sustainability – Verdmont Bed & Breakfast; Family apartments

The second day was the farm day we visited a dairy farm, and camp, a vegetable farm also training vulnerable and special needs people, and a farm camping and restaurant which seems to focus on Amsterdam hipsters as a client base.

All were very interesting compelling and unique. Alot involved food delivery and I was most impressed by the wide variety of foods on offer. Purple potatoes all manner of greens and salads, five types of apples. Variety in diet is important for general healthy biome so this can only be good. Puzzling why both wanted to add animals to the mix, where the dairy farmer who had animals seems to be under more regulation than ever due to issues with toxic excess nitrogen from waste entering the water cycle. Seems to me better to avoid the animal farming not increase it!

Wild innovation was the ultralight electric tractor shown in the gallery which helped with automation on the farm without fossil fuels and it cost €3000 to make which is cheaper than any tractor. Super impressive.

After much cycling we found the jellyfish where purified water is pumped into the du es for filtration that ultimately end in the taps. The water tasted perfect to me though why alot of restaurants served bottled water I shall never know., I suspect pursuit of profit.

The end of the day was a lovely cozy beach bar for dinner and a talk on green certification.

boutique bed and breakfast

Erasmus and TOAST 1

October 5, 2023 Verdmont Acqui Terme

So the study trip finally happened and it was fun as well as informative.

After an epic rail journey through Europe without too many problems I am happy to report, next morning was a full day first a walk to get ebikes then a beautiful cycle ride through the dunes to the ZeeHuis, part of Nivon a social hospitality run by volunteers. The location was beautiful on the see with sweeping dunes all around. We were met by the local cows Scottish Highland variety which are there to control the grasses (there were kept under control by rabbits but there was a disease that wiped the rabbits out so now cows do the job)

While there we looked around the facilities and learned a little about how the organization works. I found it fascinating that only volunteers keep it going. Later one of the members gave a good over view of the green key certification. The pros and cons which I have considered, but remain unconvinced it would be useful for us at the moment.

boutique bed and breakfast

Erasmus + Toast project

November 7, 2022November 7, 2022 Verdmont Acqui Terme

This weekend found me traveling into the hills of Ponzone which was absolutely spectacular. The reason was a meeting a group of fabulous like minded people to learn about each other and share experiences. We met only due to a project under the Erasmus banner called TOAST.

The entire project which is a series of learning events I will detail here is Tourism and Sustainability. The area of focus is happily our home the Monferrato.

The group was a mix of places to stay like Verdmont, service providers such as tours and activities like hiking or activities for kids. And of course agricultural activities, like wine makers, food production. The things we shared in common was a love of the Monferrato, a desire to learn more about sustainability, as well as a need to form a better network to enable enhanced experiences for visitors that come to the region every year.

We all introduced ourselves and our various businesses. We met the partners from around Europe. It was a weekend that while being work or learning was really fun and inspiring.