At Suzie’s Yard we also promote a selection of products from other small producers in the Val di Chiana & the Val d’Orcia in Tuscany where we live and farm.
Over the last 12 years we have selected a range of organically certified and ethically produced products from the area with one fundamental pre-requisite: that they simply taste great.
You don’t know what to give someone as a gift? Our hamper bags are original: top quality products and uniquely available in the UK from Suzie’s Yard.
Choose from Olive oil, truffles, spelt grains (farro), jams, pici, chocolates, panforte, cantucci in gift hamper bags. All hampers can be made to personal specification.
Producer’s List
Below you will find the best small producers in the Val di Chiana & the Val d’Orcia and our mission at Suzie’s Yard is to deliver them to your door guaranteeing quality, taste and seasonal goodness.
Antica Rocca
Antica Rocca is a medium-sized pasta producer located in the Val d’Orcia. Their organic pasta range is made exclusively with certified (CCPB) organic “semola di grano duro” from the Val d’Orcia. Their accreditation guarantees the product’s traceability from the field to the plate. When you buy this pasta you are not only buying a very good tasting and high quality alternative to industrial pasta, you are sustaining local agriculture, sustaining the local economy, reducing your food’s carbon footprint and saying yes to organic and no to chemical residues in your food.
Podere Pereto
70 hectares, outside Rapolano Terme, dedicated to cultivating cereals, grains, pulses and vegetables, this is one of Tuscany’s first organic farm’s with certification AIAB ICEA dating back to 1993. Franco and Barbara are also involved in the recuperation of ancient varieties of pulses and cereals previously grown in the area, both for their nutritional value, their excellent flavour and their contribution to sustaining plant biodiversity.
Podere Il Casale
A medium sized farm with 61 hectares, Ulisse and Sandra started their organic farm near Montichiello in 1991. As well as cultivating and producing their own vegetables, pasta, honey, wine & oil which can be consumed on-site at their restaurant, they keep sheep and goats. And in full respect for nature, when their animals are producing milk they make wonderful certified organic cheese (pecorino and caprino). They do not give artificial hormones to their animals to be able to milk them 12 months a year and they do not buy in milk from other farms. When there is no milk there is no fresh cheese.
Azienda Agricola A Santaniello
Suzie and Antonio, the creators of Suzie’s Yard, produce extra virgin olive oil on their farm in Cetona, which has been awarded organic certification and can label its oil as “organic” as of the 2011 harvest. They produce 3 oils: La Frazzaia, Le Cretaie and Secolare. All 3 oils are single field and the first is also a monocultivar. Purchased by restaurants, hotels and sommelier as well as private individuals their oil is available for purchase in bottles 250 & 500 ml as well as 5 litre tins.
Podere Fontecornino
Michael Gschleier’s organic fruit farm is located on the sunny hill slopes outside Montepulciano, 14 hectares dedicated almost exclusively to the cultivation of apples, certified by ICEA since 1992 in the production of fruit, cider, apple juice and naturally fermented apple vinegar. The 15 varieties of apples (subject to seasonal availability) can be purchased in mixed crates weighing 14 kg; the apple juice and cider in boxes of 6 bottles, and the vinegar in single 75 cl bottles.
Il Buon Gusto
In Trequanda our young chef Nicola is truly inspired by flavour. Having worked in the top kitchens in London and Italian cities he’s now making artisan “creme” to accompany cheeses and cold and cured meats as well as for breakfast time. With organic certification on its way and using local fruit where possible the list of combinations are truly exciting: albicocca & zafferano, ciliegia & zenzero, pera & senape, peperoncino piccante .. see our price list for the full range. And as well as the fruit flavours there is the unmissable chocolate experience!
Fattoria Pianporcino
Giuseppe Bussu and his 4 brothers own 1,000 sheep and make 28 different varieties of sheep’s milk cheeses as well as ricotta and yoghurt. For reasons of cost they have refused to apply for organic certification inviting their consumers instead to verify for themselves. Suzie’s Yard has audited this farm and verified that they meet our stringent quality criteria. Whether it be the award winning Pecorino crudo, the Pecorino fresco, the Pecorino matured in hay or the Pecorino matured in a cave we have been consistently impressed by the Bussu cheese making.
Azienda Agricola Tedeschi
This family farm is run by two brothers, Atos and Eros, in Betolle. They keep Chianina beef cattle and Cinta Senese as well as local Tuscan pigs. The animals are all looked after and fed using the farm’s own production of organic hay, straw, barley, corn and broad beans. Tedeschi’s sell family packs of beef which has been hung for at least 1 month (5 kg or 10 kg of mince, steak, stewing beef, roast beef, oxtail, boiled beef, fettine). Plus pork steaks, racks of ribs and sausages. And cured (Tuscan and Cinta Senese) prosciutto, salame, capocollo etc. All without additives or preservatives.
Azienda Agricola San Benedetto
Just like home made jams – except better! This organic fruit farm outside Montepulciano grows its own plums, susine, figs, apples, peaches, apricots, cherries and blackberries. They make the jams with fruit only, no additives, no preservatives, no pectin, and no sugar or only a small percentage when specified. Particularly of note the conserva di susine, mele, fichi and ciliegie.
Apicoltura Il Pino
Passionate about all things bees, Massimiliano in Chiusi makes fantastic honey. One of those products that really should be eaten “local”, Il Pino offers a wide range of honeys to choose from, which are representative of the fields surrounding us: millefiori, acacia, castagno, erba medica, girasole, trifoglio and melata di bosco.
Birrificio l’Olmaia
Artisan beer from the Val d’Orcia just outside Montepulciano. This is natural beer with no presevatives. Five flavours to choose from: LA5 birra chiara doppio malto, LA9 birra ambrata doppio malto, BK birra scura inspired by the Irish tradition, Christmas Duck birra bruna with 4 malts, an ideal meditation beer, PVK birra chiara con cereali (barley, wheat, oats, spices) a light beer using only ingredients from the Val d’Orcia.
Azienda Agricola Grappi Luchino
Mr Grappi is a man on a mission set to recuperate the one time wheat grains of the Val d’Orcia. Certified organic by CCPB since 1992, the farm is equipped with its own low temperature, slow rotation stone mill. He is the farmer milling the “verna” flour which allows us to make homemade bread that tastes of bread! He also makes fantastic pici to order.
Cooperativa Wipala
For a range of products not grown and produced locally we offer the possibility to buy fair trade from the Bottega del Mondo in Sarteano. Coffee, tea, sugar, rice, cocoa, couscous, quinoa, and a whole range of sweet things can be found on our shopping list.
Vestri Chocolatier
And for the ideal gift (the packaging is to die for), or for those curl up on the sofa moments, or a dinner party treat, we have our own Willy Wonka in Arezzo. Mr Danielo Vestri working away creating in his artisan chocolate factory producing wonders, just the smell is unbelievable. And that’s when he’s not on his cocoa plantation in Santo Domingo … organic certification on the way.