Via in Rose Estate:
farm productions and production factors

The Hortus Gymnasium company, which has taken place in Calabria as a multifunctional farming company since its inception, has focused on income diversification: agri-food, essences, energy production, edutainment; as well as on the integration of the added value chain: cultivation, transformation and marketing.

The common connotation of the production systems adopted by Hortus Gymnasium will be the use of organic farming techniques; as a matter of fact, in 2016 the company received the ICEA certification.

The objectives of diversifying income and integrating and added value chain lead to:

using all of the agricultural production for processing within the company to avoid increasing the price of the products to be sold, thanks to a regulated use of a multi-format glass bottling line with capping and labeling, which is already set up. This facilitates the upgrading of olive production through conversion into extra virgin olive oil, in collaboration with the Frantoio Caloiero di Luzzi (Cosenza), and bottling in small sizes (20 and 50 cl) for export, in collaboration with the production and marketing company of wines and spirits Giovi srl in Valdina (Messina, Sicily). Both for oil and wine, the product to be processed is mainly our own (the company’s percentage is always higher than 60%), and any external input is purchased from neighboring producers operating under a controlled regime at least equal to that of the company.
using the laboratory, already set up on company grounds, for the processing of medicinal biomass, the extraction and bottling of essential oils, in the innovative plant link su foto impianto composed of an Albrigi distiller Drago Pro 150 lt, equipped with a steel basket for loading and unloading the agricultural product, a Florentine vessel for the collection of the distillate, a kit for the recovery of thermal energy in order to reduce the electric consumption, entirely built in AISI stainless steel 304, with a modulating steam generator that enables the variation of the output according to the type of plant and the output that is to be realized, with a perfectly insulated boiler to reduce thermal dispersion and increase the quality of the produced. Essential oils are extracted from biomass harvested within the company even though Hortus Gymnasium intends to make use of a portion of necessary plants from neighboring companies with direct supervision in the future;
minimizing the workings by streamlining them and performing them with electrical power tools that also reduce emissions into the atmosphere. The energy produced in the company comes from renewable sources so that Hortus Gymnasium contributes to the reduction of pollutant emissions responsible for the increase of the greenhouse effect;
orienting the company to be suitable for agrotourism by providing the botanical garden for educational entertainment and a future accommodations with catering and overnight stays.