The farm at Bosco Falconeria, located some 40 miles west of Palermo in the hills overlooking the Gulf of Castellammare has belonged to the Simeti family since 1933, when it was a 25-acre farm dedicated mainly to vineyards, with a cellar in which there were seven platforms for treading the grapes, and where as many as 30 people worked during the grape harvest.

Family problems, the agricultural crisis and the 1968 earthquake resulted in a period of abandonment, until in the early ‘seventies the farmhouse was restored as a vacation home.

From then on summers and weekends became busier and busier. The passionate involvement of Antonio Simeti, agronomist, married the curiosity of his wife, Mary Taylor Simeti, who in the early ‘80’s - while exporting Sicily to the States through books and articles - began to bring back information about organic agriculture.

Thus the vacation house returned to productivity, the property grew from the original 25 acres to over 35, the crops became diversified. In 1989, with Bosco Falconeria as its trademark, the farm obtained official organic certification. The following year the Simetis made the farm their permanent residence.

For the last ten years Bosco Falconeria has bottled its own organic extra virgin olive oil, has furnished fresh organic fruit and vegetables to speciality stores in Palermo, and has often bottled its own organic wine.

The family has grown as well: Natalia Simeti and her Finnish husband Rami Salo, a Tai Chi Chuan instructor, have decided to make Bosco their home and to take over the management of the farm.

Erissa and Besnik Delilaj, who come from Albania, also live on the farm and are now our strong right arm.