannot ignore the contribution of organic matter necessary for the formation of humus; it is precisely the latter that gives fertility to the soil. Furthermore, in nature, only ruminants have the ability to transform the vegetable proteins of forages, rich in cellulose and fiber, into animal proteins, contained in milk and meat, which are essential for humans. The knowledge of these mechanisms, together with full respect for natural cycles, represents the foundation of our agricultural activity.

THE GUARANTEES

QUALITY ASSURANCE

The historic Palagiaccio farm, one of the oldest and most important in Tuscany, is in Senni, between Borgo San Lorenzo and Scarperia, in the green heart of Mugello. By adhering to the Tuscan Regional Plan for its low environmental impact, with the use of the most innovative integrated agriculture techniques, it guarantees a high biological value to its products. The dairy cattle are all born and conceived in the internal breeding, perfectly integrated in the Mugello environment. The quality of the products comes from the careful monitoring of the animals, their well-being and the control of the foods with which they are fed. But we don't say it. The certificates of registration in the national herd book of dairy cattle breeds and the scrupulous controls that the farm undergoes say so.

GOODNESS GUARANTEE

The historic Il Palagiaccio farm is a founding member of the Mugello Milk Producers Consortium and voluntarily applies its disciplinary, recognized by the Ministry of Agricultural and Food Policies, which excludes the use of genetically modified foods. The goodness of our products has no secrets: only transparency. First of all, absolute respect for the dictates of an ancient and ever-alive dairy tradition; use of cutting-edge technologies aimed at raising safety and quality to the highest degree. The product of this production process has the pleasure of a goodness that can be savored at the first taste. But we don't say it. The award as the "first breeding" of Tuscany received at the regional dairy cattle show says so.

FRESHNESS GUARANTEE

Shortening the production chain as much as possible gives a certainty: the absolute freshness of the product. Arriving first at the point of sale means arriving first on the table, ensuring a product rich in nutritional values ​​in their entirety. The taste of our products is the result of the selection of our milk, strictly "monomandry". unique because it arrives directly at the dairy from milking, by gravity, without mechanical manipulation or stress of any kind. But we don't say it. The recognition of the Community trademark (cee stamp) obtained by our dairy and the certifications relating to the authorization for high quality milk (Ministerial Decree 185/91 and Presidential Decree 54/97)


HISTORY

The origins of the historic Palagiaccio farm date back to over a thousand years ago. In the early Middle Ages, the noble Ubaldini family who already ruled much of the Apennines at the end of the first millennium, had a fortified garrison erected in the most fertile lands of the Mugello. The prestige of this important family reached its peak in the late Middle Ages when a member of the family very close to the Pope was appointed Bishop of Bologna.
The Cardinal managed to be so influential that the powerful family fell in favor of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. At that time, the importance of the Ubaldini in the Florentine countryside was such that Dante Alighieri will remember their history in some passages of the Divine Comedy. With the end of feudalism and the subsequent birth of the "Florentine Republic" the Ubaldini lost power, suffered significant defeats and almost all their properties passed to the Medici family. Over the years the Palagiaccio has witnessed many historical vicissitudes that have involved Florence, Tuscany and Italy.
Within its walls it has hosted heads of government, religious authorities and has been used several times as a headquarters for the leaders of our armies; in 1943 it was initially the seat of the German command and later of the Allied command on the Gothic line. In the historic farm, the most important and worthy of mentioning artistic and cultural testimonies concern the presence in the noble chapel of two large mural frescoes, one of them, created by Andrea Del Sarto, depicts the visitation of the magi, the second of the Giotto school depicts the escape in Egypt. Another important testimony found inside the farm is linked to the work of the Chini.
This family of artists, protagonist of the Italian liberty style, between the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century carried out important restoration works in the farm villa and even today at the Palagiaccio some of their works are appreciated: particular windows, elegant fireplaces and features pictorial decorations.
Furthermore, "Il Palagiaccio" is known as one of the few historical Ubaldini possessions that has maintained its initial destination, escaping the conversion to "Villa Medicea" which has affected most of the historic Ubaldine properties around Florence; it is precisely for this reason that over the centuries it has kept intact its characteristics of a fortified farm still in business. In this regard, the recovery of all the existing structures was taken care of respecting the work of those who had built them with so much effort.
This centuries-old history of ours fills us with pride and charges us with responsibility, we feel very strongly the duty to safeguard, make known and live a reality that represents the culture and tradition of Florence and Tuscany.

OUR ETHICS

The historic Palagiaccio farm has among its objectives the protection of nature, in the awareness that the environment that hosts us is a precious asset to be preserved and passed on to future generations. For us, nature represents a value with which the quality of life and work is parameterized; our production activity takes place in direct contact with nature and our commitment is to keep it intact and possibly also to improve it. For these reasons, the Historic Palagiaccio Farm has invested in the CARBON FREE PLAN project which for some years has been carrying out by adopting the directives and concerns of the Kyoto Conference. Our commitment is to help reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, and to do this we have equipped ourselves with an ECOBIOENERGY system. This project, shared at various institutional levels, involves the use of small plants which, with the most advanced technological applications, produce more types of renewable energy. Today the farm has already effectively eliminated its CO2 emissions and in its small way has also contributed to reducing emissions into the atmosphere produced by third parties. This initiative gratifies us as aware citizens of a country with an advanced civilization, but it is also a way to put a dream into practice and make it concrete.