HISTORY
The Lilla Maurizio farm was born in 2019 in Campoli Appennino, a town in the heart of the Abruzzo Lazio and Molise National Park, from the founder's passion for the products of the land and the agricultural world and from the decision to focus on a particular spice, the Saffron; with the aim of bringing to light the values and ancient traditions of our territory. His company was born from his love for this bulbous and fast flowering plant, from the continuous study and knowledge of its infinite properties. In the first place, feasibility studies were carried out on the ground to understand whether the plots available were suitable for this type of cultivation. In 2019, 35,000 bulbs were planted for the first time which, immediately finding the ideal climate and habitat in our land, located at about 780 m a.s.l., lead the company to count today about 1,000,000 bulbs. The location of the same in fact enjoys dry but not dry summers and rainy but not excessively cold springs; moreover, the soil is rich in minerals and avoids stagnation of water and humidity. In the first two years the company produced only saffron, in pistils and powder; subsequently with the idea of making it more attentive to sustainability, the founder decides to create a new product, the saffron liqueur. In fact, the latter exploits a circular economy process for its realization, having at its base the petals of the flower from which the precious spice is obtained and which normally would not have a second life, becoming waste.
Although recently established, the company follows a project based on very firm principles which aim to guarantee the aroma, flavor and scent of a product over time which must reach the final consumer with all its nutritional properties. What are these properties? There are more than ten of them: saffron is anticancer, antioxidant, digestive, aphrodisiac, carminative, emagogue, healing, disinfectant, purifying, painkiller and rich in vitamins.

PRODUCTION PHILOSOPHY
At the base of our production is manual skill. Our production began in 2019 with the planting of 35,000 bulbs after careful processing and soil preparation. The choice is to perform a multi-year system. After this first phase, production sees us mainly engaged in three other phases: fertilization, field cleaning and harvesting.
The fertilization of the soil is carried out in spring and only organic fertilizers are used. The saffron harvest takes place between the end of October and the first half of November, it is a job that is repeated every morning for the entire flowering period. Flowering depends a lot on the progress of the season and occurs every day, but not in a uniform manner: some days there are few flowers, especially in the periods of beginning and end of the harvest, others are abundant and require large quantities of manpower. The flowers must be rigorously picked by hand before the sun rises making them open, it is only in this way that the stigmas keep their characteristics and organoleptic properties intact and that any insects cannot damage them. The flowers, picked one by one, are placed in wicker baskets, inside which they are transported to our laboratory, where they are stored to dry on a mat in the dark before being "touched". The "sfioratura" consists in the separation of the stigmas, which constitute the real saffron as it is found on the market, from the stamens and the bell-shaped flower. Three stigmas are extracted from each flower, furthermore to guarantee a very pure product we only keep the reddest part of them. This work, which is also performed manually, must be completed by evening, otherwise the saffron risks spoiling and the day's harvest could be compromised. For this reason, on the days of greatest harvest, we also work well into the night. Once the stigmas have been divided, we move on to the drying phase, carried out around 30°. Finally, the saffron is placed in hermetically sealed containers, protected from light and heat sources; it will begin to develop even more intense aromas and flavors after at least a month of maturation.

MISSION
“Quality and tradition” Producing pure and high quality saffron without the use of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers, with the aim of bringing only healthy and genuine products to the table of each consumer, processed respecting tradition, at an affordable price.

VISION
We give voice to our territory, we enhance it through respectful and sustainable agriculture, without losing sight of the link with tradition, guaranteeing a truly excellent product.