The fascination of an old tradition and of entirely Italian silk, after more than 50 years!
In Massanzago, in Molino Baglioni St., it is possible to observe a fascinating event, which is organized in the courtyard of a historic water mill by the owner Lino Bernardo. With his friends and relatives, he prepares himself to the traditional “sgaetada” (in the Venetian dialect it is the action of cocoon removing from mountages).
Sunday 10th June, from 9 a.m. to the first hours in the afternoon, families and people who are keen-on antique agricultural traditions will have the chance to touch the whitest cocoons (this year more than 50.000) spun by the silkworm larvae in few hours, after being continuously cared for some weeks and nourished with hundreds of kilograms of mulberry leaves coming from Mr. Bernardo’s mulberry field (9 year-old). This activity reappeared in the Venetian region thanks to a recent and gradual restarting of sericulture, favoured by an improvement in the environmental quality and because of recent and sound collaborations with artisanal and industrial companies, which are reintroducing innovative and exclusive products in the market, for which Italian certified silk is required.
Bernardo, president of the Sericultural Net “Bachicoltura Setica”, is the representative of the farms of Padova, Vicenza, Treviso and Belluno, which decided to constitute a team for this activity, needing modernization and re-organization to compete again in the current market. “This is an activity to supplement our production” he says “to which we are dedicating with our farms, to have new perspectives of growth and development”.
In these last years, even thanks to the indispensable support of the researchers of the CREA of Padova, we have been committed to restarting this production chain; in fact we are persuaded it might be of interest for the young, who could be helpful in carrying on many innovations that we have planned, contributing to increase the production of genuine Italian silk”. Just in these days the new drying machine has started its activity, made by a company operating in the territory; the same company sells the instruments and services necessary to rear the silkworms, in addition to plastic spinning mountages, mulberry plants and other materials.
Some of the companies actually engaged in the sericulture rearing are also involved in the Project “Serinnovation”, recently approved as Operational Group by the Venetian Region, which funded it through the Rural Development Plans 2014-2020. The objective is that of creating new growth opportunities for farms, optimizing the production processes and creating a sustainable model both at an economic and environmental level; this anwers to the request of 100% Italian made silk for different sectors: the traditional fashion and luxury textiles and the more innovative medical applications and animal feeding.