The innovation journey

Since 2017, Rosa Ferro has co-managed a farm in Ottati, a rural village in the Cilento National Park, Campania. She has a degree in environmental sciences and worked for several years in scientific labs before deciding to start the farming project Il Dono dell’Erba, together with her husband. As they are both from the Campania region, they bought land there and started to farm from scratch.

They started cultivating garlic and now they also raise hens in open-air spaces, guaranteeing animal welfare, by feeding them only with locally produced crops, such as barley, maize, and field beans.

Rosa wanted to create a circular economy on her farm, so she came up with the idea of using an agricultural waste product, the garlic tunic, to make paper. She was successful and now also uses the garlic tunic that is left over from the neighbouring farms after the garlic is planted. Garlic paper is handmade only from garlic tunics and water. When it is ready, it can be decorated and dyed with natural colours.

The paper lends itself well to painting but remains versatile for all kinds of uses such as cards, bookmarks, baskets and invitations. To sell them, she collaborates with several local businesses.