Green Milan: Cascina Campazzo

Milan has got a great agricultural history, you know? Also the name of the city has an agricultural origin: it sounds like Mediolanum, in medio lanae, in the middle of the whool. Only 4 km far from Piazza del Duomo, there is a wide countryside area, the Ticinello Park, which covers 90 hectares, 70% of which are actual farmland, whilst the remaining 30% are park areas, open to the public.

We visit the historic farm Cascina Campazzo: 30 hectares cultivated with corn, wheat and fodder to feed 130 cows. The main activity is the milk production, but the farm organizes also didactic activities and agricultural festivals giving citizens the opportunity to celebrate, enjoy and to learn something more about the farmstead. However this situation hasn’t always been as easy as it looks, in fact the farmers of all the area had to fight against the landowners which wanted to build houses and apartments on the lands. It is only since few time that the situation is more quiet.

 

 

⇒ Watch the full web serie: Green Milan Slow Tour

Visit Parco Agricolo Ticinello website

Visit DAM official website

Visit Turismo Milano official website

 

Video full text: Cascina Campazzo

It doesn’t seem possible, but we’re only 4km from Piazza del Duomo.
Less than an hour away on foot.
Seven hundred metres away is piazza Abbiategrasso, where one arrives on the subway,
or tram route 15 or 3, or bus route 65 or 79.
But the incredible thing is that here on the one side there’s the city, whilst on the other is the countryside!
There’s a historic farm.
But I must set you a test, before I continue on my farming tour.
What do you think a marcita is?
Is it A: a perished food product, like a ‘rotten apple’?
B: a pseudo-Spanish diminutive for a short military cortege, a ‘march’?
or C: a permanent, well-irrigated meadow that allows the grass
for feeding animals to grow, even in winter?
If you said A or B then I suggest you come with me to see what a marcita is.
What is a marcita Andrea?
It’s a permanent meadow that is continuously irrigated at set intervals throughout the year.
Consequently is capable of producing huge quantities of fodder.
Could it be likened to a paddy field therefore?
That is to say that the waters act a bit like a dressing, to soften the changes in temperature.
That way there’s grass there all year round. Correct!
The marcita was a very important invention,
even if no one knows this, it rendered Milan a rich and even an industrial city.
We are in one of the locations of Milan’s agricultural history,
the Ticinello Park, which covers 90 hectares, 70% of which are actual farmland,
whilst the remaining 30% are park areas, open to the public,
with he creation of wooded areas, picnic sites and vegetable plots.
A point of reference for Milanese agriculture,
an agriculture that saved itself, in the southern part of the city, precisely because it was economically viable.
The lands had a greater value compared to the north,
which made it easier to switch to a more rapid industrialisation.
Here too we took some serious risks.
It was a veritable struggle which lasted 30 years,
because the land owners wanted to build houses,
but the farmers stood firm. The situation has only recently become calmer!
A struggle not just involving us farmers, but also the entire area.
An association was founded, for the Ticinello Park, that has been here for more than 25 years.
This area has become a sort of symbol of the possibility of cohesion
between productive and fruitful businesses and the protection and preservation of the environment.
Speaking of productive activity, will you take me to your cows?
The farm is over there.
Thirty hectares where maize, corn and fodder is produced for feeding 130 cattle.
The main business is that of milk production.
But there are also educational activities for children as well as farming festivals!
We have to reward those citizens who live nearby and who love us,
by giving them opportunities to relax, have fun and to learn something new.
How has the perception of the countryside by the those who live in the city changed in recent years.
The generation of thirty or forty years ago viewed the countryside as a world of poverty.
The next generation recognised the value of the countryside, the environment and the local territory.
Thirty years ago people complained because of the smell of the cattle and the noise.
Nowadays those who live in those buildings behind there tell me that when they wake up at 7 in the morning
and see the cows walking into the milking parlours, it opens their hearts.
That is a radical change.
You also have a milk dispenser?
That’s essential for those citizens who want to taste the milk fresh from the cow.
A litre for one euro.
Whole milk, so fresh and directly from the producer.
Andrea, I’m going, and I’ll take my milk with me.
The Cascina farm is part of DAM, the Milanese Agricultural District consortium.
We formed the consortium to bring all of the farmers together,
and to create a common project of integration with the needs of the city.
The farmlands of the Municipality of Milan will never be touched again,
and they will remain forever, which is why we have a future,
one that will also allow us to develop all those activities for integrating with the city.
So long Andrea, see you soon!