My Garden Grows Stories
with Kamin Mohammadi
Let me tell you how My Garden Grows Stories was born, and how this summer we planted ourselves in the land, hung out for a day with the world’s happiest vegetables, shared not just a table, but also our stories, and felt hope again. This special day reaffirmed for us all what we already knew: being in community is the best antidote to the multiple stresses of modern life and writing together is the medicine to the despair.
Photos by Kicca Tommasi
It all started innocuously enough in November last year. An email from a favourite magazine editor asking me if I would like to interview Livia and her brothers who were fronting a regenerative farm in Italy. I checked the farm’s website and I liked what I saw and was intrigued by what I read. Here, I thought, is the extension of my Bella Figura lifestyle, caring so much about the produce that you eat that you take that responsibility all the way back to the land, to the soil itself. And in order to heal your soil and grow your own high-vibration food, one of the best methods is to work with love.
So I said yes and on a bright sunny and disconcertingly hot day early last winter, I walked into the paradise that is Quintosapore. Livia’s younger brothers, The Twin Farmers, are the ones who have been busy reclaiming this land, their enthusiasm is only matched by their knowledge and I was enchanted by the stories they told me of the farm. You can read the article here but more than this piece was born that day.
As we sat at the Quintosapore table, eating a delicious Italian vegan lunch made almost entirely from the products of the farm, we realised that we had more than just a love of excellent fresh produce in common. Our most foundational values aligned: the ethics of my Bella Figura philosophy is wholly met by the respect and love The Twin Farmers show the land, how they combine traditional practices with the very latest in scientific discovery and technology to create a farm that is not only organic and sustainable, but regenerative and thoroughly embracing bio-mimicry to face the worst ravages of climate change. Sitting outside in T-shirts on a November day, the coming climate crisis felt difficult to deny, but I was struck by the lack of gloom with which the family tackles this. Preaching quantum physics and the importance of love, we realised that we all believe in the power of sharing food around a table while we tell and share our stories.
That day, the idea for our collaboration was born. Combining a Quintosapore ‘soil-to-fork’ experience with a Bella Figura lunch was a no-brainer, but then I couldn’t resist adding in a writing workshop to the whole experience. In my work as a writing teacher, and as the Bella Figura method attests, I have seen how valuable deep nervous system relaxation and release is to setting free our creativity. How important it is to feel grounded and nourished when delving into our own or our families’ stories, and how writing in community can help elevate everyone’s creative expression. And what better way to ground than by planting yourself in the land itself, and letting the bounties and beauties of nature unfasten the mind from where it gets stuck in loops of anxiety?
I can’t wait to do more!
Love, Kamin
“As a cook and gastronome, I’m drawn to the art of simple cooking and honoring nature’s seasonal bounty––where ingredients speak for themselves and nourishment begins in the soil. A visit to Quintosapore reawakens the senses: from the vibrant tomatoes to the rich olive oil to the subtle breeze that dances through the Umbrian hills.”
Azadeh, guest