What we will need

I was thinking  how we are going to feed ourselves over in Sardinia. No question that we have plenty of food from the land in the right season, and food from our neighbors, plus products from Sardinia. We might be using the " W " question system  which I learned when studying journalism in my twenties ( a correspondence course which I never complete as at the time my free way of writing would clash  with the structural system  I was supposed to follow). Where, What, Why, Who's.


Where we buy the food from; where we cultivate it;
What we can produce; What we can buy; What we really need to buy
Why we buy it;
Who's food is.( Who produce it)


There might be more questions to address . They are important as we need to try to stick to some plan and principles. In Sardinia we can  and we should manages to produce a big part of what we eat. Failing that , Sardinia produces all the necessary food, from grains to vegetable; from fruits to meat;from milk to oil; from vines to beer and more. Plus there is a variety of wild perennials which are important in the culture of Sardinia diet. Wild fennel; wild asparagus; wild carrots; wild beet; wild garlic and more plus  the perennials trees such as almonds trees, figs trees, vines, prickly pears , olive trees and more.


What is important is the "where" we get the food, weather is from our land or nearby neighbors or from other Sardinian producers. Preferably the products should all be from the island when our own production will be not sufficient or not existing.


As a family we have tried to feed ourselves in the best and healthy way possible, and more importantly try not to waste food, which we can say we managed to achieve this aspect.

Fico D'india  ( Prickly pear). It grows in abundance. Your only work is to collect it and eat it. I am planning to make some jam and a wine from it.


Other weeds which are considered a pest in gardens are actually good source of food with an high content of nutritional values. Ground elder, nettles, dandelions are the most common and undervalued ones. some of these " weeds" are also very important in fertilizing the soil and are good in attracting insect which play an important part in controlling diseases in plants, either directly or indirectly.

One of the kitchen garden in the land.


Here is "What" we can produce:
 Cabbages, lettuces, beans, peas, tomatoes, aubergines. carrots, courgettes, peppers, fennel, potatoes, thyme, basil, pumpkins, spinach, onions, broccoli, cucumber, celery, radish, artichokes, chard, radicchio, chili peppers, broad beans, chicory and more


We also produce: Kiwi, figs, apples, prunes, grapes, peaches, goji berry ( new introduced two years ago) and some wild berries and fruits ( prikly pears and brambles ). Mushrooms grow in our land as well. We have not  successfully grown oranges or citrus fruits so far. We have to find the way to produce some citrus fruit. We have a lemon tree in our seaside house which is useful, but lemons can be gathered from other relatives. Almonds are in abundance and chestnuts can be acquired  from relatives. We also have a walnut tree and hazelnut grows well nearby.

Chick peas are also grown  in our land.




It seems that we do not really need to buy so much. This list is not the all we can produce. It is, in a way, a paradise for vegetarians. Meat is available from our neighbours. The only thing we do not have is fish, but Sardinia offers plenty of it if you need it. Our river had fish in the past, but with the construction of a dam the natural flow of the river  was affected, and the reproduction of fish was undermined. Also other human intervention has decimated the stock. it seem that we do have the fish back, but we are keeping an eye on the river to see if any hope is there for the future.


Certainly we are planning to have some chickens and maybe some rabbits. But this will come at a later stage.


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