A DREAM
IN OUR POCKET

The dream of a house of our own with much land around it, outside the fast and chaotic world of residential areas, came true in 2010 when I (Martina) and my partner Alessio arrived in Frassenei, a tiny village consisting of about ten houses in Tambre (BL), in Veneto Region, Italy.

The idea of living in a building that back in 1900 was used as a cow stable filled me with joy. It was my place. Obstacles in our path to secure the property of that place were many, but our perseverance and sacrifices were worth it.

I remember the feeling when we saw it for the first time “if we can’t buy it, this will always be the house of my dreams“. And after about one year it really became one. Where once there was the cow manger there is now a bench for sitting. In the attic, once filled with supplies of hay to feed the cows, there is now our bedroom.

There was a lot of work to do, but we were in our place. Both my partner and I worked at an hour away from home, from morning to night to earn a living. The hectare of land in front of the house was under the care of a neighbor of ours who took his horses to graze.

Then there were the rabbits, and I remember the love of mother rabbit when she prepared prepared the bed for the bunnies by removing some of her very soft fur.
The pigs were so funny when they dipped their noses into the liquid mash and made lots of bubbles on the surface. The chickens and the luck of having always eaten home-made eggs. The turkeys, who spread their tail feathers, but how scary when they chased me!

And then there was Fiocco, a little lamb who arrived from his grandmother because his mother couldn’t give him milk, so he grew up with a feeding bottle. How I loved the fast movement of his tail when he sucked the milk! Grandma became his mother and I became his little sister.

And when I came home in the evening I certainly had no time to feel bored. How I loved removing the corn from the cobs by hand with grandma or shucking peas and beans, and…

That handmade blue hat was a must-have when going out to make hay with grandma. Her tales, set in the period of World War II and the post-war period, were memoirs of hunger, poverty and famine. Livestock was their primary source of food, along with vegetables grown in the home garden. I have experienced this approach to animals in a survival condition since I was a child.

The year in which I was born, 1986, and the following years up to today, brought a strong change in post-war living conditions (World War II). Italy in general has had an economic recovery, an increase in jobs and infrastructures until reaching the era of globalization.

The firm roots I had in the small mountain town, out of this world, became my anchor in the world outside and when I traveled I felt like a little Heidi. In every city I visited, I had to climb the highest tower or building to see the view from above and see where the mountains were.

How nice it would be to have animals here with us to keep the meadow and also the forest clean, we thought. However, we should find an animal that likes the undergrowth, that can stay outside even in winter because we don’t have a stable, and that rewards us in a natural way with a resource not belonging to the meat and milk supply chain, as we are all day at work.

An animal for wool!

With so much passion in our pockets, but without equipment and without experience, we dedicate all our free time (after work, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays) to everything there is to do and know to carry on with our dream.

We took part in a workshop for new breeders, where we were also able to practice combing to collect the precious undercoat, the cashmere. An experience so unforgettable, that just 10 days later we returned to Chianti to comb more goats, taking advantage of a day off from our work in the city.

We soon decide to give 3 new mates to Elvis and Pelmo. We are busy at building at least a shelter for the winter, with a simple DIY wooden shed, which we would have to expand later. Every year we do some work that needs to be revised the following year to make the shed larger. But our perseverance and our will to do it, despite the sacrifices, makes us understand that this is the direction we want to take and above all it is what makes us feel good.

With our 5 castrated male goats, we are also approaching our first season of cashmere combing, where we can put everything we have learned into practice on our mini-flock.

The collected cashmere is weapped in envelopes with the name of each goat. And the following year, when a minimum quantity will be collected, the cashmere can become yarn.

All that remains is to start knitting, dusting off the teachings of my grandmother and mother, who taught me to knit since I was a child.

This is how the first Alpago Cashmere knitwear, beanies, scarves, baby shoes and socks were born.

And we are at a crossroads: with 7 castrated goats our business sees no future, on the other hand, with our jobs we cannot find more time to dedicate to more goats. Hence the choice to quiet my job that filled my time and energy and to look for a part time job near home. Said, done, with a little luck or fate…

So we decide to return to Chianti to get some breeders, female goats and male goats. So that we will soon have our generation of Alpago Cashmere goats.

The birth of the first kids was one of the most exciting moments. But there is always so much to learn! Kids require attention and care, like their mothers. And the fact of having breeders soon leads us to the decision of dividing the goats into two flocks, males on one side and the females on the other.

This would have allowed us to manage the matings, thanks to the fiber analysis that we started in 2021.

Today we have reached a small herd of almost 30 goats, and we have started to create some items of clothing (hats and scarves ) with the yarn coming exclusively from our flock.