Cascina Fiume

Cascina Fiume

In 1900, a visionary horticulturist named Domenico Ferrero introduced Peruvian pepper seeds to the agricultural town of Carmagnola, just south of Turin. Over a century later, those peppers—now protected by Slow Food and cherished throughout Piedmont—nearly vanished.

For three generations the Tachis family of Cascina Fiume has cultivated four distinctive varieties of Carmagnola peppers, refusing to let them disappear. In the open fields along the Po River they grow: the Quadrato (four-lobed), the Corno di Bue (elongated like an ox horn, over 20cm, Slow Food Presidio certified), the heart-shaped Spinner, and the rounded Tomaticot. Thickfleshed, brilliantly colored in red and yellow, and impossibly sweet—these are peppers that demand sun, soil, and time.

The farm’s harvest is processed in a converted stable using his grandmother Agnese’s traditional methods: roasting, pickling in sweet-and-sour brines, preserving without artificial additives—just pasteurization, like Agnese did by the fireplace during harsh Piedmontese winters. The same scents and flavors that sustained previous generations through seasons when nothing grew.

Today, Cascina Fiume grows fruits and vegetables across their land, all transformed into jams, nectars, antipasti, and pickled specialties using only natural preservation. Every jar is a living archive of Carmagnola’s agricultural soul—and a quiet act of resistance against vegetables bred for convenience instead of flavor.