Maria Antonia Ceriani
Innovator
Cascina Clauidina
Italy
Economic
Farming
Rural area close to city
The innovation journey
Maria Antonia Ceriani is the manager of Cascina Claudina, an agritourism located in a rural area close to Milan. She inherited the farm from her parents and started managing it in 2015. Before, she studied to become a teacher and worked in a school and after that for a local enterprise as a marketing expert.
When she took over the farm, she immediately decided to complement the agricultural activity with services related to tourism and educational activities. She continued the cultivation of cereals, as her father, but she also introduced other varieties.
Through a project, promoted by the local government, she begun to grow a traditional type of wheat, which has the De.C.O. mark, an Italian recognition established and granted by a municipality to protect and enhance typical local products.
She also has a small mill for grains processing and collaborates with local farms to transform her products into pasta, crackers, and other products. She decided to sell her products on farm and through local food networks. With the intention of teaching how to use the different cereals, there is a QR code on the product label that links to the farm’s website, where one can find several recipes.
The innovation impact
The quest for economic and social sustainability are intertwined in Maria Antonia’s activity. In 2022 her farm was included in the regional register of educational farms and in 2023 in the register of social farms. In the same year, she received the “Friends of the Earth – Stories of Women Feeding the World” award sponsored by Coldiretti Donne Impresa.
The 33-hectare farm is not only a place where cereals are grown, but also a quiet and relaxed place where people can meet in a friendly environment and learn traditional and healthy food practices. She organizes cooking workshops, to show how to use the products she sells. She runs educational farm activities for both children and adults.
Monthly workshops specifically for women are also organized on the farm. They involve discussing women’s issues with a psychologist while working on sewing projects, given for charity.