On my farm, Azienda Agricola Val di Noto, I mostly grow lemons but I also have olive and carob trees, and a bit of barley and oats for my five horses and two Pardo Alpina dairy cows.

I sell my lemons to the highest bidder. Some are merchants who buy them on the trees and come to harvest them.

If the price is better in town, I harvest them and deliver. Green lemons can be harvested earlier and keep longer, and some buyers want the leaves on.

The protected designation of origin “Lemon from Syracuse” was introduced a few years ago.

The market is ready to pay more for guaranteed-origin lemons and this has been a big change for us.

Before, prices were between 20c/kg and 30c/kg. Now it’s more like 60c/kg to 70c/kg. I have also converted to organic and my price is 80c/kg to 90c/kg including a 30% premium.

The gross margin in lemon farming is around 50%, with the main costs water, inputs, machinery and labour.

The trees need constant work for pruning and spraying, and irrigation. As an organic farm we use natural oils against parasites.

The most important job is to clean up dead wood and mal secco, a disease that spreads inwards from the end of the branches. You need to watch for it and chop it off all the time.

In this season, we prune, till the soil and carry out irrigation works. Lemon trees produce several crops each year and the next harvest will take place in August.

I will hire short-term workers then, but all year round three people work on this farm full-time and my wife runs the agriturismo.

This is a regulated tourism label and we can open a maximum of 100 days each year to ensure that this remains a genuine farm business. At the moment, our income is 40% farming and 60% tourism. It should not be more than 50%, but prices don’t allow that.

Cheese

My cows produce 50l/day. Every other day, we produce ricotta and soft cheese, exclusively for the agriturismo. It takes 100l of milk to make 10l of cheese.

We also grow vegetables for our restaurant.

I bought this farm 30 years ago and I have been investing in it constantly. I have built roadways and buildings including tourist accommodation and a house for my daughter.

I planted 700 new trees this year. I first started farming out of personal interest for nature, but the farm has become too big for me alone and I decided to open it to tourists in 1998.