Our story
1987 - 2007
In May 1987 Beata and I moved to Sardinia, with a caravan pulled by a tractor, three dogs and a cat. We want to build a small structure on a piece of land that we bought together with a couple of friends and stay one or two years. Our destination is a piece of land located on the south-east coast of Sardinia, 2 km from the sea.
Arriving at our destination we find the land and the entire area destroyed by a vast fire. The destination of our dream is presented in desolate conditions: no living vegetation, the soil almost unusable, little water available from a well that had been built shortly before.
Then we discover that the building permit is blocked.
With a stubborn desire to do and full of enthusiasm we begin to remove the burned bushes and, as a first thing, to plant a vegetable garden. We are amazed to see the beautiful vegetables that are already growing after a couple of weeks on the soil, initially very meager.
A motor pump brings the water out of the well. Soon we get a used generator set and an electric pump. This very expensive and subject to frequent failures current generation system will accompany us until the year 2005, when we will finally be able to have the connection to the public network.
In the first summer we fence all the 6 hectares of land to defend ourselves from the raids of sheep, goats, cows and… hunters.
With recovered material (blocks, sheets and reeds) I set up a shelter for a first goat and the newly purchased work donkey. It will last, provided with a more resistant roof, until the present day!
To improve the vegetation, we plant more than a thousand trees of the local flora, which the Forest Authority makes available free of charge. We clear another piece of half a hectare to do tests on the cultivation of aromatic herbs.
By cleaning the stable of the neighboring shepherd, we obtain manure to be able to prepare the compost that we urgently need.
The beginning of our Sardinian story corresponds with a period of general drought, which will give us serious problems for four years; the search for water, which is becoming increasingly scarce, will take up a large part of possible investments. The first well becomes dry and the following drilling operations do not have lasting success.
Thanks to our commitment on site and the registration as direct farmers we manage to get the building permit. Unfortunately, our friend who had made the money available to us for the construction has in the meantime committed them differently. So we decide to start our own personal project. For the realization we seek and find the help of friends and a foundation abroad.
As buildings, they prioritize small rooms for drying, storing, and packaging the herbs. The masonry must be done by a bricklayer, I do the woodwork (doors, roofs, floor).
Further building projects follow: the tool shed and the workshop with Sardinian tuff masonry and, eventually, the house made of raw bricks.
Beata learns how to be a shepherd from our neighbor who has goats and then collaborates with him. This will be her main occupation for some years (in addition to managing the family vegetable garden), until the birth of our first daughter, and her contribution to our social integration and the local recognition of us foreigners.
A Swiss tourist, who passes through our area (without us knowing it) later recounts at home that Sardinian shepherds scold the goats in the Swiss-German dialect…
I exploit all possibilities to earn some money: private German lessons in Muravera and on the cultivation of herbs at the agricultural school, help in an agency for holiday homes, and above all I do carpentry work on the catamaran of our co-owning friend, a boat that is being born on our land.
Thus, in the space of about six years, a small company is born, where a modest quantity of dried aromatic herbs is produced and sold in Switzerland.
The quality achieved satisfies the most demanding customers.
The development
At the beginning of the ‘90s we learn that our neighbor wants to sell a large expanse of land he owns to a speculator. We do everything to avoid it and find the necessary funds for the purchase. The purchase succeeds and gives us the possibility of cultivating on a larger surface area and on much better quality land. And there are other possibilities of finding water. The hillside that is part of the land has a very high environmental value and there is the possibility of building an underground reservoir and greatly improving the irrigation system.
Subsequently, a cultivation of about one hectare with many rosemary and myrtle hedges is born here. The size of the plots is suitable for working with a donkey and a hoe. Naturally, a fence and the irrigation system with buried main pipelines and then the entire surface distribution up to the drippers for the individual plants are also needed here.
This undertaking is made possible thanks to some private aid and funding from the Autonomous Region of Sardinia. In the presented project there is the planting, the irrigation and the construction and adaptation of the buildings. A further regional agricultural program, linked to the fight and prevention of drought, allows us to build the accumulation tank in a raised position. All wells and water use points (irrigation, houses) are connected to the tank via underground pipes.
With the increase in workload we need the help of a worker, and with Gianni from Muravera we begin a very beautiful working and human relationship that will last until today.
In the year 1998 our first daughter, Nuria, is born. Beata stops working as a shepherd and sells most of the goats purchased with the fruit of her labor shortly thereafter.
The problem of drought persists, and we commission a hydro-electric survey from a geologist. In the past we trusted dowsers. An optimal position for a new well is found in our first land and the drilling creates a well rich in water that will take away this great concern until today.
Around the year 2000 we need more space – a warehouse and other rooms for guests.
I don’t want to fight with bricklayers and electricians anymore. For this reason, we are looking for a used wooden prefabricated building and we find it in Switzerland, with the dimensions 8×25 meters.
In January 2000 I go there together with Gianni and some helpers. During the disassembly work they let us stay in the municipality’s underground bunker (almost for free); in the end we manage to disassemble everything and take it to the railway with a truck.
With two large railway wagons the house arrives to Cagliari and is again loaded onto trucks and finally brought to its destination.
In the following years, with this material, two separate buildings are built, one larger for guests and one as a warehouse, economically, made by us with the voluntary help of some of our guests.
In 2001 our second daughter, Sahira, is born.
For some time we had felt the desire to broaden our horizons and find yet another activity that could contribute to the company’s income.
We find it in social work. In collaboration with Swiss associations we welcome people with family and addiction problems. With us, participating in all the family’s daily activities, they spend a period of detachment (time out) to find calm and new perspectives. The results are very positive and we too can have new, intense and very satisfying experiences.
Milena, our third daughter, is born in 2005.
In this year we manage to have the electrical connection to the public grid. Thanks to a change in the law, the line is brought to our house for a very reasonable cost. Our old generator set breathes its last breath just a few weeks before the connection and gives us one last occasion of stress.
2007-2010
Social work is decreasing, because our main client has to close due to a lack of users; Swiss social policy is becoming increasingly restrictive. A scandal in Spain contributes to the decline in specific activities. We do not find other hooks that could carry this work forward. In addition, sales of iris teething rings, a very important product in our catalog, those objects that small children bite during teething to soothe gum discomfort, are decreasing.
Our financial situation is becoming worrying, despite the fact that the production of dried herbs is approaching 500kg per year.
Update
We decide on the “flight forward” and present another land improvement project to the Region. We intend to extend the cultivated area and modernize the equipment. The project is accepted and in the year 2008 it is completed and made operational.
The basis of the project is a new cultivation of one hectare with lemon verbena, thyme, lemon thyme, rosemary, fennel, licorice and more. The area is arranged so that it can be worked with a small tractor. A laurel hedge is planted around the cultivation. Within 2 years we produce more than 23,000 seedlings on site and plant them.
The project includes the fence with gates, the tractor with the tools, a portable cutter/harvester for herbs, the restructuring of various parts of the electrical system. Then we finally build the room (desired for years) for cleaning the herbs.
Today, in 2012, we have seen that these works and investments were right and are bearing fruit. Since the momentary need for funds to complete the project has been very large, we have a greater debt of the company, still until 2014. A worrying moment of crisis in the year 2009 was overcome with the help of loans from people sensitive to the survival problems that characterize companies like ours. We managed, after two years of effort, to restart social work and we have won, with the quality of our products, an important customer in Germany. This makes us very optimistic for the near future.
Muravera, end of January 2012
Azienda agricola Brai Loi
di Meier Hans Peter
Località Feraxi
09043 Muravera
Sardegna (Italia)
P.I./MWStNr.IT01755010921 | C.F.MREHSP52B07Z133P
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